Question

I have this question on the WordPress stack exchange as well, but not having any luck there. So, as my solution probably involves me hard-coding php and css, It may be better to have it here.

I’m using ‘Flex Slider’ plugin – that works on top of ‘WP rotator’ plug-in on my WordPress 3.2 website. I have it implemented fine, and beginning to look at inserting my content – but I need to add a caption to be on top of the slider. As are present on most sliders on the web, within the documentation of the non-Wordpress plugin of the tool it suggests I can do something like;

<div class="flex-container">
  <div class="flexslider">
    <ul class="slides">
      <li>
        <img src="slide1.jpg" />
        <p class="flex-caption">Captions and cupcakes. Winning combination.</p>
      </li>
      <li>
        <img src="slide2.jpg" />
        <p class="flex-caption">This image is wrapped in a link!</p>
      </li>
      <li>
        <img src="slide3.jpg" />
      </li>
    </ul>
  </div>
</div>

Problem is; with the WordPress plug-in version, I can’t find that markup to work inside.

Here’s the only non-css non-js file in the plug-ins directory, so I assume I have to work in there.

I’ve tried inserting the mark-up that was suggested non-Wordpress above, but not sure where to insert it as it’s broke it with my attempts thus far.

<?php
/*
Plugin Name: Flex Slider for WP Rotator
Plugin URI: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/flex-slider-for-wp-rotator/
Description: Turns WP Rotator into FlexSlider, a fully responsive jQuery slider.
Version: 1.1
Author: Bill Erickson
Author URI: http://www.billerickson.net/blog/wordpress-guide
*/

class BE_Flex_Slider {
    var $instance;

    function __construct() {
        $this->instance =& $this;
        register_activation_hook( __FILE__, array( $this, 'activation_hook' ) );
        add_action( 'plugins_loaded', array( $this, 'init' ) ); 
    }

    /**
     * Activation Hook
     * Confirm WP Rotator is currently active
     */
    function activation_hook() {
        if( !function_exists( 'wp_rotator_option' ) ) {
            deactivate_plugins( plugin_basename( __FILE__ ) );
            wp_die( sprintf( __( 'Sorry, you can&rsquo;t activate unless you have installed <a href="%s">WP Rotator</a>', 'flex-slider-for-wp-rotator'), 'http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-rotator/' ) );
        }
    }

    function init() {
        // Remove original scripts and styles
        remove_action('wp_head','wp_rotator_css');
        remove_action('admin_head','wp_rotator_css');
        remove_action('wp_head','wp_rotator_javascript');
        remove_action('admin_head','wp_rotator_javascript');
        remove_action('init','wp_rotator_add_jquery');
        remove_action('admin_init','wp_rotator_add_jquery');

        // Enqueue Scripts and Styles
        add_action( 'init', array( $this, 'enqueue_scripts_and_styles' ) );

        // Remove original outer markup
        remove_action( 'wp_rotator', 'wp_rotator' );

        // Add new markup
        add_action( 'wp_rotator', array( $this, 'flex_slider' ) );
        remove_shortcode( 'wp_rotator' );
        add_shortcode( 'wp_rotator', array( $this, 'flex_slider_markup' ) );
    }

    function enqueue_scripts_and_styles() {
        // Use this filter to limit where the scripts are enqueued.
        $show = apply_filters( 'be_flex_slider_show_scripts', true );
        if ( true === $show ) {
            wp_enqueue_style( 'flex-slider', plugins_url( 'flexslider.css', __FILE__ ) );
            wp_enqueue_script( 'jquery ');
            wp_enqueue_script( 'flex-slider', plugins_url( 'jquery.flexslider-min.js', __FILE__ ), array( 'jquery' ) );
            add_action( 'wp_head', array( $this, 'flex_slider_settings' ) );
        }
    }

    function flex_slider_settings() {
        ?>
        <script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8">
          jQuery(window).load(function() {
            jQuery('.flexslider').flexslider({
                <?php
                $flex_settings = array(
                    'animation' => '"' . wp_rotator_option( 'animate_style' ) . '"',
                    'slideshowSpeed' => wp_rotator_option( 'rest_ms' ),
                    'animationDuration' => wp_rotator_option( 'animate_ms' ),
                );

                $flex_slide_settings = array(
                    'controlsContainer' => '".flex-container"'
                );

                if( 'slide' == wp_rotator_option( 'animate_style' ) )
                    $flex_settings = array_merge( $flex_settings, $flex_slide_settings );

                $flex_settings = apply_filters( 'be_flex_slider_settings', $flex_settings );
                foreach ( $flex_settings as $field => $value ) {
                    echo $field . ': ' . $value . ', ';
                }
                ?>
            });
          });
        </script>
        <?php
    }

    function flex_slider_markup() {
        $output = '';

        if( 'slide' == wp_rotator_option( 'animate_style' ) )
            $output .= '<div class="flex-container">';

        $output .= '<div class="flexslider"><ul class="slides">';

        $loop = new WP_Query( esc_attr( wp_rotator_option('query_vars') ) );
        while ( $loop->have_posts() ): $loop->the_post(); global $post;

            $url = esc_url ( get_post_meta( $post->ID, 'wp_rotator_url', true ) );
            if ( empty( $url ) ) $url = get_permalink($post->ID);
            $show_info = esc_attr( get_post_meta( $post->ID, 'wp_rotator_show_info', true ) );
            if ( true == $show_info ) {
                $title = get_the_title();
                if ( get_the_excerpt() ) $excerpt = get_the_excerpt(); 
                else $excerpt = '';
                $caption = $title . ' <span class="excerpt">' . $excerpt . '</span>';
                $info = '<p class="flex-caption">' . apply_filters( 'be_flex_slider_caption', $caption, $title, $excerpt ) . '</p>';
            } else {
                $info = '';
            }
            $image =  wp_get_attachment_image_src( get_post_thumbnail_id(), 'wp_rotator' );

            $slide = '<li><a href="' . $url . '"><img src="' . $image[0] . '" /></a>' . $info . '</li>';
            $output .= apply_filters( 'be_flex_slider_slide', $slide );

        endwhile; wp_reset_query();

        $output .= '</ul></div>';

        if( 'slide' == wp_rotator_option( 'animate_style' ) )
            $output .= '</div>';

        return $output;
    }

    function flex_slider() {
        echo $this->flex_slider_markup();
    }

}

new BE_Flex_Slider;
?>

I have contacted the plug-in developer, he’s not responding so I assume hes not going to support my question – so I’m left to handcode.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-rotator/

http://flex.madebymufffin.com/

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/flex-slider-for-wp-rotator/

Thanks for any pointers!

Answer 1

It looks like captions are automatically added to the slider as long as you set the post to show rotator info (wp_rotator_show_info… probably on the plugin settings page or on your individual post page). The automatic caption is made up of the title of the post plus the excerpt. Here’s the key part in the plugin above:

        $show_info = esc_attr( get_post_meta( $post->ID, 'wp_rotator_show_info', true ) );
        if ( true == $show_info ) {
            $title = get_the_title();
            if ( get_the_excerpt() ) $excerpt = get_the_excerpt(); 
            else $excerpt = '';
            $caption = $title . ' <span class="excerpt">' . $excerpt . '</span>';
            $info = '<p class="flex-caption">' . apply_filters( 'be_flex_slider_caption', $caption, $title, $excerpt ) . '</p>';
        } else {
            $info = '';
        }

UPDATE: If you want the caption to show no matter what, replace the above portion with this:

    $title = get_the_title();
    if ( get_the_excerpt() ) $excerpt = get_the_excerpt(); 
    else $excerpt = '';
    $caption = $title . ' <span class="excerpt">' . $excerpt . '</span>';
    $info = '<p class="flex-caption">' . apply_filters( 'be_flex_slider_caption', $caption, $title, $excerpt ) . '</p>';

Note that I merely deleted the part that checks for wp_rotator_show_info.