DrupalViews Cycle is a nice module that uses the jQuery Cycle plug-in to provide image slideshow with many different types of transition effects. In Drupal, you are going to create a content type to upload images, generate a view for the uploaded images and style it with the Views Cycle module. The module also provides with many variable settings that you can set. [For Drupal 6]

Requirements:

Installation:

  1. Download and enable CCK & Views modules. To allow image upload, also add imagefield module. Imagecache is optional.
  2. Download views_cycle and the jQuery cycle plugin. The jQuery cycle plugin also includes a javascript file – jquery.cycle.all.min.js. Copy this file into the views_cycle module directory and rename it as jquery.cycle.js. Now, enable views_cycle module.

Create content type:

  1. Login as admin and go to admin/content/types and click on the Add content types tab to add a new content type
  2. Give a Name to your content type and enter the machine-readable Type. For example, Name – Animation and Type – cycle_anim
  3. In Submission form settings, remove the body field
  4. In Workflow settings, uncheck Promoted to front page
  5. In Comment settings, set it to Disabled
  6. Click on the Save button
  7. In the Content types list page, click on Manage fields for the new content type that you have created just now
  8. Add a new field with Label as Image and Field name as field_anim_image
  9. Under Select a field type, select File and in Form element select Image. Click on Save button
  10. In Permitted upload file extensions, enter values as png gif jpg jpeg
  11. Under Global settings, check the Required checkbox and set Number of values to 1. Click on the Save field settings button
  12. Click on the Display fields. And under Teaser, select Image and under Full node, select Image linked to node

Create content:

  1. Browse to node/add and click on the Animation content type to add images for the animation
  2. Create at least 2 nodes with different images

Create view:

  1. Browse to admin/build/views/add
  2. For View name, enter Animation and set the View type to Node. Click Next button
  3. Click + (Add) button under Fields and select Content: Image (field_anim_image). Click the Add button
  4. Set the Label to None and under Format, select Image linked to node. Click on Update button
  5. Click + (Add) button under Filters. Select Node: Published and Node: Type. Click on Add button
  6. Under Node: Published configuration settings, set it to Yes and click Update button
  7. Under Node: Type configuration settings, for Is one of, check Animation under Node type. Click Update button
  8. In the Basic settings group, for Style, click on Unformatted link. Set the default to Cycle and click Update button
  9. Under Default style options, set the various values for your animation. You can come back to the view and change the values later.
  10. Now you can add a block view or a page view for your animation.

With my animation, the Views Cycle out put the animation with images put in unordered list and default padding on the top and left sides of the container. One way to fix this is through your CSS. Though this module is simple and very nice, there are other variations for slideshow / carousel / rotator with many more features like the DD Block (http://drupal.org/project/ddblock) for Drupal. Have a look at the comparison here http://drupal.org/node/418616.

[This article is for Drupal 6]