Yesterday I was asked to document the transition from the pure, simple bootScore site to a fancy one. The latest version alone would not visualize its predecessors. True! To solve that issue, I should integrate a slider showing them as a series of images. And indeed, doing so would also be an opportunity to evaluate a good Open-Source image slider as part of a bootScore site.
Solution
- Install the Smart Slider 3 plugin.
- Create your images in the size of 1200 x (628+x).
- Upload them to your WordPress media library.
- Call Smart Slider 3 from the WordPress backend.
- Create a new project.
- Assign your images to their slide positions.
- Set the sizes accordingly.
- Enable Autoplay.
- Reduce the slide duration.
- Paste the shortcode on the desired page.
Background
Smart Slider 3 is real Open-Source software. Its code — offered on WordPress’ own SVN repository — is as of today1 regularly developed.2 According to its Readme.txt, Smart Slider 3 is licensed under the terms of GPL‑3.0 or later.
Nevertheless, there is also a paid PRO version. But you do not have to pay for an extended code base — that would not be GPL compliant — but for an improved service in terms of updates and prepared templates. Thus, we may take Smart Slider 3 as real Open-Source software.
The image size I wanted to use is the often recommended size for Featured Images in WordPress3 1200 x 628. But — in fact — I had to use a bit larger sizes for giving a complete impression.