Ross-Hunter.com

Yoxview Lightbox Image Viewer Module for Drupal 7

published by Ross-Hunter on Thu, 11/11/2010 - 10:48

Yoxview is a wicked rad jQuery lightbox-style image viewer. I recently stumbled across this plugin while looking for a lightbox module for Drupal 7, only to discover that there was no D7 support yet. So I searched on some terms until I found the Yoxview Image Viewer plugin. Unfortunately, the Drupal module is broken. Searching through the issue queue you can find that there is a simple patch that fixes the module for the latest D7 releases. The module is super simple and simply adds yoxview to the displays that you can apply to content fields. There is no configuration options inside of Drupal itself, but all the options for yoxview are easy to configure via javascript.

I added these configuration options directly to the yoxview.js file included in the module. I'm sure there is a better way, but I figured since I had patched the module, I was already altering the module anyway. My yoxview.js file for this site looks like this

Yoxview also contains a ton of gallery options and can even play videos and slideshows. I haven't used many of these options yet. I just love the animation and the functionality of the image viewer.

Have you used Yoxview? What about other lightbox style plug-ins? Do you have an alternative that is currently supported on Drupal 7?

Tags:

Drupal

jQuery

Web

Crazy Optical Illusion

published by Ross-Hunter on Tue, 11/09/2010 - 12:42

This optical illusion is blowing my mind and I just had to share it. Look closely at this image, it seems like it's moving!

It's the cover of the Animal Collective album Merriweather Post Pavilion. An album you should definitely listen to while staring at this image!

Tags:

Fun

Music

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JaiPlace.com v 2.0 Launched!

published by Ross-Hunter on Mon, 11/01/2010 - 08:42

We have just launched a new version JaiPlace.com! This is a website project I picked up somewhat randomly 2 months ago. I was working down at The Factory, when I met someone involved with Momentum MI. One of the Momentum MI companies was having trouble getting their site to display images properly. I mentioned that I work a lot with Drupal, and took a look at their site and had them fixed up in 5 minutes. The site was in rough shape when I found it. It had been worked on by a developer who did not have much Drupal experience. I impressed them so much that they switched to me as their developer.

This new version is significantly better than the old version that was launched, however, it is not where it needs to be. My goal with the first iteration was simply to get the navigation improved and increase the overall usability - since the site was basically unusable before. The ultimate goal of the site is to be a community site for people interested in Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability (LOHAS), and allow vendors to sell their own LOHAS products via an Etsy-like marketplace.

JaiPlace is still quite rough, but there is plenty to come, and I will probably be announcing major feature releases on this site.

Tags:

Web

Drupal

Read more about JaiPlace.com v 2.0 Launched!

Critical Mass Bike Ride Event October 29th

published by Ross-Hunter on Mon, 10/25/2010 - 17:16

Come join Bike Man, Myself, and many others as we ride our bikes through the streets of Grand Rapids. We will be meeting at Veterans Park (Corner of Sheldon and Fulton) around 5:30pm. The best part about this ride is that riders are encouraged to wear costumes! This event will be family friendly and everyone is invited. The goal of the ride is to raise awareness for bikes as vehicles on the road and promote bike safety. It will also be hella-fun.

There is also a meeting of the Downtown Development Authority coming up on November 3rd at 5:30 at the Amway Grand Plaza in the Ford Ballroom that we are pushing for people to attend and voice your concerns about making Grand Rapids a more bike-friendly city, or any other concerns you may have.

I am not the most avid biker, but my wife and I both live and work downtown and take the bus or walk whenever possible (it helps that I ride the bus for free through GVSU). Between us we only drive the car 4 times a week or so. I believe that the car based, suburban culture that we have lived in for the past 80 years is simply not sustainable. My wife and I have been sharing one car for almost 2 years now, and not only is it a good idea financially, it is a more sustainable solution than each of us having a car and driving 45 minutes+ to our jobs everyday.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love cars - and I plan on picking up an Audi R8 as soon as I can scare up enough cash. This love for cars is one of the reason that I think we need to move away from cars as everyone's daily transportation. We are killing the earth and destroying resources by burning fossil fuels everyday in our cars. If we can create a more sustainable transportation system, then there will still be fossil fuels left in the future, so that enthusiasts can still play with their toys without gas becoming $50 a gallon. This is one of the reasons I support a larger gas tax and so should you.

My buddies and I shot the film below on an iPhone, and I edited it together in MS Movie Maker to promote the Critical Mass event. I'm actually pretty proud of it. Enjoy...