How to use jCarousel with PHP function?

Question

I'm still learning both PHP and jQuery, and this seems to me to be a reasonably complex thing to try and do.

What I'd like to be able to do is use jCarousel's textscroller capability to display a list of URLs generated by a PHP function rather than the XML feed and URLs that jCarousel is written for. (Demo: http://sorgalla.com/projects/jcarousel/examples/special_textscroller.html)

The WordPress PHP function I want to use generates a list of URLs with some html markup for some or all posts in a WordPress category.

As a result, I think I don't need jCarousel's XML function or the html creator function, and I don't need to truncate strings.

So, is it possible to include the PHP function in the jQuery function, or would I have the jQuery function retrieve the URL list from the PHP function, something similar to providing a XML feed to jCarousel? Do I need to use the jQuery-PHP library? http://jquery.hohli.com

Any answers will be appreciated. - Mark

This are the jCarousel functions that use the XML feed: (I omitted document ready function)

function mycarousel_initCallback(carousel, state)
{

    carousel.lock();

    jQuery.get(
        'special_textscroller.php',
        {
            'feed': 'http://jquery.com/blog/feed/atom/'
        },
        function(xml) {
            mycarousel_itemAddCallback(carousel, xml);
        },
        'xml'
    );
};

function mycarousel_itemAddCallback(carousel, xml)
{
    var $items = jQuery('item', xml);

    $items.each(function(i) {
        carousel.add(i + 1, mycarousel_getItemHTML(this));
    });

    carousel.size($items.size());

    // Unlock and setup.
    carousel.unlock();
    carousel.setup();
};

/**
 * Item html creation helper.
 */
function mycarousel_getItemHTML(item)
{
    return '<h3><a href="'+$('link', item).text()+'">'+$('title', item).text()+'</a></h3><p>'+mycarousel_truncate($('description', item).text(), 90)+'</p>';
};

/**
 * Utility function for truncating a string without breaking words.
 */
function mycarousel_truncate(str, length, suffix) {
    if (str.length <= length) {
        return str;
    }

    if (suffix == undefined) {
        suffix = '...';
    }

    return str.substr(0, length).replace(/\s+?(\S+)?$/g, '') + suffix;
};

And this WordPress PHP function:

<?php $my_query = new WP_Query('category_name=mycategory&showposts=10'); ?><?php while ($my_query->have_posts()) : $my_query->the_post(); ?><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark"><?php the_title(); ?></a><br /><br /><?php endwhile; ?>

generates html like this:

<a href="URL" rel="bookmark">link title</a><br /><br /><a href="URL" rel="bookmark">link title</a><br /><br />,  etc....

which is the html I'd like the jCarousel text scroller to display.

Answer 1

you seem to be missing the actual call to start the carousel

the html needs to be wrapped in a div

<div id="mycarousel"> 
   <a href="URL" rel="bookmark">link title</a><br /><br />
   <a href="URL" rel="bookmark">link title</a><br /><br />,  etc....
</div>

then call

jQuery('#mycarousel').jcarousel({
    vertical: true,
    size: 0,
    initCallback: mycarousel_initCallback
});

Answer 2

in

function mycarousel_initCallback(carousel, state){

carousel.lock();

jQuery.get(
    'special_textscroller.php',
    {
        'feed': 'http://jquery.com/blog/feed/atom/'
    },
    function(xml) {
        mycarousel_itemAddCallback(carousel, xml);
    },
    'xml'
);};

this method you need to put your WP-php file name in place of "special_textscroller.php" file or can change the "special_textscroller.php" with your WP function .

Again , you need to send output via XML format only if you do not want to change other "jCarousel" functions.