NAME Time::Slideshow - simple stateless slideshow with a fixed set of images SYNOPSIS my $slideshow= Time::Slideshow->new( starttime => 0, slides => [ 'picture1.jpg', 'picture2.jpg' ], shuffle => 0, # pseudo-rng display => 45, # show each slide for 45 seconds ); my $current_slide= $slideshow->current_slide; # picture1.jpg my $next_slide= $slideshow->next_slide; # picture2.jpg sleep $slideshow->seconds_to_next_slide; OVERVIEW This module abstracts the inner workings of a slideshow, selecting the next slide to display and calculating the time until the next picture. It is possible to use this object in an asynchronous manner across machines as the complete slide sequence is precalculated from the wallclock time. The module has no methods to advance the slideshow forwards or backwards other than through the passage of time. METHODS `Time::Slideshow->new %options' my $slideshow= Time::Slideshow->new( slides => [ glob '~/backgrounds/*.jpg' ], duration => 300, # five minutes per image shuffle => 1, # permute the order of images ) Creates a new slideshow object and returns it. The options are slides Array reference to the slides. These can be filenames or URLs or whatever else helps your program to find and display the appropriate image. duration The time how long every image is displayed, in seconds. The default value is 45. shuffle If you want the order of the images to be shuffled, pass a true value to this option. See the below discussion on what different orders you can expect from shuffling. starttime If you want to set up a different offset of the start time, pass this option with the epoch value of the start time. Usually, you want to leave this parameter at its default of 0. `$show->add_slide( @slides )' $show->add_slide( glob '~/new_backgrounds/*' ); If you want to add slides after object creation, you can use this method. `$show->current_slide' print "Now displaying ", $show->current_slide, "\n"; Returns the name of the slide that is currently displayed. This method is the central method for your application to get the filename or URL of the image that your application needs to display. `$show->next_slide' print "Next up is ", $show->next_slide, "\n"; Returns the name of the slide that will be displayed after the current slide. You can use this method to preload the image data for the upcoming slide. `$show->seconds_to_next_slide' my $wait= $show->seconds_to_next_slide; sleep $wait; Returns the time remaining to the next slide transition. You can use this method to pause your program or perform other tasks until the next image needs to be displayed. `$show->current_slide_index' my $current_slide_index= $show->current_slide_index; This returns the index of the slide that is currently displayed. Most likely, you want to use `$show->current_slide' instead. `$show->slide_at $index>>' my $slide_count= @{ $show->slides }; for my $slide ( 0..$slide_count-1 ) { print "Slide $slide: ", $show->slide_at( $slide ), "\n"; }; Returns the name of the slide at the given index. SHUFFLING PERMUTATIONS This module does not use the real permutations of the slides, INTEGRATION Console This is the most basic slideshow display. It demonstrates the functionality of the module but only outputs the text. Displaying the image itself is left to you to implement with your favourite image display method. use Time::Slideshow; my $s= Time::Slideshow->new( slides => [ glob 'slides/*.jpg' ], ); while(1) { print sprintf "Now showing slide '%s'\n", $s->current_slide; print sprintf "Next up is '%s'\n', $s->next_slide; sleep( $s->seconds_to_next_slide ); }; AnyEvent This example uses AnyEvent to show how you can perform other tasks while also reacting to the timer events to display a new image. use AnyEvent; use Time::Slideshow; my $s= Time::Slideshow->new( slides => [ glob 'slides/*.jpg' ], ); my $slideshow_timer; my $display_and_reschedule; $display_and_reschedule= sub { print sprintf "Now showing slide '%s'\n", $s->current_slide; print sprintf "Next up is '%s'\n', $s->next_slide; $slideshow_timer= AnyEvent->timer( after => $s->seconds_to_next_slide, cb => $display_and_reschedule, ); }; $display_and_reschedule->(); # Wait and do other stuff AnyEvent->condvar->recv; CGI This example assumes that your images are available via your webserver under the URL `/slides' and will display a page that shows the same image to all users that load that page. use CGI; use Time::Slideshow; my $s= Time::Slideshow->new( slides => [ glob 'slides/*.jpg' ], ); my $image= "/" . $s->current_slide; my $reload= $s->seconds_to_next_slide; my $q= CGI->new; print $q->header('text/html'); print < HTML