NEO Bootstrap Carousel

NEO Bootstrap Carousel is a lightweight, production-ready WordPress slider plugin built on the Bootstrap 3 carousel framework. Create unlimited, fully responsive image slideshows or dynamic post-based carousels and embed them anywhere on your site with a simple shortcode or Gutenberg block.

Originally built by PixelsPress, NEO Bootstrap Carousel is developed and maintained by Mohsin Rafique, a seasoned WordPress and PHP engineer. The plugin is trusted by thousands of WordPress sites worldwide for its simplicity, reliability, and performance.

Online Demo

Why NEO Bootstrap Carousel?

Most slider plugins are bloated, slow, and overly complex. NEO Bootstrap Carousel takes a different approach: deliver a fast, accessible, and standards-compliant carousel using the battle-tested Bootstrap framework.

• Lightweight — No jQuery UI, no bloated libraries, just Bootstrap + Animate.css
• Zero configuration — Install, add slides, paste shortcode, live in under 2 minutes
• Two slide sources — Media Library images or dynamic WordPress posts
• Gutenberg ready — Native block editor support, no shortcode memorisation needed
• Theme-agnostic — Works with any WordPress theme, Bootstrap or otherwise
• PHP 8.4 ready — Fully tested on PHP 8.4 with strict type safety
• WordPress 7.0 compatible — jQuery 4.0 compatibility shims included
• Touch-enabled — Swipe navigation on mobile via bundled Hammer.js touch carousel
• Accessible — Keyboard navigation, ARIA roles, screen reader labels

Slide Sources

Media Library — Upload and manage slides directly from the WordPress Media Library with drag-and-drop ordering.

WordPress Posts — Automatically pull slides from your published posts with featured images:

• Most Recent — Latest 3 published posts
• Most Popular — Top 3 posts by comment count
• Sticky Posts — WordPress sticky posts
• Random — 3 randomly selected posts
• Specific Category — Posts from a chosen category
• AJAX-powered live reload when switching post sources (no page refresh needed)

Slide Customisation

• Title and Caption per slide (editable from the admin panel)
• Caption Animations powered by Animate.css (30+ animation styles)
• Dark or Light Overlay per slide with adjustable opacity (5% to 100%)
• Custom URL per slide — link slides to any internal or external page
• Drag-and-drop reordering of slides within the admin panel

Navigation and Controls

• Arrow Navigation (Previous / Next) — toggle on or off globally
• Indicator Dots (bullet navigation) — toggle on or off globally
• Keyboard Navigation — Left/Right arrow keys to navigate slides
• Touch/Swipe Support — Native swipe gestures on mobile and tablet devices
• Auto-play with configurable interval (default: 5 seconds)
• Pause on Hover — carousel pauses when the mouse hovers over it
• Wrap Mode — enable or disable infinite looping of slides

Integration

• Shortcode: [neo_carousel_shortcode id="123"]
• Gutenberg Block: NEO Bootstrap Carousel block with visual dropdown selector
• PHP Template Tag: <?php echo do_shortcode('[neo_carousel_shortcode id="123"]'); ?>
• Multiple carousels per page supported

Settings

• General Settings — Toggle captions, arrows, and indicator controls globally
• Design Settings — Choose from 30+ Animate.css animation styles for captions
• Advanced Settings — Show or hide carousel content on mobile devices

Credits

• Twitter Bootstrap — Carousel framework by @mdo and @fat
• Animate.css — CSS animations by Daniel Eden
• Hammer.js — Touch gesture recognition
• Select2 — Enhanced select dropdowns

Translators

Please contribute to translate our plugin. Contact at mohsin.rafique@gmail.com.

Automatic installation (Recommended)

1. Log in to your WordPress admin panel.
2. Navigate to Plugins > Add New.
3. Search for NEO Bootstrap Carousel.
4. Click Install Now, then Activate.
5. Go to NEO Bootstrap Carousel > Sliders to create your first carousel.

Manual installation

1. Download the plugin ZIP from the WordPress Plugin Directory.
2. Extract and upload the neo-bootstrap-carousel folder to /wp-content/plugins/.
3. Activate the plugin from Plugins in your WordPress admin panel.
4. Navigate to NEO Bootstrap Carousel > Sliders to get started.

Getting started

After activating the plugin, navigate to NEO Bootstrap Carousel in the WordPress admin sidebar. You will see the Welcome page with three quick-start boxes:

1. Add New Slider — Takes you directly to the slider editor
2. Configure General Settings — Set up caption, arrow, and indicator visibility
3. Configure Design Settings — Choose a caption animation style

Creating a Media Slider

A Media slider uses images from the WordPress Media Library. You have full control over each slide’s title, caption, overlay, and destination URL.

1. Go to NEO Bootstrap Carousel > Sliders > Add Slider.
2. Enter a title for your slider (e.g., “Homepage Banner”).
3. Under “Choose Slide Source”, select Media.
4. Click the Add Slide to Slider link to open the Media Library.
5. Select one or more images, then click Add to Slider.
6. For each slide, configure:
   • Title — The headline text displayed on the slide
   • Description — The caption text displayed below the title
   • URL — Link the slide to any internal page or external URL
   • Alt Text — Alternative text for accessibility and SEO
   • Overlay — Choose Dark or Light to add a colour overlay on the slide image
   • Overlay Opacity — Set the overlay transparency from 5% to 100% (in 5% increments)
7. Drag and drop slides to reorder them — the order in the admin panel matches the order on the frontend.
8. Click Publish (or Update for existing sliders).

After publishing, the Shortcode meta box on the right sidebar displays the shortcode for this slider.

Creating a Posts Slider

A Posts slider automatically pulls slides from your published WordPress posts using their featured images. The carousel updates automatically as your content changes.

1. Go to NEO Bootstrap Carousel > Sliders > Add Slider.
2. Enter a title for your slider (e.g., “Latest Blog Posts”).
3. Under “Choose Slide Source”, select Posts.
4. In the Post to Show dropdown, choose one of five options:
   • Most Recent — The 3 most recently published posts
   • Most Popular — The 3 posts with the highest comment count
   • Sticky Posts — All posts marked as “Sticky” in WordPress
   • Random — 3 randomly selected posts (changes on each page load)
   • Specific Category — Posts from a specific category you select
5. If you select “Specific Category”, a second dropdown appears where you can choose the category.
6. The slide preview updates automatically via AJAX when you change the Post to Show option — no page refresh needed.
7. Click Publish.

Note: Posts must have a Featured Image set to appear as slides. Posts without a featured image are skipped.

Embedding a Slider

Once a slider is published, you can embed it anywhere on your site using one of three methods.

Shortcode (Classic Editor or any page/post):

Copy the shortcode from the Shortcode meta box on the slider edit screen, or find it in the Sliders list view.

[neo_carousel_shortcode id="123"]

Replace 123 with your slider’s post ID. You can also customise behaviour:

[neo_carousel_shortcode id="123" interval="3000" wrap="true"]

Shortcode attributes:

• id (required) — The slider post ID
• interval — Auto-play interval in milliseconds (default: 5000)
• pause — Bootstrap pause option (default: null)
• wrap — Enable infinite slide looping (default: true)

Gutenberg Block (Block Editor):

1. In the page or post editor, click the + button to add a new block.
2. Search for NEO Bootstrap Carousel.
3. Add the block to your content area.
4. In the block inspector (right sidebar), select your slider from the dropdown list.

PHP Template Tag:

For theme developers who want to embed a carousel directly in a theme template file:

<?php echo do_shortcode( '[neo_carousel_shortcode id="123"]' ); ?>

This works in any PHP template file: header.php, front-page.php, page.php, sidebar templates, and widget areas.

Configuring Settings

Navigate to NEO Bootstrap Carousel > Settings to configure global carousel behaviour. Settings are organised into three tabs.

General Settings — Controls the visibility of carousel UI elements across all sliders:

• Show Caption — Display the title and caption text on slides (default: On)
• Show Arrows — Display the Previous / Next arrow controls (default: On)
• Show Controls — Display the indicator dots below the slides (default: Off)

Design Settings — Choose from 30+ Animate.css animation styles for slide captions:

• Attention Seekers: bounce, flash, pulse, rubberBand, shake, swing, tada, wobble, jello
• Bouncing: bounceIn, bounceInDown, bounceInLeft, bounceInRight, bounceInUp
• Fading: fadeIn, fadeInDown, fadeInLeft, fadeInRight, fadeInUp
• Flipping: flipInX, flipInY
• Rotating: rotateIn, rotateInDownLeft, rotateInDownRight, rotateInUpLeft, rotateInUpRight
• Sliding: slideInUp, slideInDown, slideInLeft, slideInRight
• Zooming: zoomIn, zoomInDown, zoomInLeft, zoomInRight, zoomInUp
• Specials: lightSpeedIn, rollIn

Advanced Settings:

• Show Content on Mobile — Toggle visibility of slide title and caption on small screens (default: On). When disabled, only the slide image is shown on mobile devices.

1. 

   Welcome Page — Getting started guide with quick links to create and configure sliders

2. 

   Add Slider — Add new slides from the WordPress Media Library

3. 

   Slide Editor — Configure title, caption, overlay, and URL per slide

4. 

   Media Slides — Drag-and-drop ordering with overlay controls

5. 

   Post Slides — Automatic slides from recent, popular, or category posts

6. 

   Settings — General, Design, and Advanced settings tabs

7. 

   Sliders List — All sliders at a glance with shortcodes

1.6.0 – 2026-05-24

• Feature: Lazy loading for slide images — only the first slide loads immediately, remaining slides load on-demand during transition
• Feature: Post to Show options — Most Popular, Sticky Posts, Random, Specific Category (with AJAX reload)
• Compat: WordPress 7.0 and jQuery 4.0 compatibility verified
• Fix: Overlay and Overlay Opacity settings not saving (PHP 8 strict type comparison with pipe-delimited data)
• Fix: Inline script block moved to wp_add_inline_script() (HTML5 best practice, removes CDATA wrapping)
• Fix: jQuery 4.0 compatibility shims added — $.proxy, $.support.transition, $.fn.emulateTransitionEnd polyfilled
• Fix: jQuery 4.0 compatibility shim added to Select2 for deprecated $.isFunction, $.isArray, $.trim
• Fix: jQuery version gate removed from bundled Bootstrap carousel JS (allows jQuery 4+)
• Fix: Implicit nullable type parameter fixed for PHP 8.4 (shortcode $content)
• Fix: Loose equality (==) replaced with strict (===) in admin JS
• Fix: filter_input(INPUT_GET) replaced with $_GET + sanitize_text_field() in 5 admin files
• Fix: Caption animation function moved from inline script to main JS file (nbcDoAnimations)
• Fix: Template uses require instead of require_once (supports multiple carousels per page)
• Fix: Neo_Bootstrap_Carousel_i18n class renamed to Neo_Bootstrap_Carousel_I18n (PSR naming)
• Fix: WordPress global $post_id override resolved in post-display meta box partial
• Fix: Undefined variable warnings resolved with @var annotations across all template partials
• Fix: WPCS compliance improvements across 15+ files (sanitization, escaping, alignment, formatting)
• Fix: PHPDoc parse error and post-increment corrected in settings tab menu filter
• Fix: Share The Love SVG icons not visible on Welcome page (CSS overflow/positioning fix)
• Refactor: Changelog admin page now reads from README.txt (single source of truth)
• Refactor: Help/FAQ admin page now reads from README.txt (single source of truth)
• Feature: System Requirements page — added PHP version, WordPress version, plugin version, max execution time, and GD/Imagick checks
• Tweak: README.txt Tested up to updated to 7.0

1.5.1 – 2026-04-08

• Fix: Next/Previous arrow navigation not working due to touch carousel removing Bootstrap data-API click handler
• Fix: Clicking arrow controls was appending carousel ID as URL hash
• Fix: License header corrected to GPL-2.0-or-later (consistent with LICENSE.txt)

1.5.0 – 2026-04-07

• Compatibility: WordPress 6.9 and PHP 8.4 verified
• Fix: $(window).load() replaced with $(window).on(‘load’) for jQuery 3.x compatibility
• Fix: flush_rewrite_rules() removed from init hook (was running on every page load)
• Fix: filter_input_array() second argument added to resolve PHP 8.1 deprecation
• Fix: wp-editor Gutenberg block dependency replaced with wp-block-editor (deprecated WP 5.8+)
• Fix: Block editor script dependencies removed from public page enqueue
• Fix: wp_get_attachment_url() extra argument removed (function only accepts 1 param)
• Fix: Null-safety check added for wp_get_attachment_image_src() return value
• Fix: wp_safe_redirect() now followed by exit for correct redirect behaviour
• Fix: nbc_shortcode() now returns empty string instead of null when no slides found
• Fix: Slide overlay inline style value is now properly escaped
• Fix: Gutenberg render callback moved into class as static method (coding standards)
• Fix: Hardcoded plugin version in default_configurations() replaced with VERSION constant
• Tweak: README.txt headers updated (Tested up to: 6.9, Requires PHP: 8.0)

1.4.3 – 2020-04-30

• Note: Overall code improvements using WordPress Coding Standards

1.4.2 – 2019-11-04

• Feature: Added Gutenberg Block
• Note: Improved code.

1.4.1 – 2019-03-13

• Note: Used CDATA inside JavaScript Tag
• Fix: Resolve caption keep showing on slider even when it is disabled from settings panel

1.4.0 – 2019-03-13

• Tweak: Improved Admin UI/UX
• Note: PHP 7.2 compatible
• Fix – Hide empty elements of carousel If no slider is define

1.3.2 – 2018-06-19

• Fix – When hide display navigation, It hide direction arrows too which is fixed now
• Fix – Slide URL label was wrong, when adding a new slide. It is fixed now.

1.3.1 – 2017-11-08

• Fix – Resolved plugin carousel height conflict with Bootstrap based themes.

1.3 – 2017-11-08

• Feature – You can add 3 recent posts
• Feature – Added a link field in media slides to link slides to internal/external pages/posts.
• Note – Structure Improvement.
• Note – CSS Improvement for better loading speed.
• Note – At activation hook, defined the default settings of the plugin
• Note – Removed pause slide

1.2.1 – 2016-12-30

• Note – Security implemented.
• Fix – Resolved Delete Slide bug

1.2.0 – 2016-10-30

• Feature – Added Slide Overlay with Opacity Control Attribute
• Feature – Added Less Files
• Tweak – Complete structure revised.
• Fix – Resolved the unsaved title & description content bug.

1.1.2

• Fix – Undefined variable version and plugin name in class class-neo-bootstrap-carousel-shortcode.php

1.1.1 – 2016-08-27

• Feature – Added More Animations to Caption & Description

1.1.0 – 2016-08-08

• Feature – Added Animations to Caption & Description
• Tweak – Changed Slider Content Area Layout at Admin Panel

1.0.0 – 2016-07-30

• Initial version