Radomizing some HTML

brianb

Hey people,

I know this should be terribly simple, but none of the threads, scripts, or anything else I've come across seem to do what I want.

Maybe someone here can give a little advice.

I want to randomize some HTML (An image, a link, and some text) on my PHP page through PHP. If possible I'd like to include all of the RANDOM HTML BLOCKS and the PHP script for randomizing in one file...

If not, I can deal with 2 files.

Can anyone give me some pointers? I don't even know where to start with the rand() function.

Thanks in advance...all coding examples are appreciated!

mahers

Just taking a stab at it.

$rand_html = array(
'<img src="images/image1.gif" border="0"><br><a href="link1.com">Link1</a><br>Hello Word1',
'<img src="images/image2.gif" border="0"><br><a href="link2.com">Link2</a><br>Hello Word2',	
'<img src="images/image3.gif" border="0"><br><a href="link3.com">Link3</a><br>Hello Word3'
);

$max = count($rand_html)-1;

echo $rand_html[rand(0,$max)];

brianb

Thanks!

Works like a charm.

What I want to use this for is a TOP STORIES type of thing on my news page...

Now that I actually have this script working, I am think, maybe I shouldn't do a RANDOM type of thing. I'm thinking that the user, by refreshing the page each time, will see the next HTML BLOCK in the array.

Any ideas on how to pull that off?

Once again, thanks a million.

mahers

I don't think it is possible with arrays. However you could probably use a text file to display a HTML block at certain intervals e.g. After 10 mins displays block 1 then after 10 mins displays block 2 in a infinite loop. Because you don't really know when the user refreshes the page its not really possible to display a certain array element.