Simple link of the day script?

SilverTab

I have some links in a mysql db. I would like to know the easiest way to display a new random link from this db every day on my site... (so in other words..I don't want a random link script only but, I want the link to be the same all day, and change every day)

I'm mostly looking for general ideas or anything that could help...Thanks!

Oh BTW I'm new here so Hi everyone! 😉

planetsim

Firstly hi..

I would create a second table in your database. So you can track the day and what link is being shown.

linkdb (Assuming this is what it looks like)

id|link|text

linkdbtracker

id|linkid|date

so from there you must track the linkid with the id in the linkdb..

Im not sure if that makes sense. But then your SQL Query should look something similar to this

//get date
$date = date("d");
$query = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM linkdbtracker WHERE date = '$date'");
if(mysql_num_rows($query) != 0){
  //show the link
}else{
  //new date get new tracker
  //delete the old tracker
}

Ravenous

First, create a table with a field for days and a field for today's link, both of which are initially empty. Everytime your page is loaded, check the database to see if today's date has already been entered.

If it has not, generate a random number and use modulus to get an index number within your table of links. Grab the link stored at that index. Then, insert into your days/todays_link table today's date and that random link. Then use that info for displaying on the sccreen.

If that date has already been inserted into the table, just grab the info from there and send it to the browser.

There are probably better ways of doing it, but that's what popped into my head first. You should be able to handle the code for that.

EDIT: Ha! I must be faster next time. planetsim beat me to the punch, but at least our ideas are similar!

SilverTab

Geez that was fast! Thanks for both reply, they are both helpful!...Also, I think I made a mistake in my first post, I don't want the link to be displayed on my page...i'd rather have something like lotd.php so when I point my browser there, I am redirected to the link of the day..(I guess the basic idea is still the same tough)

Ravenous

So yeah.. do the above with lotd.php. You would then have two options, you could use a meta redirect or use header(). Either way, your users would get to whatever your link of the day is.

Yeah.. answers are usually quick 'round these parts. I guess that comes from having such a large membership. That's why I like PHPBuilder.

planetsim

Yup... Thats the great thing about this forum..