Dynamic Images from Database on Website?

[romado]

Hello, I'm looking to create a website that shows differente images from a database depending on the time of day (using php). Is this just a matter of saying "if 'time' is such and such and hour, display image that is in row 'x' of database?

[mystrymaster]

that would be correct

or you could name the images like

1_picture.gif
2_picture.gif
3_picture.gif
etc etc

then simply get the time and use this

$now = date('G');

$imageLink = $now . "_picture.gif";


echo "<img src=\"path/to/images/" . $imageLink . "\">";

[ScubaKing22]

Well you could use a date() something like the following:

<?
$hour=date("H");
$query="SELECT column_with_images FROM table_name WHERE timeofday='$hour'";
$result=mysql_query($query);
$array=mysql_fetch_row($result);
echo "<img src=\"$array[0]\">";
?>

You would of course have to substitute the variables and names with your own.

[drawmack]

If you want to pull images from the database and display them on the site you have two options.

the first is to pull the image write it to a temp file and then display the temp file. I don't recommend this it has a lot of logistical problems.

The other is to write a little script that will use headers and such to actually send the image file down to the browser. I don't have the links with me but if you look around on the web you'll find some tutorials on this method. It's only about 20 lines of code.