[Resolved] GD Image show last 5 in text list

handle

Hi.

Im trying to make a shout box that displays the posts in a GD image.
The problem im having is as the script posts the shouts to a txt file they get posted to the bottom of the text file. this means after the 5th post any new posts dissapear off the bottom on the image and are invisible.

What i need to do it have the script create the image showing only the bottom 5 posts from the txt list so that the newest post is visible at the bottom of the image and the old posts dissapear out of the top of the image.

This is the code i have getting the posts and displaying them in the image

<?php 
// shout sig 
header("Content-type: image/png"); 
$file = file('shouts.txt'); 


$im = @imagecreate(550, 120) 
   or die("Error! Could not create image stream.s"); 
$background_color = imagecolorallocate($im, 0, 0, 0); 
$text_color = imagecolorallocate($im, 0, 255, 0); 
$i = 1; 
$j = 0; 
foreach ($file as $line_num => $line) { 
    if($i <= count($file)-1) 
        imagestring($im, 2, 5, $j,  substr($line, 0, strlen($line)-1), $text_color); 
    else 
        imagestring($im, 2, 5, $j,  $line, $text_color); 
    $j+=15; 
    $i++; 
} 
imagepng($im); 
imagedestroy($im); 
?>

Could someone tell me how to change it please?

any help would be great.

Weedpacket

Not without at the very least knowing how the computer is supposed to know where one "shout" leaves off and the next begins. If it could work that out, it could read the file, separate it into individual "shouts", and then pick the last five. Putting them into an array would be simplest.

Could you perhaps add new "shouts" to the top of the file (yes, it means rewriting the file out in full) so that they're displayed in reverse chronological order, with the most recent at the top and old ones dropping off the bottom?

handle

I tried using
fopen("shouts.txt", "r+");

That works to some extent (it posts to the begining of file) but it overwrites the previous post, so there is only ever one post in the txt file. How would i get it to shift all the posts down a line before posting the new post to the top?

Mordecai

Insert a new line (\n) after the first line:

  fwrite($fp, "my new line\n");

handle

i managed to fix it by changing this line

$file = file('shouts.txt');

$file = array_reverse(file('shouts.txt'));

then it flips the text before displaying it so the new post is at the top.

Just thought id let ya know incase someone else has the same problem.

Thanks for your help guys!

Mordecai

Just in the name of speed, you should make sure to clean that file up. That is, when someone posts, erase everything but the 5 posts that are there. Otherwise, when you file() it after some idiot spams you 20,000 times, it will take a few minutes.
Also, be sure to mark the thread as resolved; there's a link at the bottom.

handle

Ill look into deleting the stuff, would be better.

// marked.