URL Rotation Script?

[Aesop]

Hello everybody,

So after searching around for something so simple I have decided its time to code it on my own.

Let's say I have 300 urls, I need to show 10 on a page called links.php. Every day it spits out 10 different ones. I know I can make a table and put all the urls into a field, but what I can't seem to figure out is how to code the php to know that 1) only 10 should be visible and 2) to change out every 24 hours or when the server hits midnight.

Suggestions?

[wilku]

I would suggest creating cache file, which will store those ten links throughout a day. Then create a cron job that will run script every midnight, choose links randomly and write links to cache file.

SQL query to choose ten links:

 SELECT * FROM links ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 0,10;

If you don't have acces to cron jobs, you can check every time a user visits a page if date now is the same as date of file modification. If file is older then today, run the query and write new links to cache file.

<?php
if (is_file("cache.txt") && date("mdy") == date("mdy",filemtime("cache.txt")))
{
//read links from file
}
else
{
//read links from database and write them to cache.txt
}
?>

[Aesop]

this is a little beyond my knowledge my friend. :bemused:

Heres the script I got to read whats in the database

$DBhost = "localhost";
		$DBuser = "***";
		$DBpass = "***";
		$DBName = "***";
		mysql_connect($DBhost,$DBuser,$DBpass) or die("Unable to connect to database");
		@mysql_select_db("$DBName") or die("Unable to select database $DBName");
		$query = "SELECT * from links ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 0,10";
		//then call the query and display it
$result = mysql_query($query) or die('Query failed: ' . mysql_error());
$numofrows = mysql_num_rows($result);

echo "<TABLE BORDER=\"0\">\n";
for($i = 0; $i < $numofrows; $i++) {
    $row = mysql_fetch_array($result); //get a row from our result set
    if($i % 2) { //this means if there is a remainder
        echo "<TR bgcolor=\"#F0F0F0\">\n";
    } else { //if there isn't a remainder we will do the else
        echo "<TR bgcolor=\"white\">\n";
    }
    echo '<TD><a href="'.$row['tgp_link'].'">'.$row['tgp_link'].'</a></TD>';
    echo "</TR>\n";
}
//now let's close the table and be done with it
echo "</TABLE>\n";

This works fine for spitting out the results.

Is there anyway to keep this idea confined to just randomizing the urls every 24 hours?

[vaaaska]

Nope...this will pull out 10 records every time but not hold the value.

What you will need to do is have this query actually output the results to a flat file. Setup a cron to run your script once a day to get the new results.

Include the flat file into your page.

[vaaaska]

Here you go...it's pretty easy actually...be sure you either set a path or just have it output in the directory you are currently working in. Depending upon the server that could throw up problems, but messing with the root path stuff will get you through if necessary...

	$DBuser = "***"; 
	$DBpass = "***"; 
	$DBName = "***";

mysql_connect($DBhost,$DBuser,$DBpass) or die("Unable to connect to database"); 
@mysql_select_db("$DBName") or die("Unable to select database $DBName"); 
$query = "SELECT * from links ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 0,10";

// then call the query and display it 
$result = mysql_query($query) or die('Query failed: ' . mysql_error()); 
$numofrows = mysql_num_rows($result); 

$text = "<TABLE BORDER=\"0\">\n";

for($i = 0; $i < $numofrows; $i++) {

	$row = mysql_fetch_array($result); // get a row from our result set

	if($i % 2) { // this means if there is a remainder 

		$text .= "<TR bgcolor=\"#F0F0F0\">\n"; 

	} else { // if there isn't a remainder we will do the else 

		$text .= "<TR bgcolor=\"white\">\n"; 

	} 

	$text .= '<TD><a href="'.$row['tgp_link'].'">'.$row['tgp_link'].'</a></TD>'; 
	$text .= "</TR>\n"; 
} 
// now let's close the table and be done with it 
$text .= "</TABLE>\n";

// be sure you set a path for the output

$handle = fopen("$path/file.php", 'a');
$newcode = stripslashes("$text");
fwrite($handle, "$newcode");
fclose($handle);

[Aesop]

Ok, I will play with this later when I get the chance. Will let you know the outcome 🙂

[Aesop]

well I played with it and I think theres a different way I can go which will be simpler to me atleast.

I would like to just randomize the links from whats in the database on each visit to the page. Heres my current code which just shows 10 records.

$DBhost = "localhost";
		$DBuser = "***";
		$DBpass = "***";
		$DBName = "***";
		mysql_connect($DBhost,$DBuser,$DBpass, $DBName) or die("Unable to connect to database");
		@mysql_select_db("$DBName") or die("Unable to select database $DBName");
		$query = "SELECT * from links ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 0,10";
		//then call the query and display it
$result = mysql_query($query) or die('Query failed: ' . mysql_error());
$numofrows = mysql_num_rows($result);


echo "<TABLE BORDER=\"0\">\n";
for($i = 0; $i < $numofrows; $i++) {
    $row = mysql_fetch_array($result); //get a row from our result set
    if($i % 2) { //this means if there is a remainder
        echo "<TR bgcolor=\"#F0F0F0\">\n";
    } else { //if there isn't a remainder we will do the else
        echo "<TR bgcolor=\"white\">\n";
    }

echo '<TD><a href="'.$row['tgp_links'].'">'.$row['tgp_desc'].'</a></TD>';
echo "</TR>\n";
}
//now let's close the table and be done with it
echo "</TABLE>\n";

So how do I go about making 10 random records show up whenever the page is refreshed or visited?