[Resolved] Items change every 7 days

[mzanimephp]

How can I make a script that does this? I'm sure its really simple, but with my limited knowledge of the PHP date() function I'm clueless.

Boy I haven't posted to this forum in months!

[wilku]

Write "the items" in a file, write a script that would update the file with most recent info and run the script every week (with cron). If you don't have acces to cron than you can check file modification date when reading data and update it if necessary (ie. it was updated later then 7 days ago).

This second method is somewhat inacurate and depends on when users visit your site.

Checking if the file is older then 7 days would look like:

if (time() - filemtime("items.txt") < 7*24*60*60)
{
//read items from file
}
else
{
//update items and then read them
}

[mzanimephp]

Hmm, I have a bad feeling this is gonna be more complicated than I had hoped.

The "items" are actually links and text on this page. They are asian PV videos.

http://www.mzanime.com/az/

In order to automate things a bit I've decided to only display 4/5 vids per week. They would be randomly selected though.

I was thinking maybe I would need some kind of array.

[wilku]

Well, nobody'll write it for you, but we can help if you stuck somewhere.
This is a modified script to help you start

if (is_file('movies.txt')&&date("Wy")==date("Wy",filemtime('movies.txt')))
{//file exists and was updated this week
     $movies = file('movies.txt');
}
else
{
//choose rondomly your movies from database
$movies = ChooseMovies();
//use fopen and fwrite to write chosen movies to movies.txt, each movie in new line.
foreach ($movies as $movie)
   fwrite($f,$movie."\n");
//fclose
}
//use $movies to show links to movies

[weekender]

i'd actually use the [man]date[/man] function to find the day of year, then change the message every seven days (using remainder method)

$dayofyear = date("z"); // range 0 to 365
$message = $dayofyear % 7; // gives remainder of $dayofyear divided by 7

switch($message)
{
    case 0:
        echo "Message #1";
    break;
    case 1:
        echo "Message #2";
    break;
    case 2:
        echo "Message #3";
    break;
    // and so on...
    case 6:
        echo "Message #7";
    break;
}

seems like an easier way, and should be quicker than checking file touch times, etc

[mzanimephp]

Thanks a lot weekender! I really didnt like the idea of having to read from an external file to be honest.

Besides, the external file would rarely, if ever, get updated if I decided to use that.

So if I understand you correctly, date("z") is just the current numerical date anywhere from 0 to 365.

And its divided by 7, which would mean the remainder would change on a weekly basis?

Sorry for being so ignorant, the PHP date function is still a mystery to me.

[wilku]

Sorry if I misunderstood your problem, but do you want to change the content every 7 days, or change the content every day in 7 days cycle? My "script" is the first option, weekender's script implements the second.

Besides, the external file would rarely, if ever, get updated if I decided to use that.

No, it won't. If your site is visited at least once a week, the external file would be updated with the first visit from the start of monday. You don't need to update the file manually. You should have all the movies (adresses) stored in a database and choose randomly from them within ChooseMovies() function. The chosen files are then written to external file, to be read all the week through.
I won't mind if you choose another method though 😉 I'm not claiming it's the best one.
EDIT: Look at [man]date[/man] manual - it's not that difficult 😉 Instead of dividing day number you can just have day of the week number with date("w"); which gives you a number from 0 to 6 for each day (0 for Sunday);

[mzanimephp]

The script is supposed to "change the content every 7 days".

For example, on sunday at a certain time all of the movies randomly change. They stay the same all week through, and when sunday comes again, they change again. Over and over. And even though they may be 30+ movies in my folder, it should only display about 5 at any given time.

If weekenders script displays a diferent movie(s) each day then this is not what I wanted.

Your idea sounds like what I'm trying to do, but I was hoping to avoid a database. There is no way to have an embedded PHP script do all this?

I mean why not just have a script snag a specific day/time from the server and at that moment randomize whats displayed, and keep it set until that day/time is set again?

[weekender]

sorry, stupid mistake - if you put date("z") it will change every day for seven days, then loop again - as wilku says, you need date("w") - which is the week number

$week = date("w"); // range 0 to 365
$message = $week % 7; // gives remainder of $week divided by 7

switch($message)
{
    case 0:
        echo "Message #1";
    break;
    case 1:
        echo "Message #2";
    break;
    case 2:
        echo "Message #3";
    break;
    // and so on...
    case 6:
        echo "Message #7";
    break;
}

that should work...

[mzanimephp]

Sweet! Only two lines of code, well basically.

$dayofyear = date("w"); 
$message = $dayofyear % 7;

I knew it was simple to do, I never would've thought to use the modulous operator though. Thanks a lot guys. 🙂