random link - compile - ??

[kris888]

Hi I'm new!

Okay, I got this 'random link' script from someone:

<?php 
// random link 

function random_links($file, $display) { 
    $filenaam = $file . '.txt'; 
    $f = file($filenaam); 
    srand((double)microtime()*1000000); 
    for($c=0; $c<=$display; $c++) { 
        $i = rand(0,count($f)-1); 
        list ($url, $desc) = split("\|", $f[$i]);            $desc = rtrim($desc); 
        echo '<a href="'.$url.'">'.$desc.'</a><br>'; 
    } 
} // einde functie: random_links 

?>

<?php 
random_links('random_links', 3); 
?> 

This wil post three random links from the specified textfile, so far so good.

But whenever I refresh the page, new links apear..
Now I would like to control this.

Is it possible to let php generate a static *.html file that only rebuilts itself once a day? But more importantly, how?

I understand there are compilers/generators for this and I've heard about mod_rewrite ?? I'm not a coder and most of the tutorials I can find explain a lot of things I don't care about.

I know people got better things to do but please, help me start up.

Thanks,
Kris

[Kudose]

You would be best off by creating a function that generates ("writes") a page with the links in a random order, then using a cron job to run the script once a day. When the scripts runs, since you are writing, it will overwrite the old file.

There are lots of tutorials about cron and setting up cron jobs. It all depends on how you are trying to use them (i.e. cPanel, cli, etc) and this board's search and search engines are your friend for this.

[thorpe]

I'm not a coder and most of the tutorials I can find explain a lot of things I don't care about.

Hence your always going to have difficulty getting things working the way you want. If you learnt php, instead of trying to pull apart things that are close to what you want, you would be able to build these things quicker than reading tutorials about them.

Just my 2 c.

[kris888]

Kudose wrote:

You would be best off by creating a function that generates ("writes") a page with the links in a random order, then using a cron job to run the script once a day. When the scripts runs, since you are writing, it will overwrite the old file.

There are lots of tutorials about cron and setting up cron jobs. It all depends on how you are trying to use them (i.e. cPanel, cli, etc) and this board's search and search engines are your friend for this.

Thanks for your effort! But I've been looking it over and I would be spending way too much time for it to work properly.

Something else, I tried to open it up in a new page by adding a 'target=_blank' thing but no succes. Tips, tricks?

Thanks,
Kris

@
Yeah man, I always get those questions like: "Yo man! How do you make this in photoshop??" I always give em my 2c by saying: "If you learnt photoshop you would know."
Thanks man!

[Kudose]

kris888 wrote:

I've been looking it over and I would be spending way too much time for it to work properly.

Um ... ok.

It would take changing random_links reading the file and return it as a string, creating a 15 line or less function to display your links and a 10 line or less function to write the string returned by random_links to a file.

It would take about 2 minutes to set up a cron job and a script to be run by cron.

So ... if you don't know how complete the scenario above, and have just a few minutes to spare, you can ask me where you have problems and I will try to help you as soon as possible.

Otherwise, to be quite honest, you will be wasting your time. By the time you find a suitable alternative, you could have been done with this one. Then you still have to write your new project.

Just my thoughts ... not trying to be a bully or anything. It just bugs me when people say they dont have 15 minutes to learn how to do something.

[Kudose]

This may not be bug free but it is sort of what you need to do:

<?php
srand(time()*1234321);

display_links($file, $number = "3"){
  $links = return_links($file, $number);
  $f = file($filenaam);
    srand((double)microtime()*1000000);
    for($c=0; $c<=$number; $c++) {
        $i = rand(0,count($f)-1);
        list ($url, $desc) = split("\|", $f[$i]);
        $desc = rtrim($desc);
        echo '<a href="'.$url.'">'.$desc.'</a><br>';
    }
}

return_links($file, $number = "3", $root_path = "/your/home/dir"){
  $string = "";
  $file .= '.txt';
  $file = $root_path.'/'.$file;
  if(file_exists($file) && is_file($file)){
    $handle = fopen($file, "r");
    while($data = fread($handle, filesize($file))){
      $string .= $data;
    }
    fclose($file);
    return $string;
  }/** valid file **/
  return false;
}

write_links($source, $dest){
  $links = return_links($source);
  $handle = fopen($dest, "w+");
  while(fwrite($handle, $links)){ }
  return true; 
}
// random link

//display 5 links
display_links('myfile', '5');

//write some links
write_links('mybiglinkslist.txt', 'mylinks.htm'); 


?>