cookies, php and first time visitors

manoj382

I'm relatively new to PHP and at first I thought this wouldn't be too complex, but now I'm not sure (after scouring through various threads and tutorials). Hopefully you all can help me out!

I have a style declared in the header of my page.. something similar to this:

Also, in a separate stylesheet that's linked to the site I have the same style defined except with a different background image.

What I'd like to happen is this: If a user goes to the homepage and theyre a new visitor I want the default style declared in the stylesheet to kick in. If the user is NOT a new user then I want to style declared in the header to be used instead.

Basically, one image if you're a first time visitor and another image if you're not. I'd like the cookie to be set to last/expire in 24 hours.

NOTE: I'm using a CMS (ExpressionEngine) so the secondary style has to be declared in the header while the original style remains in the stylesheet. Let me know if anybody needs clarification.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Manoj
Austin TX

Arenlor

First off I believe you'll find that your background won't sure up, try:

body#home, h1 {background:url(images/image-1.jpg);}

The way CSS works is in a hierarchy, first comes the external stylesheets, then comes internal stylesheets (the <style> tags), they overwrite anything that was put into an external stylesheet. Lastly and most important of the group is the inline style (<body style="background:url(images/image-1.jpg);">)
The way I'd achieve your goal is this:

<?php //This goes in the header
$cookie = $_COOKIE['new']; //If the cookie is there it'll get the value.
if($cookie == 1){ //Checks the value of it, if the cookie is set it'll be 1
    echo '<style type="text/css">
    body#home, h1 {background:url(images/image-1.jpg);}
    </style>'; //Puts the header in.
}else{ //What to do if the cookie isn't set.
    echo '<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="style.css">';
//Uses the stylesheet instead
    setcookie("new",1,time()+60*60*24*365*10);}
//Sets the cookie to the name new, value 1, and it'll expire after 10 years.?>

manoj382

Thanks, Arenlor - this is exactly what I needed. It worked perfectly