Random photo generator using php won't work..?

superficialgirl

Okay I'm really new to this, but I'm trying to put a photo on my website that would change randomly (drawing from a folder of photos) each time the user clicked a button saying "random photo". It seems like php is the best way to do this, except...
All the codes I've tried don't work; all that shows up is the little "broken image" icon. The code I'm using right now for the php is..

<?php

funtion $get_img_link()
{
$images = glob("*.jpg") //Assuming jpg files
$selected = $images[rand(0, count($images) - 10)];
return "images/random/";
}

I'm not sure what my problem is, but I'm thinking it could be:
1) I don't have SQL (do you need this?)
2) I'm not linking to the php from my html page properly?
3) Something's wrong with the code?

please, Please, PLEASE help me, I'm dying. Thanks🙂

superficialgirl

this is how i'm linking it from my html file:

<img src='<?= get_img_link(); ?>' />
<button onclick='this.window.refresh();'>Change Image</button>

Nulled

watch your html source and see why it's not showing obviously it can be easily done.

dagon

a little something is missing, the actual image file name

funtion $get_img_link()
{
$images = glob("*.jpg") //Assuming jpg files
$selected= $images[array_rand($images)];
return 'images/random/'.$selected;
}

superficialgirl

it's still not working, maybe I'm linking it wrong? How do I attach the php file to my html file?

dagon

make sure your directories\paths are correct.

superficialgirl

Is this not right? This is what I have in my html script

<div id="p">
<img src='<?= get_img_link(); ?>' />
<button onclick='this.window.refresh();'>Change Image</button>

</div>

bradgrafelman

superficialgirl wrote:
This is what I have in my html script

You mean the file ends with a ".html" extension? If so, then the file probably isn't being parsed for PHP code - rename it to have a ".php" extension instead.

Also, where is the function defined? Is it in the same file, or in a different .php file? If so, did you include/require() it?

superficialgirl

No: I have a file, a php file, that has this:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>Untitled Document</title>
</head>

<body>

<?php

function get_img_link(){
$images = glob("*.jpg") //Assuming jpg files
$selected = $images[rand(0, count($images) - 9)];
return "papercastlecrowns.html";
}

</body>
</html>

it is saved as randomgenerator.php

In my html file, called papercastlecrowns.html, and it has this:

<div id="p">
<img src= '<?= get_img_link();' include: 'randomgenerator.php';>
<button onclick='this.window.refresh();'>Change Image</button>

</div>

which I though was supposed to link the php to the html. Am I wrong about this?

bradgrafelman

superficialgirl wrote:
Am I wrong about this?

Yes, for a few reasons:

Don't use the "<?=" shorthand syntax - it's disabled by default since it's been deprecated for some time now. Instead, always use the full "<?php" opening tag.
The [man]include[/man] syntax doesn't include a colon.
You're trying to execute a function before you include the necessary PHP file that defines it. In other words, you're trying to put the cart before the horse.
Note that when you include the 'randomgenerator.php' file at that point in the HTML document, PHP is going to insert everything in the .php file at that point. In other words, all of the HTML code in 'randomgenerator.php' is going to be placed inside of the 'src' attribute of the <img> tag.
.html files normally aren't (and probably shouldn't be) parsed for PHP code. Once you fix all of the above problems, you should probably rename 'papercastlecrowns.html' to 'papercastlecrowns.php' so that the PHP code is actually parsed rather than ignored and treated as plain HTML.

superficialgirl

Okay I'm really sorry, maybe I'm just getting way ahead of myself, since I don't really know how to use php... but I just don't get it. Do you know the exact code I would need for this random photo generator? You say I shouldn't include all of the "randomgenerator.php" , and I don't understand what to do instead.

It's fine if you tell me to just give up on this if I'm too newbie to deal with this :p

paulnaj

Hi,

Here's one way to do it .... not far off your own, but with correct syntax 😉

<?php
function get_img_link(){
    $images = glob("*.jpg"); // You missed the semi-colon
    $selected = $images[rand(0, count($images) - 1)]; // Why 9?
    return $selected;
}
?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<title>PHP page</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>This must be a PHP page (something.php)</p>
<p>It could be an HTML page **only** if your server treats HTML files as PHP (not usual, but possible).</p>
<p>Here's a random image - refresh to see another one.</p>
<img src="<?php echo get_img_link();?>" alt="Random image"/>
</body>
</html>

Don't give up!!

superficialgirl

do i need to set up php on my computer before I can use it?

I tried your suggestion, but all i get is a blank white page with no formatting that says
This must be a PHP page (something.php)

It could be an HTML page only if your server treats HTML files as PHP (not usual, but possible).

Here's a random image - refresh to see another one.
(and the broken image icon here)

if i give the file a .php extension and try to open it in apache, it just regurgitates the whole code back at me..so confused.

bradgrafelman

superficialgirl wrote:
do i need to set up php on my computer before I can use it?

Uhm... well.. yes, you have to install software before you can use it...

superficialgirl

well I have it but I really can't figure out the point of it.. all it is is a black box with a text cursor?

unless i somehow have the wrong php, but i got it from the php website, and it's the newest version.

paulnaj

Hi again,

Here's a test: Type ...

http://localhost/

... into the browser address bar. What happens?

superficialgirl

well all of my files come up because I put them into the apache folder.
BUT. none of the php are formatted websites, theyre just code.

joshd963

<img src='<?= get_img_link(); ?>' />

should it be

<img src='<?= $get_img_link(); ?>' />