Random Pictures in HTML/PHP - Overclock.net

Kopi · 04-10-08

Say I have 4 or 5 pictures I'd like to have randomly loaded when someone accesses a website. Is there any way to make it so that everytime the site is loaded a different picture is loaded as well?

**Chipp** · 04-10-08

On my site I use this code:

Code:

<img src="http://site/images/<?php echo(rand(1,3)); ?>.jpg"
width="600" height="100" alt="logo" />

See the little PHP bit in the middle? That is set up so that when it generates a random number (between 1 and 3 in my case), the number becomes the name of my image file. Thus, if you name your images a number you can use the random number generator to select the image for you. Of course you'd want to edit the image properties to whatever size you need (or just remove them if the images are different sizes).

I doubt this is the politically correct way, but it gets the job done. I'm still teaching myself PHP so I don't know if it's "proper".

Kopi · 04-10-08

Thanks alot Chip, time for some experimenting!

Lets say my images are named

kopi
kops
kopo

They are all different sizes, and I'd like to alternate between them. Would the code be

Code:

<img src="http://site/images/<?php echo(rand(1,3)); ?>.jpg"/>

And the images would simply be in the images directory?

**Chipp** · 04-10-08

No, that would not work.

The "echo" command inserts the number generated by the math function (rand) as the file name. Thus, your files would have to be names 1.jpg, 2.jpg, 3.jpg, etc, etc. Basically, once the php script is finished executing the resulting HTML would look like this:

Code:

 <img src="http://site/images/2.jpg" />

In that case, "2" would have been the output from the random selector. Does that make sense?

Higgins · 04-10-08

Kopi, Chipp means renaming the pictures with numbers as names (1,2, & 3 for example) so with that PHP code chosing a random number within say 1 - 3 and having 3 jpgs all renamed to 1.jpg, 2.jpg, and 3.jpg; the random script would correspondingly load a random picture.

So you would want to rename the pictures: 1.jpg or 4.jpg.. when the PHP picks for example "4", 4.jpg would load.

Kopi · 04-10-08

Oh okay, I'm with ya.

1.jpg
2.jpg
3.jpg

They are all different sizes, and I'd like to alternate between them. Would the code be

Code:

<img src="http://site/images/<?php echo(rand(1,3)); ?>.jpg"/>

Or do i have to change some stuff

Higgins · 04-10-08

I would say yes, but i dont do HTML.. i was just making sure you understood what he was saying

Can you test it?

Good Luck
~Higgins

**Chipp** · 04-10-08

Well, you might get some better results by changing the path to the image files to wherever your keeping your images, etc.

I threw up a simple test page for you - I think you can see the directory structure and how the PHP actually works when you look at the source code in your browser (as the browser will display just the HTML after the number has been put into the filename).

http://sethhochberg.com/random/index.php

The exact code I used for that page is this:

PHP Code:


			
<img src="http://sethhochberg.com/random/images/<?php echo(rand(1,3)); ?>.jpg" alt="kopi test" />

Kopi · 04-10-08

Chipp, you're my hero.

I understand now, thanks alot to the both of you and thanks for throwing that test up for me Chipp!

**Chipp** · 04-11-08

Not a problem at all.

Good luck with your site, keep on codin'!

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Random Pictures in HTML/PHP

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