How would you tackle this?

[dharrison]

Hi all

I am delving into the project of revamping my site at long last (hence the long-ish stay away).

I have a problem: I would like random shots of recent projects and a bit of wording to come up on my home page and possibly a few others.

My question is what is the best method to accomplish this? PHP, XML, database or miscellaneous?

Any help will be gratefully received.

[DaveSawers]

I do that on my site for portfolio display on the side panel. Each picture filename, link and related text is on a MySQL database and PHP randomly selects a record for display. A very simple piece of code.

[dharrison]

Thanks David. Is that php rand() ?

[pagetta]

hi
we do this on our site each refresh randomly displays the contents of a file kept in a list - i'm not sure if its the slickest way of doing it but it works on our news item display (codestone)

it uses some simple php code
<?php
$sTextfile = "files.txt";
if ($aFiles = @file($sTextfile))
{
$sFileToInclude = rtrim($aFiles[array_rand($aFiles)]);
include "$sFileToInclude";
}
?>

'files.txt' is kept in the root folder and simply lists the absolute URL of each content html file.

HTH :-)

[sands]

You had posted this earlier, hadn't you?

Looking for a Rotation Script for Images AND Text

Check out 2 more options there. Maybe you were too busy to check for replies.

[dharrison]

Yeah you are right sands, apologies for that. I did originally post last year, but I am finally getting round to tackling the website (its only taken me 3 years to get round to revamping my own site).

Thanks for directing me onto the old post sands - there s a lot of good info on there.

And thanks all of you for your help. :)

[jannmirch]

If I may...Do you really feel that random shots is the best way to present your portfolio? Why not allow your visitor to see all your stuff?

You might want to consider organizing your portfolio into different types of projects, offering thumbnails that your visitor can select, which would link to more detailed info.

Others will be better able to advise on the most efficient way to set this up.

[dharrison]

Thanks jannmirch

I already do have a portfolio page, but I am looking to have either random screenshots on the major pages (Home and services pages)or testimonials that I have collected from my existing customers.