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Sep 19th, 2009

Help debug Random property script.

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Right i'm in the process of designing a web page for a property company and the owner has requested a random property be displayed each day.

I have modified a quote of the day script to work with a filemtime method but its not working and im stumped, fairly sure i'm being an idiot though!
All php & txt files are located in the root directory.

I have 10 quotes(for now) in a file called Quotedata.txt All these quote occupy one line.

I then have a file called TodaysQuote.txt which at the moment contains the following on ONE line.

Quote ...

<img src="images/house_1.jpg" width="85" height="64" alt="house 1" class="left" /><p>This is a demo text. It will be replaced by the original. This is a demo text. It will be replaced by the original. This is a demo text.</p><p class="readmore"><a href="">Read More</a></p>

I then have this file called quoteGenerate.php which i suspect is where the problem lies.

php Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)
<?php
if (time() - filemtime('todaysQuote.txt') > 86400) 
 
{
$file = "todaysQuote.txt";
	// read the file into an array
	$quoteArray = file("quoteData.txt");
 
	//get the random number
	$qrnd = rand(0,sizeof($quoteArray)-1);
 
	// pick quote name from random numbers
	$quote = "$quoteArray[$qrnd]";
 
 
	//write the string to the file
 
	// Note: mode 'w' opens for writing only; place the file pointer at 
	//   the beginning of the file and truncate the file to zero length.
	//   If the file does not exist, attempt to create it.
 
	$fh = fopen($file, "w");
	fputs($fh, $quote);
	fclose($fh);
}
}
?>
<?php
if (time() - filemtime('todaysQuote.txt') > 86400) 

{
$file = "todaysQuote.txt";
	// read the file into an array
	$quoteArray = file("quoteData.txt");

	//get the random number
	$qrnd = rand(0,sizeof($quoteArray)-1);

	// pick quote name from random numbers
	$quote = "$quoteArray[$qrnd]";


	//write the string to the file

	// Note: mode 'w' opens for writing only; place the file pointer at 
	//   the beginning of the file and truncate the file to zero length.
	//   If the file does not exist, attempt to create it.
	
	$fh = fopen($file, "w");
	fputs($fh, $quote);
	fclose($fh);
}
}
?>

I am then calling the quote on the webpage

by using the following script.

php Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)
<?php 
  // display quote of the day
  $file = "todaysQuote.txt";
 
  $fh = fopen($file, "r");
  $string = fread($fh, filesize($file));
  fclose($fh);
 
  echo "$string";
?>
<?php 
  // display quote of the day
  $file = "todaysQuote.txt";

  $fh = fopen($file, "r");
  $string = fread($fh, filesize($file));
  fclose($fh);

  echo "$string";
?>

what have i done wrong? any help very very appreciated.

Last edited by kained; Sep 19th, 2009 at 7:26 am.

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kained

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since May 2004

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Sep 19th, 2009

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Re: Help debug Random property script.

You'd be far better off using a database to store your info and then using a random number generator (RAND() in mysql) to get a record to display.

PHP Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)
SELECT * FROM properties ORDER BY RAND();
SELECT * FROM properties ORDER BY RAND();

Pick the first record.

Poncing about with files is a pain.

Last edited by ardav; Sep 19th, 2009 at 8:07 am.

ardav

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Sep 19th, 2009

Re: Help debug Random property script.

don't really want to do a database seems unnecessary as there is no other need for a database and the person who will be maintaining the site has any database experience.

It would be easier for me to code though obviously!

kained

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Sep 19th, 2009

Re: Help debug Random property script.

I have got the webpage bit working now using:

php Syntax (Toggle Plain Text)
<?php
 
define(TODAYFILE, 'todaysQuote.txt');
define(QUOTEFILE, 'quotelist.txt');
 
 
if ((time() - filemtime(TODAYFILE)) > 5) {
    $quotes = file(QUOTEFILE);
    $new_quote = $quotes[rand(0, sizeof($quotes) - 1)];
    $fh = fopen(TODAYFILE, 'w');
    fwrite($fh, $new_quote);
    fclose($fh);
}
 
echo file_get_contents(TODAYFILE);
 
?>
<?php

define(TODAYFILE, 'todaysQuote.txt');
define(QUOTEFILE, 'quotelist.txt');


if ((time() - filemtime(TODAYFILE)) > 5) {
    $quotes = file(QUOTEFILE);
    $new_quote = $quotes[rand(0, sizeof($quotes) - 1)];
    $fh = fopen(TODAYFILE, 'w');
    fwrite($fh, $new_quote);
    fclose($fh);
}

echo file_get_contents(TODAYFILE);

?>

im an idiot! quotelist.txt should have been quoteData.txt.

problem solved!

Last edited by kained; Sep 19th, 2009 at 10:43 am.

kained

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