how to get random value from php/mysql using javascript

[hotice47]

hi to all

i am making a chat app using php/mysql

i am faceing a problem here ..i want that user click on button and it give him a random online user from database...but dont know how to do it ..i am trying..

{
           $i=0;
            while ($i < $num) 
            {
             $f1=mysql_result($result,$i,"MemberUserName");
              $i++;
<a href="#" onclick="setCurrentUser('<?php echo $f1; ?>');">
            }
            }

here i am getting values from database and storing them into $f1 and calling setCurrentUser to pass user...but i want random..

function setCurrentUser (userName)
{	
if (isMoiveLoaded = true)
{ 	
if (navigator.appName.indexOf("Microsoft") != -1)
{
					document.getElementById('chatApp').SendUserName(userName);
}
else
{
								document.chatApp.SendUserName(userName);
}
}
else
{
alert ("let the flash content load firt please");
}
}

i just want that onclick give me random user for chat ...

[Taywin]

Did you 'hard-coded' the mySQL look-up? I mean, it would be hard-coded if you specify the mySQL to look for a specific 'userName' in the data base. As a result, your mySQL will always return the same user. What you may need to do is either create a pool of userName and random select from the pool to get mySQL result, or use your server side script code to random select a user (using order by RAND()) and return it.

[hotice47]

i am getting the users list and on clicking on that user it send to chat app ..but i want a button which send random user..

[Taywin]

As I said earlier, you specify a user by using whatever user name is. Do you know how to 'select' data from database in mySQL? For example, a query for selecting a random record from a database table called 'users' is...

"SELECT * FROM users ORDER BY Rand() LIMIT 1";

If you do so, you should get a random user record back. Is that what you want???

By the way, this question is not about javascript, but it is mySQL or PHP thing...

[hotice47]

you are right but this will give me only one use from chat and to get other user i have to refresh the page which i dont want ...so i want to get a random user without refreshing the page .. i think this make some things clear..

in my code you can see that it will give me userlist one time only and i have to refresh the page to get new users ...and by clicking on one of them it pass that user value to javascript form chat ....but i want a one button only to send random user for chat ...without refreshing ...

[Taywin]

If you want content of a page to be reloaded without refreshing the page, you may need to use Ajax. However, if I understand correctly, you have already obtain a user list at one time already, so you could actually collect all user name of the list in an array. Then, randomly select a user name from the list whenever you want. I am not sure about PHP format because I have not used it for over 3 years. I hope that below code will give you some idea. I added some code in your original version.

// create an array for use in javascript as a global variable if you want
var userNameArray = new Array()
{
  $i=0;
  while ($i < $num) {
    $f1=mysql_result($result,$i,"MemberUserName");
    $i++;
    <a href="#" onclick="setCurrentUser('<?php echo $f1; ?>');">
    // here, push the $f1 value to the user array
    userNameArray.push('<?php echo $f1; ?>')
  }
  // once done, you have a filled userNameArray to play with
  <a href="#" onclick="setRandomCurrentUser()">
}

// do the random user in here
function setRandomCurrentUser() {
  if (isMoiveLoaded = true) {
    // random pick a user name from the array
    var userName = userNameArray[Math.floor(Math.random()*userNameArray.length)]
    if (navigator.appName.indexOf("Microsoft") != -1) {
      document.getElementById('chatApp').SendUserName(userName);
    }
    else {
      document.chatApp.SendUserName(userName);
    }
  }
  else {
    alert ("let the flash content load firt please");
  }
}