I want to rotate images on refresh

Question

I work for a newspaper, we want to rotate ads on refresh at random. We are looking to stop using our current programmer. We just need to figure this out. I want it to rotate like THIS. Is there a fairly simple way to do it in dreamweaver?

Answer 1

In the following example let's assume you have 4 images in your root directory sequentially numbered 1.jpg, 2.jpg, 3.jpg, 4.jpg
Use php to create an array of the file names and then randomize the array. Then simply echo the results of the random array.
On page.php put this:
<?php
$input = array("1", "2", "3", "4");
$rand_banner = array_rand($input, 4);
?>
<!-- Start Banners -->
<img src="<?php echo $input[$rand_banner[0]]; ?>.jpg" /><br />
<img src="<?php echo $input[$rand_banner[1]]; ?>.jpg" /><br />
<img src="<?php echo $input[$rand_banner[2]]; ?>.jpg" /><br />
<img src="<?php echo $input[$rand_banner[3]]; ?>.jpg" />
<!-- End Banners -->
If you have more images but you'd like to limit the number that's rotated on pageload then change the limiting number in the array_rand function to correspond to the number of random images you'd like displayed. Let's say you want to only display 5 random images out of 10 possibilitites...
Change this:
<?php
$input = array("1", "2", "3", "4");
$rand_banner = array_rand($input, 4);
?>
To this:
<?php
$input = array("1", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "7", "8", "9", "10");
$rand_banner = array_rand($input, 5);
?>