Random background-image with PHP

Question

I would like to have random images as background-images on a
page. So I
made a rotate.php ("SELECT picsid, picsurl FROM pics WHERE
picsite =
'home' ORDER BY MD5(RAND()) limit 1") with
<img src="<?php echo $row_rsimages['picsurl']; ?>"
alt="" />
Then I put the following rule into the css-file:
#pics {
width: 400px;
height: 200px;
background-color: #fff;
background-image: url(banner.php);
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-position: top left;
Finally I inserted a div called #pics on the index.php and
previewed the
page, and - you are right ;) - the images are not displayed.
Where have I failed?
Martin Lang

Answer 1

Martin Lang wrote:
> I would like to have random images as background-images
on a page. So I
> made a rotate.php
> background-image: url(banner.php);
> Where have I failed?
In several places.
1. Presumably banner.php is the page that you earlier refer
to as
rotate.php. The name should be the same.
2. It looks as though you're trying to use an <img> tag
to display a
background image. That won't work.
3. If you want banner.php to display an image, you need to
send the
correct MIME header and stream the image as a download.
// code to select the image
$filepath = '/home/mysite/htdocs/images/'; // path to image
folder
$image = $filepath.$row_rsimages['picsurl'];
if (file_exists($image) && is_readable($image)) {
$size = filesize($image);
header('Content-type: image/jpeg');
header('Content-length: '.$size);
$file = @fopen($image, 'rb');
if ($file) {
fpassthru($file);
It's actually a lot simpler to do everything in the same
page.
Put the recordset at the top of the page to select the random
image.
Then put the style block in the head of the document:
<style type="text/css">
#pics {
width: 400px;
height: 200px;
background-color: #fff;
background-image: url(<?php echo $row_rsimages['picsurl'];
?>);
background-repeat: no-repeat;
background-position: top left;
</style>
David Powers, Adobe Community Expert
Author, "Foundation PHP for Dreamweaver 8" (friends of ED)
Author, "PHP Solutions" (friends of ED)
http://foundationphp.com/