1 Correct answer
You have two approaches among many others :
so as not to flood this thread with code, you'll find links that mirror the pages (just explore the browser page code).
- Either integrate all the quotations into your HTML code, making them all invisible, and activate by JS only the one that has been selected at random by JS
https://demo.puce-et-media.com/UnderS/quote-1.html - Or work with a JSON file, which is pretty much like a database (sorry that is not your initial request), and you inject the dat
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Replies
Anything that holds data in a structured way is a database. So even a flat, tab delimited file is a database.
By @Abambo
I understand the meaning you're trying to convey, and without wishing to be argumentative, I don't quite agree with your terminology.
While a flat, tab-delimited file can technically hold structured data, it lacks the functionality and features of traditional databases, such as the ability to perform complex queries, enforce data integrity constraints, and scale efficiently.
On the other hand, data structures like PHP arrays and formats like JSON offer a middle ground, providing some level of structure and organization to data while remaining lightweight and flexible. However, they still don't provide the robustness and optimization capabilities found in dedicated database systems.
As far as I'm concerned, and with regard to data organization, the term “database” generally refers to more robust data management systems, such as relational or NoSQL databases.
This why in my previous comment I added :
By @L e n a
- Or work with a JSON file, which is pretty much like a database (sorry that is not your initial request),
PS: Off-topic, but how did this thread get marked as "solved" within 24h of it going up, when the OP (me) didn't have a chance to look at the answers yet? I'm not saying I wouldn't have made the same choice myself, only that this is the first chance I got to look at these replies and I wonder if prematurely marking the thread solved discouraged some from chiming in.
By @Under S.
That was me. I was going through the last dozen or so posts to see if they had been answered correctly. If so, I marked them as answered to help others determine whether to open the post or not. In this case, I was apparently too trigger happy. My apologies.
@L e n a Thank you for this, it's very appreciated. I especially like that you can style the quote and author differently in both examples. Obviously I am leaning towards the first answer, as I don't even know what JSON is.
However, I get the impression your first example requires that the end-user download ALL 200 quotes every time, rather than just the one they will be seeing on that specific page refresh. Do I have that wrong? Ifso, ignore what follows; but if not, is there a way to accomplish the same thing without downloading alli the quotes on every page load? For example, by storing them in a server-side file that would act as a makeshift database (that a PHP file could then pull 1 random quote from BEFORE sending it [and only it] to the end-user).
By @Under S.
As its just text quotes it really shouldn't matter as the kb 200 quotes would consume would be minimal. If it were 200 images then you might want to consider your options......so storing the quotes as a json file or in a javascript object would be perfectly acceptable, although you have a point, why include 199 quotes which are not needed.
If you want a server side approach then use a php object to store the quotes which gets processed at run time and returns to the page only one quote at a time on page load.
Json file or javascript object approach is good if youre intending to cycle through the quotes without a page refresh but as you only want a static quote on each page load the php approach would be more appropriate.
A similar solution would. be to create an API (Application Program
Interface) end point to store the quotes in json format or javascript object then use something like the Fetch API to return one quote.
Plenty of options, it comes down to what you know and what you feel comfortable in deploying.
I appreciate your trust in my PHP abilities, but I assure you, they are unfounded. 🙂 Yes, I use strings (a lot) and includes (a lot) but that's literally the totality of my PHP knowledge. I wouldn't even know where to begin to do this.
By @Under S.
Start by producing an array of php objects, see sample php code below. You can store this array of objects in a seperate php include file, name it 'quotes.php'
$quotes = [
[
'quote' => 'A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.' ,
'author' => 'William Shakespeare'
],
[
'quote' => 'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.' ,
'author' => 'Alfred Lord Tennyson'
],
[
'quote' => 'He travels the fastest who travels alone.' ,
'author' => "Rudyard Kipling"
],
[
'quote' => 'No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.' ,
'author' => 'Eleanor Roosevelt'
]
];
At the end of the quotes array of objects, after the closing array bracket ]; and still in the 'quotes.php' includes file, add the following:
shuffle($quotes);
$selectedQuote = array_slice($quotes , 1);
The above shuffles the $quotes array of objects, like a pack of cards, on each page load. The next line selects the 1st object in the array of objects, after the array has been shuffled, so the quote is random. The more quotes obviously the more random the quote will be on each page load.
Once the 'quotes.php' includes file has been included/linked to your main page where you want the random quote to appear then in the main page add the following where you require the random quote to appear:
<blockquote>
<?php echo $selectedQuote[0]['quote']."<br><span>".$selectedQuote[0]['author']."</span>"; ?>
</blockquote>
Style the quote with some css, how you require it to look:
blockquote {
font-size: 20px;
}
blockquote span {
font-size: 15px;
font-weight: bold;
}
That's it! You should now have a random quote on each page load.
As a bonus, but not necessary, you can fade in the quote by adding the <script></script> below to your main page:
<script>
const blockquote = document.querySelector('blockquote');
setTimeout(function() {
blockquote.classList.add('fadeIn');
}, 500)
</script>
Then updating the css:
blockquote {
font-size: 20px;
opacity: 0;
transition: opacity 1s ease-in-out;
}
blockquote span {
font-size: 15px;
font-weight: bold;
}
.fadeIn {
opacity: 1;
}
How much easier would this all be if I switched to making these quotes images, so we'd just have to load one of 200 such images stored in a given folder? With the same caveat of only loading the one, of course.
By @Under S.
Note that images will be less accessible than pure text, will require more advanced support for their readability on small screens (if the quotations are long in terms of the number of words used, including author, date etc.) and their visual updating if necessary will necessarily require more logistical time than a simple CSS modification.
The solution proposed by @osgood_ is very simple to implement, effective and well worth a try. The only complexity will be in generating the PHP table, which can be time-consuming.
But this task will be roughly equivalent whatever the structured TXT file on which you base your logic (PHP array, XML, JSON....) the only file that would be flexible and easy to setup would be a CSV exportable from any spreadsheet program, if by any chance your quotes are already listed in a spreadsheet.
Anyhow, a handmade parser could also easly do the job, what ever the flat file will be, depending on how your datas are currently stored.
For the fun (because the @osgood_ solution requires far fewer lines of coding), I've provided an example (https://demo.puce-et-media.com/UnderS/quote-4.html) of a call to the quotes-500.txt file mentioned in a previous comment https://demo.puce-et-media.com/UnderS/quotes-500.txt. In this way, just a single quote can be loaded from the 500 available.
But this task will be roughly equivalent whatever the structured TXT file on which you base your logic (PHP array, XML, JSON....) the only file that would be flexible and easy to setup would be a CSV exportable from any spreadsheet program, if by any chance your quotes are already listed in a spreadsheet.
By @L e n a
I agree, producing any file which contains more than just a few choices is going to take time to build and is prone to mistakes......one miss-placed comma, bracket etc and you have a dysfunctional file............which is why unless you are a methodical worker you should use a database for storing large volumes of data.
200 quotes/authors l would personally use a database BUT it's certainly obtainable without one, you just have to be extra careful when structuring the information if it doesn't already exist in some other usable form whereby you could loop through the data to create a compatible workflow.
In fact, instead of having even and odd lines, it's best to place all the quote information on a single line in the TXT file, separated by an alphanumeric character chain that won't appear in any of the strings, such as three pipes
Well, I'm sure embarrassed now. Using a divider instead of using odd/even lines never even occurred to me; but it makes all kinds of sense. Guess this is how the pros do it. Single-line is fine, then. 🙂
The final example of the TXT, containing 500 quotes (lines), can be found at https://demo.puce-et-media.com/UnderS/quotes-500.txt
I look forward to studying this in the next couple of days, thanks!
The question now is, do you want to use an include for the PHP algorithm or a JS invocation so that you can eventually reload a new quote from the host, without having to reload the entire hosting page (more flexible)?
If I understand your question correctly, the JS invocation would be more useful if the quote was rotating on a timer instead of page refresh, right? I honestly don't have any plans to do that, once per reload is really the plan.
That being said, how difficult would it be for the code to randomize images the same way? 500 images in a folder, but loads only the 1 for the session. Could there be some sort of toggle between the two modes (text or images)? I could put root-relative paths to each image in the TXT file if that helps; unless the code is smart enough to bypass the TXT list and just pick a random JPG/PNG from a folder filled with them.
If this is even a little bit of a bother, let's ignore that. The images are more of a "nice-to-have" than a need. 🙂 Figured it wouldn't hurt to ask.
I wonder if prematurely marking the thread solved discouraged some from chiming in.
By @Under S.
I doubt that a question marked with a correct answer does not attract different, additional answers. If someone has a nice solution, they will chime in. So no harm done.
Indeed, marking an answer correct in an early stage will help others searching for a similar topic. Many threads simply get forgotten, when they travel down the page, to the third or fourth page.
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