Re: PHP Daily Quote Script

[gno]

I’d say, that you should use a sql database for it – either SQLite or MySQL. MySQL is a bit overkill, but it is easier to work with for newcomers (at least, that is my experience).

The text file you are using is not a relational database, and while you could accomplish the same thing with text files, it would be a waste of time and resources.

I’ll give you a little example. This uses mysql and php.

Bear with me if it fails. I have not tested it – I just wrote it off the top of my head. :-)

The mysql table:

CREATE TABLE `quotes` (

`id` int(3) not null auto_increment,

`quote` text,

`person` text,

`lastused` date default '2010-10-10',

PRIMARY KEY (`id`)

)

The PHP code:

// Connect to Mysql Database



// Checking if theres already selected a quote for today

$quoteQuery = mysql_query('SELECT quote,person FROM quotes WHERE lastused = CURDATE()');



// If not:

if (mysql_num_rows($quoteQuery) != 1) {

// Get all quotes from db which havent been used in the last 7 days

$idQuery = mysql_query('SELECT id FROM quotes WHERE DATEDIFF(CURDATE(),lastused) > 7');

// Getting a numerated array only

$ids = mysql_fetch_array($idQuery, MYSQL_NUM);

// Count the number of elements in that array

$idCount = count($ids);

// Getting a random number - $ids[$id] will now contain our random number.

$id = rand(0,$idCount);



// Update that row

mysql_query('UPDATE quotes SET lastused = CURDATE() WHERE id = '.$ids[$id]);



// Getting the newly selected daily quote

$quoteQuery = mysql_query('SELECT quote,person FROM quotes WHERE lastused = CURDATE()');

}



$row = mysql_fetch_row($quoteQuery);

?>