I’m using a script to change my header graphic randomly each time you reload the page (or visit another page/post.)
Here’s what I do:
(I’m going to step through this backward…)
In my index.php file, right after I load my main stylesheet, I load the header style sheet as a PHP file. (Thanks to Dunstan Orchard at 1976design for the tip on using a dynamic PHP file as a style sheet.) This sheet contains ONLY the header declaration (be sure to take that part out of your main style sheet…) Here’s how I call the header style sheet:
<style type=”text/css” media=”screen”>@import “<?php echo $siteurl; ?>/tc-header-css.php”;</style>
(Notice the .php extention.)
Now, let’s have a look at the tc-header-css.php file itself:
The first thing is to declare the output as CSS (thanks again to Dunstan):
<?php // declare the output of the file as CSS
header(‘Content-type: text/css’);
?>
Next (and last) is the style declaration that includes a call to a randomize function:
div#header { height: 123px; background: url(images/headers/<?php include $abspath.’images/headers/randomimage.php’; ?>) no-repeat 0 0; }
That’s it for the header style sheet. Now, in my /images/headers/ directory, I drop in any graphics I’d like to use as header graphics, along with the radomimage.php file.
randomimage.php is fairly straightforward:
<?php
$path = “images/headers/”;
$handle = opendir($path);
while (false !== ($file = readdir($handle))) {
if(ereg(“.jpg$|.gif$”, $file)) {
$filelist[] = $file;
$count = count($filelist);
}
}
closedir($handle);
$arraynum = $count-1;
$randnum=mt_rand(0,$arraynum);
?>
<?php echo “$filelist[$randnum]”; ?>
That’s it!
You can see it in action at https://www.tcervo.com
-Tony
