How do I display random text and image from PHP form on refresh?

Question

I'm a fairly new programmer and I'm currently working on creating a program for a web-based art exhibit that would will display a random image and text using data from a PHP form which requires inputs for both.

I will need to create a PHP form that gathers text and a picture from the visitor. Example PHP page:

*What is your name?* = Max

*Upload photo.* = pic.jpg

The finished project would be a webpage that - on refresh - would display the image and the text gathered from the PHP form randomly. So on refresh the page would display a random text input (I.E Max, Alan, Mark, etc.) and a random picture (I.E pic.jpg, pic1.jpg, pic2.jpg) I'm guessing from a MySQL database.

The page, on refresh, would therefore display something like this:

Max / pic.jpg

REFRESH

Alan / pic3.jpg

REFRESH

Mark / pic2.jpg

And so on...

This is what I have so far:

    <?php 

 //This is the directory where images will be saved 
 $target = "images/"; 
 $target = $target . basename( $_FILES['photo']['name']); 

 //This gets all the other information from the form 
 $name=$_POST['name'];  
 $pic=($_FILES['photo']['name']); 

 // Connects to your Database 
 mysql_connect("mysite.com", "username", "password") or die(mysql_error()) ; 
 mysql_select_db("db_name") or die(mysql_error()) ; 

 //Writes the information to the database 
 mysql_query("INSERT INTO `employees` VALUES ('$name', '$pic')") ; 

 //Writes the photo to the server 
 if(move_uploaded_file($_FILES['photo']['tmp_name'], $target)) 
 { 

 //Tells you if its all ok 
 echo "The file ". basename( $_FILES['uploadedfile']['name']). " has been uploaded, and your information has been added to the directory"; 
 } 
 else { 

 //Gives and error if its not 
 echo "Sorry, there was a problem uploading your file."; 
 } 
 ?>

Any help on this would be much appreciated!

Thank you!

There is 2 ways - `RAND` in `SQL` query or `rand` in `php` after you've extracted both name/pic data arrays from database. Yes, it should be in database. — Damaged Organic, Dec 03 '13 at 21:45
Here's [php's `rand()` documentation](http://us3.php.net/rand) — Francisco Presencia, Dec 03 '13 at 21:46
Thank you, @grimv01k . I assumed it should be kept in a database. What should the PHP form and HTML page look like code wise then? — mxmxwo, Dec 03 '13 at 21:47
For the names, I'd go with `echo array_rand(['Mike', 'John', 'Peter']);` if it's a short list. If it's a long, you can either parse it from a file, include another file or fetch it from the database. Please update your question to reflect what you're looking for. — Francisco Presencia, Dec 03 '13 at 21:47
Thank you, @FranciscoPresencia - how would I go about creating a PHP form that adds the uploaded picture and submitted text to that list? — mxmxwo, Dec 03 '13 at 21:49
It depends, do you want it to be from ANOTHER visitor or would you write manually the names/pictures? — Francisco Presencia, Dec 03 '13 at 21:51
@FranciscoPresencia I would like it to be live so if someone submits the PHP form (image and text) both of those are added to their respective lists automatically, not manually. — mxmxwo, Dec 03 '13 at 21:52
Okay, then you need to go the database route... and that's definitely too long for a simple answer on SO. I'll explain the steps and refer to tutorials. — Francisco Presencia, Dec 03 '13 at 21:53

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:19

1

First you will need to create the html form. I assume you have some basic knowledge about this, so let's assume you do it and post it to post.php. Here you'll need to:

Handle the image.
Insert the name and image reference into the database.
Redirect the user to the landing page (important to avoid refreshing issues like "want to send your data again?").
Fetch a random entry for the database and display it to the user on the landing page.

A few tutorials:

Upload Images Using PHP.
Insert data into database
Pick up a random record from the database Disclaimer: my own question over 1 year ago

However, it's not a 'trivial' task. It'd take few days to someone familiar with the languages, with someoone who is not maybe 1 week provided you start from the ground up.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:19

Community

1
1

answered Dec 03 '13 at 22:03

Francisco Presencia

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Thank you, I will give this a try and update this question when I've gotten further! – mxmxwo Dec 03 '13 at 22:06
Glad to help! It's better that you start a new question since it would actually be a new question. You'll also get more visibility and more answers. – Francisco Presencia Dec 03 '13 at 22:11

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 05 '13 at 23:44

Pull out the data using 

SELECT * FROM table ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 0,1;

Then pull out the 

<?
$sql=mysql_query("SELECT * FROM table ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 0,1;");

while($row=mysql_fetch_array($sql)){

    $name=$row['name'];
    $imagename=$row['imagename'];   


//write the logic here use echo or close and open php using <? and ?>
//giving an example

echo "Name: ".$name."<br>";
echo "<img src='directory/'".$imagename." width='100' height='100'>";

//OR other way

?>
Name : <? echo $name;?><br>

<img src="directory/<? echo $imagename;?>" width="100" height="100">


<?

}
?>

How do I display random text and image from PHP form on refresh?

2 Answers2