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This is going to be in a *.php page.. so I guess I need code for PHP, JAVA, or HTML.

But I am wanting to have small image links to other webcomics, but I would like them to cycle through either timed, or per refresh... either as an ordered list or random... and then with each image that shows, there is a new link associated with that image. I think I used to be able to randomly display images before, but never with changing the  hyperlink.

is this easy to do? does anyone know how to do that, or at least tell me some key words of which I should look for the "how to" myself?

Thanks in advance.

I'll have to watch this thread, as this is something I've been wondering about for a bit myself.

$random = rand(10,13);

if($random == 1) { $logo = "xepher_logo_fredirc.gif"; }
if($random == 2) { $logo = "xepher_logo_nerdboy.png"; }
if($random == 3) { $logo = "xepher_logo_gwyn.gif"; }
if($random == 4) { $logo = "xepher_logo_icy.gif"; }
if($random == 5) { $logo = "xepher_logo_nerdboy2.png"; }
if($random == 6) { $logo = "xepher_logo_technostyle.jpg"; }
if($random == 7) { $logo = "xepher_logo_gwyn2.gif"; }
if($random == 8) { $logo = "xepher_logo_willsan.png"; }
if($random == 9) { $logo = "xepher_logo_databits.gif"; }
if($random == 11) { $logo = "XepherNet.jpg"; }
if($random == 12) { $logo = "XepherNet2.jpg"; }
if($random == 13) { $logo = "XepherNet3.jpg"; }


if($random == 10) { ?>

XEPHER.NET

Free Hosting for Free Thinkers

}else{
echo("");
}

?>That file is http://xepher.net/logos/randomlogo.php and is included at the top of all main xepher.net pages to rotate the logo. You'll note in the code, I'm only using logos 10 through 13, as the other logos were user-submitted years ago, and no longer fit the layout. Logo "10" is a special case, and spits out a two line text logo. Hopefully you can see how you can easily include additional code to change the hyperlink in the same way. Also note this is VERY ugly/primitive code, being that you have to add a line for each new image you add. Of course, it adds a bit of security that way, as no one can trick it into including a file I haven't specifically listed. If I had a ton of images to rotate, I'd write something that just pulls from a directory listing, but as I've yet to do that, I can't actually post code here for it.

or if you wanna be more complex, you could use a database to store image location information in a sequential order, then simply do the random thing between the number of rows in that table, pull that row, and use that image.

Quote from: XepherThat file is http://xepher.net/logos/randomlogo.php and is included at the top of all main xepher.net pages to rotate the logo. You'll note in the code, I'm only using logos 10 through 13, as the other logos were user-submitted years ago, and no longer fit the layout. Logo "10" is a special case, and spits out a two line text logo. Hopefully you can see how you can easily include additional code to change the hyperlink in the same way. Also note this is VERY ugly/primitive code, being that you have to add a line for each new image you add. Of course, it adds a bit of security that way, as no one can trick it into including a file I haven't specifically listed. If I had a ton of images to rotate, I'd write something that just pulls from a directory listing, but as I've yet to do that, I can't actually post code here for it.

Ah yes! Thanks you! this will help when I re-vamp the site and images.

I suppose I could also do this code a few times with seperate sets of images for each, so I can have 2 different Webcomic Links in 2 different spots (so I don't get the same).. though I am sure that doing more would make the load time of the home page much longer...

Quote from: Databitsor if you wanna be more complex, ...

ooh, no no, that's ok ;)

I wouldn't worry about load time increasing if you want to add more stuff. This code is so simple, it takes an order of magnitude longer to actually send the page than it does to process it. And if you want to throw out two random links, just include the file in both places on your actual page.

Lemme give this a shot...

$random = rand(1,3);

if($random == 1) { $img = "comic1.gif"; $link = "http://www.comic1.net"; }
if($random == 2) { $img = "comic2.png"; $link = "http://www.comic-2.net"; }
if($random == 3) { $img = "othercomic.jpg"; $link = "http://www.comic-other.com"; }

echo("");

?>There's a three-way example. Just add more lines and change the "rand(1,3)" to a match the number of lines to scale it up.

Alright.  Thanks!  I'll keep this thread in mind for when I actually implement any randomization.

And yeah...that's plenty complex for me.

Yay, implementation!  

Eventually, I'm trying to have a banner for all my characters, but for now, I only have 4.

Thanks for asking, Fes.  It's always fun to use the answer to someone else's question.

mooch :P

Yup!

New question. How can I make this go in order instead of random?

AND, like that one where it shows text instead of an image, would I be able to show an Image w/link AND text?


I'm thining about that "Xepher.net Comics" cycling image thing I was talking about. That other code is copyrighted and specially made, And I can't really get a hold of the author.

So I'm thinking about using this generator and using it in an iFrame tag, so that it can be clicked back and form within a page, without reloading the main page (also to save the loading time of the main page, the iFrame can load seperately).... unless there is a PHP way to make a reloadable field.

I know I don't know PHP code, but If I can get the basic code, I can do all the tedious work of getting banners and and the list making.

Define what you mean by "in order." If you've got a lot of vistors all showing up, do you want the first one to see image 1, the second see image 2, etc.? Or do you mean some way to track so that each person sees the images in order as they click new pages?

As for the second bit, you can make it output anything you want. It basically just selects a snippit of HTML to spit out. You can make that snippit anything you want, from IMG tags, to text, to links... whatever HTML you want. It's just replacing any of those $variables with the text they're set to. Add more as you need.

If you do it in an iframe, you need to make a full "page" of html around the php code... you know, the HTML and BODY tags and such.

Yea, I know that about the iFrame.

as far as the "order", basically the PHP "random" is a piss poor randomizer. I got a lot of repeats... I want something that will display a differentthing each time until all have been displayed... I mean the first one could be random, but then there should be a Hyperlink to click that will go to the next one in series.... and so on...

see, I'm trying to figure out a way to do a PHP version of that other Java Script one that I can't get permission to use... plus This might be easier if I can get the basic codes.

Am I making sense? I hope I am :P

Is this what you want?
if( isset( $HTTP_COOKIE_VARS['BANNER_NUMBER'] ) )
{
$banner = $HTTP_COOKIE_VARS['BANNER_NUMBER'];
$banner = ($banner + 1) % 3;
}
else
{
$banner = rand(0,2);
}
setcookie( 'BANNER_NUMBER', $banner, time()+(60) );
?>When someone first visits the page, they get a rand() banner.  Then each time they reload it after they get the next banner in series (you'd want to change the (60) in the setcookie to something longer, like (60*60*24*30)).
Demo: http://omega0.xepher.net/stuff/banners.php

If you want to be really tricky, and randomize it further, you could do something like this:
if( isset( $HTTP_COOKIE_VARS['BANNER_ARRAY'] ) ) {
$banners = split( '#', $HTTP_COOKIE_VARS['BANNER_ARRAY'] );
}
else {
$banners = array(0,1,2);
}

if( count($banners) == 1 ) {
$banner = $banners[0];
$newbanners = '0#1#2';
}
else {
shuffle( $banners );
$uns = $banners;
$banner = array_shift($banners);
$newbanners = array_shift($banners);
while( $temp = array_shift($banners) )
{
$newbanners = $newbanners . '#' . $temp;
}
}
setcookie( 'BANNER_ARRAY', $newbanners, time()+(60*60) );What this does, is store a list of undisplayed banners in a cookie like 1#2#3.  On each load, it mixes up the list, pulls of the top one to display now and then stores the remaining choices in a cookie.  So the viewer can't get the first one again until all the others have been viewed, but he won't get them in the same order every time (but you could get a repeat like this: 1,2,3,3,1,2 since after the 1,2,3 they've all been viewed and it could very well start with 3 on the next run through of the list.  With a large list though, this becomes rare, and you could modify the code to exclude the last one when reloading $newbanners with the full list).
Demo: http://omega0.xepher.net/stuff/banners2.php

If you don't care about tracking each user individually (or care about those people who turn off cookies), you can do something like this:
$f = fopen("bannerlist.txt","r");
$banner = fgets($f);
fclose($f);
$f = fopen("bannerlist.txt","w");
$next = ($banner + 1) % 3;
fputs( $f, $next );
fclose($f);
?>All this does is store the value of what the next banner should be in a text file and does open, read, increment, save on each load.  And you could always combine #2 and #3.

Demo: http://omega0.xepher.net/stuff/banners3.php
The text file is: http://omega0.xepher.net/stuff/bannerlist.txt

So, does any of this do what you want?

And does anyone know a simpler way for what I did in #2?  I can't believe that (in a perl-like language no less) there wouldn't be an easy array->string converter.

The PHP random does a pretty good randomization. Of course, with any small-ish set of options, true random IS a lot of repeats. Obviously that's not what you want though. I think Omega's suggestions here are pretty good to do what you want. He also showed you both ways (per-user/cookie based selection, and site-wide with the bannerlist.txt, which were what I was asking about in my earlier post) so just figure out which one works for your needs and try it out.

And no, I don't know of a better way to do array->string off hand, though I'm sure there must be one... there always is, no matter what function I'm trying to do. :-)

Ok, the cookie thing would be ok, (#2) but what about when the block cookies? does it just randomly pick a new banner each reload? Also, how does #3 work? I mean, it looks like it may need to make a new file for each and every visitor, or that every visitor shares the same file?

Also, I can't tell from your code where you put the code to say what to display "Banner 2 gets displayed this time" etc...

might it be something like this? :

if($banner== 1) { ?>



A description of above site.

if($banner== 2) { ?>



A description of above site.

if($banner== 3) { ?>



A description of above site.and where would this be placed?




Personally, I was thinking of a pre-set list of sites, with the first one being randomly picked (which I think does not need cookies, thus less searching and loading?), along with links for "Previous" and "Next" to go along the given list.... also, as a new thought, I'll also need a link that will point

Also, the thing is that , for people to be able to put this onto their HTM pages, this is going to be a seperate page, so people can have an iframe code. I'm going to have a button link within the iframe'd page to reload itself... that or I was going make a link for "next" in the list. How would I make a "next" link in PhP for this banner array?

I mean with that in mind I could do it with a bunch of HTM pages and code, but I'm sure it would take a much longer loading time and a ton of extra space and code.... to what would certianly be a something horrifically archaic to the both of you.




ok, here,  this I was just thinking about doing:
(http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l40/fesworks/sample-3.jpg)

The "<<" and ">>" would be linking to "Previous" and "Next" on the given list.

Inbetween that would be static text and/or a custom Xepher.net image with some sort of moto or such like I have listed there.

Under that would be where the banner and description would be. The banner will carry the link to that site.

under that is my new idea and "Link1", "Link2", "Link3", and "Link4" would point to different list sets (either as a different page altogether or just a different TEXT LIST (which I think is what you were talking about). The lists would be like what is one Xepher.net.... one link for "Art", one for "Comics", one for "Fiction", and one for "Others"... and if they click on "Comics" while already on the comics list, it could just pick something from the list at random.



ok, I hope that is descriptive enough, and not too complicated. Those multiple link sets are the new idea, so that is an extra thought.

Also, I greatly thank everyone for their help with this! I don't mean to look all needy/difficult because I can't do this myself : When I can piece everything together (including either snatching or creating banners for all sites here). I'll post it. I think this could be a really cool addition for those that would like to pimp other xepher sites in an interactive way.


Unless I'm making this more complicated than it needs too be :P

>> Ok, the cookie thing would be ok, (#2) but what about when the block cookies?
When cookies are disabled, it follows the else-branch from the isset() and chooses a random one from the full list.

>> Also, how does #3 work? I mean, it looks like it may need to make a new file for each and every visitor, or that every visitor shares the same file?
One file.  Visitor 1 gets banner one, Visitor 2 gets banner 2, Visitor 3 gets banner 3, Visitor 4 gets banner 1 and so on.  There's just one current banner, whoever loads the page next gets it.

>>Also, I can't tell from your code where you put the code to say what to display "Banner 2 gets displayed this time" etc...
My code just sets a variable $banner which later in the page is used in the if's to display the text; I think you have the right idea in your code (though I've never used that construction in PHP).  Since cookies have to be set before any output occurs, the banner selection code is at the top of the file and the if's come later where the banner is supposed to go.  The link at the end of this post shows the code I used.

>>How would I make a "next" link in PhP for this banner array?
With HTTP_POST_VARS[] overriding the cookie or random behavior.  If the current banner is #2, The next link would be something like "bannerbox.php?banner=3"  The code would be something like
if isset( HTTP_POST_VARS['banner'] then $banner = HTTP_POST_VARS['banner']
else $banner = COOKIE or random as previously

Demo: http://omega0.xepher.net/stuff/bannerbox.php
Code: http://omega0.xepher.net/stuff/bannerbox.txt

Far as I'm concerned... if a user has cookies blocked, they're morons and they shouldn't be on the net anyhow.

Contrary to belief, there is nothing insecure about having a website set a cookie in your web browser. The only problem is when some dumb sites store sensitive information in their cookies, which even in that case, other sites can't read that information anyhow.

It's under the same situation as people who disable Javascript for security, also really dumb. There's a lot of commerce sites that make use of things like Ajax, which is impossible for people to use when they have no Javascript. People shouldn't need to set their sites up to give leeway to those who don't really know what they're talking about and wanna disable everything thinking it'll stop the virus from getting on their computer while they browse porn and download illegal software.

Fes: I think Omega answered your question(s) again, so I'll let you digest that before adding more. Don't worry about asking too many questions though, we're glad to help. What you're trying to do is actually quite simple, once you get down to it. It's actually probably harder to explain than to do. The trick is getting all the code details right (like which bracket goes where.) As I don't program all the time, I know concepts just fine, but I forget syntax when I'm just winging it or pasting snippets, so if something I've given you doesn't work, often I've just overlooked some stupid detail. Perhaps if I get some free time later, I can actually write out an effective script for what you want to do. Can't promise anything though.

Data: Blocking cookies doesn't really improve anti-virus measures, but it does help with your privacy, if you're the sort to be concerned about that. Many ad/banner companies send cookies with with ads, effectively giving you a fingerprint. As you browse around other places, they track your usage patterns for market research. Some people feel that's an invasion of their privacy, and block cookies. Now, that said, if something's broken because you're blocking cookies indiscriminately, that's your own dang fault! :-)

Haha, Actually I block every single thing that pops up unless I need to log in to the site :P (I have it ask every time).


as far as the code. Well, I'll see what I can do with what I can figure out from these code pieces. But from this point I think I'll be able to make something. I'll need to work on it later in the week though.

Thank again for the ongoing help, and don;t worry about me asking questions.... because I sure will ;) :P

Oh man, I looked at that code... all of the codes... I just can't wrap my head around how to place ANY of it in a proper sequence, let along get it to place images! I know nothing about PHP unless its already in place and works, I can modify it... But I just can't figure this out!

All the images should exist in the same folder... all of the comics with their image and text should be listed in it's own array....

(http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l40/fesworks/Clipboard02-3.jpg)
(opps, forgot to change the bottom images brackets to "Prev" and "Next")

Can't I just give one of you $20 (all I can do) to figure out the base code for this in a cookie-less, extra text file-less (if possible) code? I can be more exact and descriptive if needed... I just need the base, and I can plug all the individual banner img addresses and text phrases in.. I just need an exaple and placement markings.

If not possible I'll try and troll the internet for pre-made ones I can used, or do the whole thing in HTML and a 75 pages or something.

I just can't piece all of these PHP code fragments together. Sorry! I don'r mean to be so difficult sounding!

I can do it when I get a little bit of free time... probably tomorrow or saturday. Don't worry about the money, I help when I can. Besides, I need similar code for some of my own stuff in the future, so it wouldn't hurt me to have some snippets lying around.

Let me see if I've got the details straight first though:

1. Main image and text. These always go together... that is, a particular image always has a specific text block with it. Image & Description. These get shown...

2. ...Randomly on first view. Next + Previous buttons let people flip though them in order.

3. (This is the one I'm confused on.) You obviously want it to not show the same image over and over to the same person if they're viewing a lot of pages with the banner code in it. How do you want it to work though. Do you want it to rotate per person? (In which the script saves it's current position in a cookie) Or rotate for the site as a whole? (which would involve storing the current position in a small file.) You says cookie-less and file-less, but you really have to have one or the other unless you resort to URL trickery, with the code adding something like "index.php?session_id=297597829adf7897f09a0dfjd9d77" to each URL and link on your site. I don't think you want that. I'd suggest the cookie method, as it should work best for about 90-95% of people.

4. The buttons at the bottom (comics, art, fiction, other)... how do they work? I notice that they highlight based on the category of the current image displayed, but does the function change? That is, does it do something different when I click based on what image is showing, or is it the same link all the time?

Let me know on those, and I'll see what I can whip up for you.

1) Yep

2) Yep

3) My plan was for the think to be only shown on a sinlge page (home page or Links page... where evern other Xepherers would like to put them if they'd want one).... I planned to have all the code on a PHP page that could be iframed for loading and re-coding effieniency.

All I was thinking is that the first one would be randomly picked from the list (on first load and on refresh). Then just go in order from there and go back to the top of the list once you get to the end.

I don;t think that cookies would be needed because a list would be big enough for a decent random pick anyway, and should streamline the code and loading if it does not need to check a cookie somewhere.


4) Basically, i'm thinking of List sorting... "Arrays" are they? Like the link box would always start on "Comics", and then the random image/text set will be shown from a list or array of sets of just listed webcomics on Xepher.... You click "Art" and a new random image/text set will be selected from a list or array of only Art sites on Xepher.

Now I'm saying it like this because I'm assuming that having a sepperate list would be helpful with checking codes.

Like:

IF click "Comics" GOTO "ComicsLIST"
IF click "Art" GOTO "ArtLIST"
IF click "Fiction" GOTO "FictionLIST"
IF click "Comics" GOTO "OtherssLIST"


LABEL ComicsLIST"
comic_1_Image
comic_1_Text
etc..
END GOTO "ComicsLIST"

LABEL  "ArtLIST"
Fiction_1_Image
Fiction_1_Text
etc..
END GOTO "ArtLIST"

LABEL "FictionLIST"
Fiction_1_Image
Fiction_1_Text
etc..
END GOTO "FictionLIST"

LABEL "OtherssLIST"
Others_1_Image
Others_1_Text
etc..
END GOTO "OtherssLIST"

At least that is what I was thinking... and then when one clicks NEXT or PREV they stay in that list. I'm guessing they may need to have different pages for seperate lists, But I don't know.


5) You know how the Xepher News Box is Editable? Well, If I make it an iframe, it may not work that well like that, so I'm probably make different pages. One for each of trhe four categories to start with. So an art site can link to the page that starts with the art section.


I'm sure this could be done like the Xepher news box.... all the code at the tope of the page with that one line to place it where you'd like it.. customize colors? But that, I'm sure is a bit fancier and more involved coding.... Not meaning to get really complicated! I mean, I originally meant it to be a simple alternative/addition to the texty Xepher New Box.  I really wanted to better visually promote the Xepher.Net webcomic community :D

I've actually had plans for a while to eventually integrate images into the Site Descriptions you can set for your site, and they'd show up in the newsbox instead of just a text description. Also some code to make it so you can see different banners/text BEFORE selecting a site to go to from the dropdown. I just never got around to it.

Okay, on item 4... I think I know what you want now. You used more technical terms than I want to guess at. I don't speak programming, I just know what I want in plain english. :-) On that note, you want people to click the "art" button, and have it load a random art banner/text, at which point next/prev buttons would flip through only art sites. Similar situation for the other buttons. Is that right?

As for customization, as per the XN newsbox... It's doable. Though for this idea, I'm not sure you want it. If site owners can change the colors and what not, you end up with radically different looks. So one artist designs their banner to go with how they have their box laid out, but then it shows up on another site and looks totally out of place. Or someone sets it to white-on-white or something. I'd say just make it as as simple as possible, but keep it standardized.

About embedability... that is, putting it as part of the actual page like the newsbox: That only works (via PHP) on one server, since all the boxes would get displayed by the same server, it can do that. To enable it to be done on other servers, you need iframes, javascript, or another server with a rather insecure PHP installation that allows inserting code from remote servers. Bottom line is that anyone can use an iframe, only people with pages in PHP can use a direct PHP insertion.

Quote from: XepherI've actually had plans for a while to eventually integrate images into the Site Descriptions you can set for your site, and they'd show up in the newsbox instead of just a text description. Also some code to make it so you can see different banners/text BEFORE selecting a site to go to from the dropdown. I just never got around to it.

Well I was hoping to make something like that because your text version is boring :P but, alas, coding this stuff is not my forté.

Quote from: XepherOkay, on item 4... I think I know what you want now. You used more technical terms than I want to guess at. I don't speak programming, I just know what I want in plain english. :-) On that note, you want people to click the "art" button, and have it load a random art banner/text, at which point next/prev buttons would flip through only art sites. Similar situation for the other buttons. Is that right?

Yes.

Quote from: XepherAs for customization, as per the XN newsbox... It's doable. Though for this idea, I'm not sure you want it. If site owners can change the colors and what not, you end up with radically different looks. So one artist designs their banner to go with how they have their box laid out, but then it shows up on another site and looks totally out of place. Or someone sets it to white-on-white or something. I'd say just make it as as simple as possible, but keep it standardized.

k

Quote from: XepherAbout embedability... that is, putting it as part of the actual page like the newsbox: That only works (via PHP) on one server, since all the boxes would get displayed by the same server, it can do that. To enable it to be done on other servers, you need iframes, javascript, or another server with a rather insecure PHP installation that allows inserting code from remote servers. Bottom line is that anyone can use an iframe, only people with pages in PHP can use a direct PHP insertion.

Well I was thinking that people would just get the iframe code from me, so they would not have to worry about uploading the image sets or whatnot... and people could just iframe it to a PHP page on my account, so if I need to add a newly approved account, I could easily change it for everyone without having people bothering with the code again.

If you know what I'm talking about... basicaly make it easy for others to implement, so they would be more inclined to do add it to their site.


I mean, if you want to take these ideas and use it for your new News Box, go right ahead, The only part that would be difficult would be the image display, which would mean that by how people have the news box on their site, the images would have to be Avatar size instead of Banner size, like that Cornstalker thing I showed you earlier..

You may also try storing image data in the database. Since databases are much faster than just straight file system access, and benchmarks for images in a database are surprisingly fast. The only issue you run into then is writing a serving script (which really isn't hard to do) to pull the image from the db and give the correct image headers. In which case you can just tell a query to pull one at random I'm sure.

Then you'd have something like this for images on your site:

On a side note, the standard php mysql connection stuff is really a pain in the butt to use and not very friendly. I would suggest to use something like PEAR::MDB2 if Xepher would install it. It's really a kick ass setup and makes a TON of things easier, and the best part is you can change up the database back end on your site and need to make few code changes most the time.

Funny, I've never had a problem with the standard MySQL functions... but maybe it's just a case of not knowing what I'm missing. As for PEAR::MDB2... like VIM, just ask, and I can usually install most things. For this particular project though, I think I'm just going to write a simple little script with flat file (or maybe sqlite) storage. I want something fes can understand and tweak if he wants. Later, when I implement something for the site as a whole, I may do some more advanced stuff. I've consider image storage in database blobs for a while now, but I read pros and cons about it, so I'll wait for the right place/time to do it.

Okay, I've got code that does your banner exchange EXCEPT for categories. I went to tack on the categories and hit a small bump, so I may rewrite the whole thing, but if I do, it's going to be rather more complex. As such, I wanted to go ahead and post this simple-yet-ugly version for you to look at and maybe learn from while it's still possible to deduce what things are doing.

Working example at http://xepher.xepher.net/Banners/banner.php

Code for that file is http://xepher.xepher.net/Banners/banner-source.php


Now, back to trying categories... to database or not to database, that is the question. :-)

Hey, even without the additiona categories that's fine. Since it seems like you had a similar idea for the news box already (if I understood you right).

I can use this as the original idea as the Xepher Comic thingee (to start) at least.

Thanks! I'll work on this :D

Hey someone said I could do something on my computer so I can run PHP.... right now I just basically keep uploading it to my account to view changes.... how do I make Frontpage or Dreamweaver perform the PHP code (if possible)?

Cool! I'm getting the hang of this code now!

Now that daunting (sp?) task of copy-pasting descriptions and making Banners.

... heh... Nerdboy :P

It's not really possible to do that... not easily anyway. You can run a webserver on your local computer, but it's a major pain. I'd suggest editing the code on the server itself. You log in through SSH and then you can run a command line editor. It's good for small/quick changes, but if you're doing a major edit, it's probably easier just to reupload. I personally use SSHFS, which lets me mount a remote server directory via SSH as though it were a local folder. If you're not using linux or something similar I don't know where to point you though.


Now, I think I've redone a much better script in the past few hours. The actual output is ugly as sin, but that's the part I assume you're going to tweak. The code itself is a lot more functional, allowing you to upload images and descriptions, and delete things from a web interface, as well as get a quick thumbnail-ish view (it doesn't actually thumbnail, but just lays them out the same way) of all the banners. It's not perfected yet, but I'm tired tonight, and it's mostly functional. I'd like you to go play with it and find out what's still broken, and then I'll fix it tomorrow.

The display code. http://xepher.xepher.net/Banners/bannerDB.php which doesn't have many banners installed yet, so it doesn't really show much.

The admin interface is accessed by adding "?admin=1" to the file's url. http://xepher.xepher.net/Banners/bannerDB.php?admin=1 It's set up to ask you for a password on initial install, and after that require you to login (with cookies) in order to add or delete banners/descriptions. The current password is "slingshot" so you can try it out where it sits.

The raw code for the file is viewable at http://xepher.xepher.net/Banners/bannerDB-source.php if you want to copy it to your own folder and start playing with it. You mainly just need to edit the "$baseurl" variable to tell it where it sits, and it should install itself from there. Note that the admin view uses a lot of fancy graphics and some javascript files that are located in my particular install. You don't need them for it to work, but if you want them, you can just download them from my install with the "save as" thing or I can make you a zip file of all of it sometime tomorrow. You can pretty easily strip out the java/pics or replace them with your own if you want. If you try your own copy and get it screwed up, delete the database file "banners.sqlite" and it will start back at the install screen and ask you for a new password.

Oh, if anyone else wants to play around with it, feel free to log in and add your own fake banners to see how it works. Let me know if you find bugs.

Hmm... one more thing. There's a couple bits of code leftover from my image catalog program. Two variables, $width and $height which are set to 400 and 200 respectively right now. If you decide to go with different sized banners, you may want to change those to match, or it could make some of the stuff look funky.

Aww man, and after I just got to Schwarz Kreuz! (3rd comic, I skipped a disabled site ;) )

I'll check this new code later. For now I'm going to stick to making some more banners.

No problem... I think you'll like the new script a lot better, as it doesn't require you to edit any code to add or delete banners/members.

Ok, I'll looking into that more. I was actually planning on using basic 468x60 banners for this.

That admin section is wild though 0_0

cool :D


This is all I have been working with so far:
http://fesworks.xepher.net/Banners/banner.php

getting descriptions and banners going ;)

Xepher. Can you give me an official "Xepher" font? I'm going to try something with some images, and would like a uniform font for things representing Xepher.Net

Still using the older, first code you presented, I made a page with an iframe to display it.
http://fesworks.xepher.net/Banners/Display.htm


I finally checked the new code.... code shock o_0
I'll have to definetly tackle that after the PSI and Ardra updates this Mon and Wed.

Still really awesome! thanks for helping so much!



EDIT: Actually, for the time being, it's been kinda fun making the banners! I've been going in order as listed on the Xepher Site Directory, and descriptions... adjusting them slightly.


DAMN PHP! hpw come PHP can't produce special characters? I've noticed this with "©" and "ñ" thus far... Remedies?

Wow, finding a few sites that have not been updated for nearly 9 months to a year :/


(boy, I'm blabbing a lot :P )




EDIT:

All done with the comic list:
http://fesworks.xepher.net/Banners/Display.htm

I excluded the disabled account ones, a couple I deemed as "art" because there were not actual webcomic on the site, and I also excluded Two comic sites had their entire archive taken down. I only e-mailed one of them.

I included ones that seemed to have not updated since summer of 2006 or earlier (for at least archive purposes at this time.)

If you would like a semi-comprehensive list of the sites in question just ask.

I may get that list from you at some point in the near future, but I don't have time to deal with dead accounts right now, since they don't really hurt anything by being there.

Official font: Umm... there's not really one. The one currently in the logos on the main site is "Dragonwick" but that's not really something suitable for paragraph text (or really anything but logos) due to it's weirdly sized capitals. What is it you're wanting to do?

Code Shock: Well, as you can see, I didn't document much of it either, as I'm not really planning for you to change much of it. Really only the bit at the end where it actually outputs the HTML, and a few minor settings like the $baseurl one. Ask all the questions you want and I can try to help you understand it though.

PHP and special characters: PHP does unicode just fine. Show me an examples of what works in a normal webpage, but doesn't work in php, and I'll figure out how to set it up. Usually you just need to use UTF-8 for the character set. The two characters you mention, are they showing up okay in the forum here? I see a circle-c (copyright) and an "n" with a ~ (wiggle line) over it. If that's correct, then you should note that this forum is PHP and uses UTF-8 character encoding.


Something weird... the banners for PSI and Nerdboy don't show up in my browser (Firefox 2.0.0.1) and I also note they're the only two .gif banners. Both images work fine if I view their URL directly though. I have no idea why that is.

No they never work on a PHP page like on a website. ALT+0241 prints a "ñ" in the HTML code part when I edit the PHP page, but it shows up as a "?" when online. So I guess I need to know how to make it so the PHP pages, when I edit them, that they show up... the GARNET webcomic's description should say "(Tambien en Español)", but what prints one online is "(Tambien en Espa?ol)"


That is wierd with the GIFs... when I get a chance, I'll make JPEGs.


RE: Code Shock RE: yea, I figured as much, but I was on a roll with the old code. I'll look at the new stuff later.


What am I planning to do? Well, I kinda wanted to make a slightly more visual Site directory, starting with webcomic. Figured I'd get some uniform text images of the Xepher Name on a page listing all the webcomics (then the Art section perhaps, though it'd get a bit harder to properly work out from there). Not trying to go over your head or anything, I'd just thought it'd cool to work on when I have free time here and there.

Okay, so you just want the word "Xepher.Net" in a font for the page header or some such? If it's a logo/header type thing, just go with Dragonwick, as per the graphic logos from the main page. Don't worry about "going over my head." I mean, for one, there IS no one over my head. :-) I encourage community effort, and it seems like a great idea... I just don't want you (or anyone that's putting in time/effort for the community) to get upset if I don't particularly like their idea or design... or if I make it obsolete by doing my own "official" version in the future. Like the banner exchange thing, I probably WILL do an "official" version of that at some point in the future, and I don't want you to be offended or feel like I'm pulling the rug out from under your hard work. Don't get me wrong, I try to keep people involved, and even if I do make something more official, I'll probably ask you to manage it (if you're still interested at that time) or otherwise help. Yet it's also entirely possible that I'll completely redesign the layout or look to better match the future site, thus "invalidating" a lot of work you've done.

Now, that said, if you're okay with that possibility, feel free to work on this and do it however you want for now. Ask me whatever you want, and I'll try and help you as best as I can too. One small note, I don't know if you're actually contacting site owners about this or not. I would suggest you should get people's permission (and possibly approval on banner/description) before putting them into this in any sort of finalized way. Don't worry about it while you're just testing and and working on it, but before you make it live, it needs to be an opt-in thing.

Actually, I was planning on saying more than just "Xepher.Net" and more along the lines of a whole tagline like "Xepher.net Webcomics" or "Xepher.Net Artist Alley" etc. But I'll try to see how they'll look, which it might since it's planned as a "header".

And don;t worry about making something better. If this sort of things gets you inspired to do it yourself, go for it :P I just think I could boost visitors by putting some purty pictures along with the text ;) Some people don;t even realize this is a "Free Thinker" comminity as much as some sort of host service like Stormpages or something, though mysteriously without ads.

Once I get this banner exchange done, I'll be emailing everyone if they'd want to change their Banner (because I basically made all but like 2 banners ;) ) or their description. Then I'll ask that people place the iframe code in their Links section and/or their front page (purely voluntary, I'm not going to remove anyone from the list if they don't post it.... just means I won't feature or showcase it on the "Hub Page").


So yea, Just an ambitious project I have... while it's not really in my "authority", I get these ideas from time to time and run with it! But if end up making it obsolette or whatnot, do it ;) If you have ideas here and there after I get mine up, I'll see what I can do! :D I'm still a quite a ways from full completion.





Also, is there a uniform font size that won;t change between IE and Firefox? Everything I make look good for Firefox it like 1 whole point small on IE... : Conversely (right word?) Comixpedia is written for IE, so everything is one point BIGGER on Firefox :

I mean, visitors will have various browsers... can I tell the code to display the size in pixels instead? That's uniform right? All I know is < font size=3 > etc... and that means "Points" I believe.

Don't specify scalable elements (such as fonts) in pixels, as a general rule. Image sizes are fine, because images ARE sized in pixels. Use font point sizes... in CSS, you should use the absolute length elements to do what you want. http://htmlhelp.com/reference/css/units.html#length If you were specifying anything BUT font, I'd suggest the "em" or "ex" unit, but since it's the font itself you want to be absolute, probably use "pt." The reason to use units like that, is that they'll scale for different display resolutions. If you say "12 pixels" it looks large enough to read on 800x600 maybe, but if someone has a 1920x1200 monitor (I'm about to buy one) it would be stupidly tiny and unreadable.

Hmm... thinking on that, and I think I see your problem. If the font scales at all, it's going to break stride (as it were) with the banner size. Generally speaking, is a really a big deal if one browser shows it a little bigger/smaller? Maybe make it with enough spare room that it doesn't visually break things if it's tweaked a tad. Keep in mind, if you use a font like Dragonwick, most people won't have it, so it won't show up for them anyway, and will look WAY different.

Alrighty, I'll play with those settings then.

Well, What I do, since I know a lot of people DON'T browse with IE, I size everything to look nice at a maximum in Firefox. THAT way, when someone uses IE, it becomes smaller (instead of bigger) and does not mess up maximum set boundaries in line breaks, cells, tables and coordination with images.

And as far as cool fonts... I never uses them in plain text (unless you can force load them to viewers), because people just will not have them, then your site looks like crap because its the lame default font. So I always use images for cool fonts.




OOOO!!! OOOO!!!

Is there a way to detect the browser and then change the font size accordingly? Probably need cookies for that...  I've come this far to avoid cookies, and I'm not going to start :P.

MWAHAHAHAHAHA!

*goes back to chiseling in stone*

You don't need cookies, you can do it with PHP (or javascript) Google "user-agent headers" to see how to do it.

Hi, I don't have a Xepher account, though I want to help =)

I played with the html source from http://fesworks.xepher.net/Banners/Display.htm, specifically the page for Garnet.  However I didn't know what PHP source you were using so I couldn't play with that.

In regards to installing a webserver on your own computer for PHP testing, you can find some all-in-one installers which make it easy.  I use apache friends xampp (http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html); it's a combined installation of Apache with options for PHP 4 and 5, MYSQL, Filezilla FTP and Mercury Email.

For the special characters such as the wavy n and copyright, how are you entering them?  The ASCII codes seem to work: &#241; for the n and &#169; for the c.

Font sizes vary depending on browser due to default settings.  I think FF has a bigger default setting than IE.  If you set font size in em or pt like Xepher suggested it should be the same.

With cool fonts that no one has on their computer, in CSS font-family, you can specify a list of fonts for the browser.  Something like font-family: "Cool font", "Cool, yet common font", "Uncool font", general font-family;

The HTML source for the banner was messy, so I tried to clean it up, and ended up making it XHTML valid for some reason.  Stuff like the DOCTYPE, title, img alt, and meta tag aren't really needed for this, but make it valid.  Using CSS looks like a good idea though, as you can chop out all the tags.  (I added a space to the n ASCII to make it display in the code, remove it and it'll make the n)

Code Select Expand

  "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">








 
   
   
   
 
 
   
 
 
   
 

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A dark, romantic story about a girl who, trying to save a man, follows a demon/vampire to another dimension and gets involved in a war between demons and humans. (Tambien en Espa&# 241ol )

I hope I've been helpful and not just random =)