Simple Rotating Block Content

Written by Peter Petrik on Mar 24, 2010
in

There are a number of solutions available for management of content display within a block, creating slideshows, tabs, etc. Sometimes a simple rotating message is needed, and can be accomplished with a few lines of code. This example has 4 quotes with css classes that can be further styled in the theme's css.

One of the pre-requisites for entering php code into blocks is enabling PHP filter in admin/build/modules and setting appropriate user permissions. Once in the block edit mode, be sure to choose PHP code as the Input Format.

<?php
$quotes[] = "<div class=\"front-quote-text\">Text1.</div>";
$quotes[] = "<div class=\"front-quote-text\">Text2.</div>";
$quotes[] = "<div class=\"front-quote-text\">Text3.</div>";
$quotes[] = "<div class=\"front-quote-text\">Text4.</div>";
 
srand ((double) microtime() * 1000000);
$randomquote = rand(0,count($quotes)-1);
echo "<div id=\"front-quote\">";
echo $quotes[$randomquote];
echo "</div>";
?>

Comments

Posted by Vaulter (not verified) on May 23, 2010 at 09:59.

more suitable: (code, pre tags not working?)

<?php
$quotes[] = "Text1.";
$quotes[] = "Text2.";
$quotes[] = "Text3.";
$quotes[] = "Text4.";

srand ((double) microtime() * 1000000);
$randomquote = rand(0,count($quotes)-1); ?>

<div id ="front-quote">
<div class ="front-quote-text">
<?php echo $quotes[ $randomquote ]; ?>
</div>
</div>

Posted by Peter Petrik on May 23, 2010 at 13:32.

Yes, that unifies the <div class ="front-quote-text"></div>, leaving the $quotes[] with just the text. My original application required different formating for each quote. Of course, all of this could be done with views if a more robust solution is needed.