PHP Gallery Revolve image effect?

[edd90]

Hi all,

Quick question - i am just learning the basics of php and trying to understand what it can do. I was wondering that if i had a site with a large picture could php change the image continually (like a gallery effect but without the user having to click next picture all the time).

Maybe on a timed loop? - i know i could just make a flash swf, embed it and leave it constantly playing on a loop, but i am hoping that php can do this for me. Ideally so that if i wish to add newer pictures i would not have to create a new flash file, maybe just upload them into a folder which php can retrieve the images from??

Any thoughts or ideas would be really appreciated!

Cheers _ Edd

[ljm]

PHP itself cannot do the slideshow effect, as a page refresh would be required each time to load the next image. Your best bet is to use something like JavaScript and XML (the XML file generated by PHP). The PHP generated XML file would get the contents of the image directory and put it into a format that can easily be read by JavaScript. Or so I think.

Either way, PHP alone will not do the trick.

[Steax]

PHP is a server-side programming language - it processes things on your end, not on the user's end. Imagine a posting system. A letter sent by someone will be forwarded to some address. Now, if a letter has been sent, the sender no longer has any control over that letter. If he/she needs to modify the letter for some reason, the only method would be to resend the letter. The same applies here; PHP has no control over the client's browser.

You will need Javascript - probably in a library - to do this.

PHP on its own is more like a data processor. It processes data at the server (based on any information you hand it, like form data or sessions) and just sends it back. It allows for complex things to be done by the server, without effecting the client in any way. That's the function of PHP. It also outputs static data that is sent back - usually HTML, but it can be anything.

[edd90]

Hi ljm and Steax,
Cheers for this - looks like there is something else i need to learn! I dont suppose you have any examples of this OR websites youve seen that use techniques like this??
How difficult is something like this to learn in javascript? Know any good tutorials for javascripting??
Cheers _ Edd

[Steax]

Ok, javascript is something somewhat different from PHP, but in concept is a fairly simple language. It's OOP system is different from PHP (prototype-based), and the libraries use objects a lot, so I think you should learn javascript first.

My JS library of choice is jQuery, which is very flexible but can be hard to learn if you're new to JS. It's plugin Innerfade does what you want.

[Shadowfiend]

Other frameworks include Prototype (complemented by the script.aculo.us animation framework) and YUI. Ext is a very expansive widget and utility library on top of either Prototype, jQuery, or YUI (your choice). I'm starting to like Ext more and more, especially now that I know that it runs fine on top of Prototype (my framework of choice) :-)

[Steax]

I'm starting to like EXT, although it's programming is pretty complex and I'm using it only for my more complex web apps. It's just too big to use on standard pages.

[Shadowfiend]

Oh yeah. It's definitely huge. Lots of complexity there. But it's actually relatively well-documented, which is nice.