vb.org Archive - Automatically refreshing banner images using PHP

Good afternoon,
I'm fairly new to vB and PHP but I'm willing to learn.

I'm trying to code some PHP which will display a sponsor/banner graphic in my header template on my forum.

I've read about how to create a plugin to load an external PHP file and that is working, I tried it by simply having it echo a line with an img tag.

The problem comes with wanting to show a sequence of different sponsor/banners. I've come up with the following code:

PHP Code:


		
			
<?php



// Format of the array items is as follows, separated with a pipe:

// URL to the sponsors site

// URL of the image file

// Width of banner

// Height of banner

// Is banner a flash file. 1 = yes, 0 = no



$the_banner_array[0] = "http://www.example.com/|images/sponsorlogos/largeone.gif|500|60|0";

$the_banner_array[1] = "http://www.example.com/|images/sponsorlogos/gradbanner02.gif|||0";

$the_banner_array[2] = "http://www.example.com/|images/sponsorlogos/gradbanner100x100.jpg|100|100|0";

$the_banner_array[3] = "http://www.example.com/|images/sponsorlogos/bigger468x60.gif|||0";

$the_banner_array[4] = "http://www.example.com/|images/sponsorlogos/gradbanner600x100.png|||0";

$the_banner_array[5] = "http://www.example.com/|images/sponsorlogos/flash600x100.swf|600|100|1";





// Repeat through the array of banner



for($banner_count = 0; $banner_count < count($the_banner_array); $banner_count++){





// Explode the banner found banner item string



$exploded_banner = explode("|",$the_banner_array[$banner_count]);

$the_banner_clickthru_url = $exploded_banner[0];

$the_banner_image_url = $exploded_banner[1];

$the_banner_image_width = $exploded_banner[2];

$the_banner_image_height = $exploded_banner[3];

$the_banner_is_flash = $exploded_banner[4];



echo "<div id=\"allforumsbanner\" style=\"text-align: center;>\"<a href=\"$the_banner_clickthru_url\" target=\"_blank\"><img src=\"$the_banner_image_url\" width=\"$the_banner_image_width\" height=\"$the_banner_image_height\" border=\"0\"></a></div><br><br>";





}





?>

So, we have an array, which I populate with the banner data, I then iterate through the array and using the echo command get the banner displayed.

There are a couple of issues I need help with. I need to display one banner at a time and not all of them, one after another, as is currently happening. For example, I want to display the first banner, then wait a number of seconds, then replace the existing banner image with the next one (or possibly even a random one, I don't think it matters too much) from the array.

Any help greatly appreciated.

X vBulletin 3.8.12 by vBS Debug Information
Page Generation 0.02643 seconds Memory Usage 1,726KB Queries Executed 10 (?)
More Information
Template Usage: (1)ad_footer_end (1)ad_footer_start (1)ad_header_end (1)ad_header_logo (1)ad_navbar_below (1)bbcode_php_printable (1)footer (1)gobutton (1)header (1)headinclude (6)option (1)post_thanks_navbar_search (1)printthread (3)printthreadbit (1)spacer_close (1)spacer_open Phrase Groups Available: global postbit showthread	Included Files: ./printthread.php ./global.php ./includes/init.php ./includes/class_core.php ./includes/config.php ./includes/functions.php ./includes/class_hook.php ./includes/modsystem_functions.php ./includes/class_bbcode_alt.php ./includes/class_bbcode.php ./includes/functions_bigthree.php Hooks Called: init_startup init_startup_session_setup_start init_startup_session_setup_complete cache_permissions fetch_threadinfo_query fetch_threadinfo fetch_foruminfo style_fetch cache_templates global_start parse_templates global_setup_complete printthread_start bbcode_fetch_tags bbcode_create bbcode_parse_start bbcode_parse_complete_precache bbcode_parse_complete printthread_post printthread_complete
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