vb.org Archive - vBulletin CMS Widgets - Photopost Pro Random Image Widget

Hey all,

One of the things that I missed from my transition from Drupal to vBCMS was my Photopost random image block. It's one of the features that my visitors seem to really like as well. After some trial and error, I managed to create a working vBCMS widget that utilizes the "Random Image Anywhere" code submitted by Garrynz on the Photopost site.

Now, I will say that I am not a huge fan of the way that Garrynz's code works (variables are defined in the code rather than looking at the config files), but it's a quick and dirty way to get this work. In no way are your database details visible to anybody, so don't worry - it's more of an aesthetic thing than a security thing.

Anyway, to utilize this widget, follow these steps:

1. Go into your AdminCP, vBulletin CMS, Widgets, and click on "Add New Widget"
2. Create a new widget of type "PHP Direct Execution" and name it what you want. This name gets used in the header of the widget. I chose "Random Image."
3. Paste the following code in, making changes for your specific environment:

PHP Code:


		
			
$host  = 'database_server'; 

$dbUser = 'database_user';   

$dbPass = 'database_password'; 

$db = 'database_name'; 

mysql_connect("$host", "$dbUser", "$dbPass") or die(mysql_error());

mysql_select_db("$db") or die(mysql_error());



ob_start();



$result = mysql_query("SELECT id,cat,bigimage FROM pp_photos order by rand() LIMIT 1" ) or die(mysql_error());   

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

print "<div align=\"center\"><a href=\"photos/showphoto.php/photo/" . $row['id'] . "\"><img src=\"photos/data/" . $row['cat'] . "/thumbs/" .  $row['bigimage'] . "\"></a><br /><a href=\"/gallery\">See more photos in the Gallery</a></div>";

}



$output .= ob_get_contents();

ob_end_clean();

Important Notes:

Make sure you make the widget be a "PHP Direct Execution" widget! If you don't, none of this will work!
Make sure you enter your database information correctly! Check your photopost config files if you've forgotten it. The correct syntax for the entries should be something like this:
$host = 'localhost'; (with the entry in apostrophes and a semi-colon at the end)
If your Photopost tables don't have the pp_ prefix, you'll need to alter the code to reflect your prefix.
Make sure the URL to your gallery is set correctly after the print statement. In my case, since my gallery runs in a subdomain, my own print statement looks something like this:

PHP Code:

print "<div align=\"center\"><a href=\"http://gallery.njpinebarrens.com/showphoto.php/photo/" . $row['id'] . "\"><img src=\"http://gallery.njpinebarrens.com/data/" . $row['cat'] . "/thumbs/" . $row['bigimage'] . "\"></a><br /><a href=\"/gallery\">See more photos in the Gallery</div>";
The output is wrapped in a div that's centered. Feel free to change that to your liking.
Again, this will not run out of the box without some customization on your part! But I hope it's fairly straightforward to understand.
SEO vs Non-SEO Friendly URL's:
Photopost lets you use "Spider-Friendly URL's." There's three different options, spider, SEO, and none. I personally use spider on my Photopost site and the code I have above works fine. If you have your URL's set to "none" you'll need to use slightly different code. In that case, use this alternate print statement. (Replace the one in the code above with this, and obviously adjust the paths to match your specific install.)

PHP Code:

print "<a href=\"/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=" . $row['id'] . "&cat=" . $row['cat'] . "\"><img src=\"/photos/data/" . $row['cat'] . "/thumbs/" . $row['bigimage'] . "\" border=\"0\"></a>";

You can see this widget in action on my site, http://www.njpinebarrens.com

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