HTML Help

I have a website for my store, www.overkastword.com, if you go there you will see on the main page there is a table with some products in it, designed for the specials of the week or new products...

What i would like to do is have say 50 pictures that rotate through the 9 product slots everytime the page is refreshed.

what must i do to accomplish this?

 

i am pretty sure that you can do that with a simple javascript. for each square, you would define a random picture from a set of pictures. you probably want to define unique sets for each square so that you dont get duplicates displaying at the same time.

EDIT:
for each box, you would have:

myBox1Pics = new Array(4);
myBox1Pics[0] = "pathToBox1Pic1";
myBox1Pics[1] = "pathToBox1Pic2";
myBox1Pics[2] = "pathToBox1Pic3";
myBox1Pics[3] = "pathToBox1Pic4";
picNum = Math.floor(Math.random() * 3)
box1Pic = myBox1Pics [picNum];

then you can use the box1Pic variable in your link for box 1.


i am sure that there is a better (more elaborate) way, but this is a simple, easy to implement approach.

 

embed a swf doc (flash). Setup up a flash file that will loop through based on X amount of time. Have it pull the pictures from a list. Set the list up in an external XML file, read them in dynamically. That way all you have to do is put new pictures in a folder, update your list and the flash will update itself automatically. Won't ever have to change the code.

 

this is exactly what i am looking for. I dont know flash, only HTML. Where could I go to learn how to do this?

 

thats a great way to do it, but you will need a Flash devlopers kit. the cheapest i have seen those for is $400. (or maybe you could pay someone to do it for less?).
its $700 on adobes site:
http://www.adobe.com/products/flash/

 

i have flash cs3 professional on my computer right now, just dont know how to use it :/

 

Only problem is if you want a hotlinked banner. Just thinking quick and dirty:

1. each picture that gets put in the 'banner' folder is numbered sequentially, starting with '0.gif', then '1.gif', and so on (note that this structure will limit you to 10 pictures, if you want more think of 2 digit naming).
2. have an accompanying text file, so '0.txt', '1.txt', so on. These text files have a single line of text that corresponds to the web address of the product
3. As the code reads in the pictures, it associates the like-named txt file's contents, making a flash banner with clickable links. To update pictures and links, you simply toss in a new #.gif and #.txt file, and the code does the rest!

There may be a more sophisticated way (I know nothing of flash).

EDIT: Here's a javascript solution (see the picture at the bottom). I'd build a bit more sophistication (like how we talked about here), but that might prove the easiest way to do things.

 

so ive got flash cs3 opened up, started a new animation project, cant seem to import any images.. :/

 

pulled the code:

not really understanding how to have each picture link.. the site doesnt have this feature set up

 

Yeah I noticed, but I'm going to take the route of a college professor and say, "where's the fun if I gave you all the answers?"

I freaking hate it when people say that. "Fun for YOU, pain in the BUTT for me", right?



Actually, it's because I don't know off the top of my head without diving in a bit, and I really need to get work done before my meeting today.