Get random file per day?

[Godfrey]

I'm trying to display a random file per day. Strangely, this works on my development server but not my live server. On my live server, I get random files but it's on every page refresh. So I'm thinking something's wrong with mktime(), and maybe in combination with getRandom().

This is the code I'm using:

srand(mktime(0,0,0));
        $sectionpages = $pages->find("template=section");
        $randSection = $sectionpages->getRandom(); // get a random "section" page, each has many files
        $randFile = $randSection->files->getRandom(); // get a random file from that random "section" page.
 

Would this be a problem with my live server, like with unix/linux timestamps? Or would this be a compatibility problem with getRandom, if that makes sense? 

I also tried using some code from here: http://processwire.com/talk/topic/2081-when-random-is-too-random/
But I couldn't quite translate the code from working with Pages to files.

I'm running WAMP as my dev server, and my shared hosting uses LAMP :\ So I'm guessing there might be a problem there?

How would you guys approach this? 

As always, many many many thanks for any help!!

 

[Soma]

That function is now in core for use with WireArrays. This isn't only for pages.

Just as an example with a stack of images:

$fs = new WireArray();
$pa = $pages->find("template=image, image.count>0");
foreach($pa as $p){
  $fs->add($p->image);
}

$f = $fs->findRandomTimed(1);
echo $f->first

[Godfrey]

Hmm, I keep getting the error: "Call to a member function findRandomTimed(1) on a non-object" ... or "Unable to complete this request due to an error. Error has been logged." 

Why would something like this or similar not work?

        $sectionpages = $pages->find("template=section"); // returns a PageArray
        $randSection = $sectionpages->findRandomTimed(1); // findRandomTimed(1) returns 1 page. PageArray is a child class of WireArray right? 
        $randFile = $randSection->files->findRandomTimed(1); // supposedly, the page of $randSection should have a field holding multiple files 
 

 

[Soma]

findRandomTimed() returns an array not a single page.

[muzzer]

Hmm, I have this code working (changes order or listings daily) on my dev server but it fails on live server:

$listings = wire('pages')->get('/listings/')->find('listingActive=1')->findRandomTimed(5);

I'm using PW2.5. The result on live is a different order on every call, on dev the order changes daily as it is supposed to.

I suspect the apache Suhosin extension on the live server is screwing this up as I believe it overrides PHPs rand function and changes seeding in some way. Anyone else seen this issue or have any ideas on making this work in conjunction with Suhosin.

[sforsman]

I suspect the apache Suhosin extension on the live server is screwing this up as I believe it overrides PHPs rand function and changes seeding in some way. Anyone else seen this issue or have any ideas on making this work in conjunction with Suhosin.

[php.ini]

suhosin.srand.ignore = Off
suhosin.mt_srand.ignore = Off

OR

[.htaccess]

php_flag suhosin.mt_srand.ignore Off
php_flag suhosin.srand.ignore Off

(this might not necessarily work for you)

[muzzer]

Thx @sforsman

Yeh, shared host for this site so no php.ini access. Have tried setting this in .user.ini which also has no effect (although other settings - gd etc - can be set here successfully). Also tried in .htaccess, no luck.

I'm wondering how widespread the use of suhosin is - fairly widespread I would guess. In which case perhaps the core function findRandomTimed() should use it's own randomising logic rather than php rand()?