mysql php select random with javascript rotator - php

Question

I just started learning PHP, and have been trying to build a website to learn. I found a javascript script that rotates text on the internet here which looks like:
<script language="JavaScript">
function rotateEvery(sec)
{
var Quotation=new Array()
// QUOTATIONS
Quotation[0] = 'First quotation';
Quotation[1] = 'Second quotation';
Quotation[2] = 'Third quotation';
Quotation[3] = 'Fourth quotation';
Quotation[4] = 'Fifth quotation';
Quotation[5] = 'Sixth quotation';
Quotation[6] = 'You can add <b>as many</b> quotations <b>as you like</b>';
var which = Math.round(Math.random()*(Quotation.length - 1));
document.getElementById('textrotator').innerHTML = Quotation[which];
setTimeout('rotateEvery('+sec+')', sec*1000);
}
</script>
I also have a database table called events that has three fields ( id, when, tag) When is a date, tag is the description of the event (e.g Christmas Party/Halloween at my house).
What i am trying to do is select the events that are happening today and put them in my javascript rotator, randomly.
Is this possible? How would I go about implementing this? I know I am really bad at explaining my questions so if I left out any more details if you could just tell me and I can help.Thanks!

Answer 1

So if I understand your intent, you want to pull events from your database and pass them into the JavaScript on your page to use in your rotator:
In your PHP
Use whichever MySQL API you are using already to execute the query. Using the old mysql_*() functions would look like the following. (Note: use of the mysql_*() functions is actually NOT recommended, but it seems most likely that's what you're currently using. I'll update if I find out otherwise...)
// Assuming `when` is a real DATE or DATETIME data type in MySQL...
// compare to CURDATE() to get today's
$result = mysql_query("SELECT tag FROM events WHERE DATE(when)=CURDATE()");
if ($result) {
// array to hold all the output
$events = array();
while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)) {
// Add the event to your array
$events[] = $row['tag'];
}
// After building the array, encode it as JSON
// Later you'll echo this into your JavaScript in place of the array...
$events = json_encode($events);
}
Later in your HTML/JavaScript output
Output the JSON string (your array) into the JavaScript on your page:
function rotateEvery(sec)
{
// The JSON from PHP output here
// Would look something like
// ["Event 1","Event 2","Event 3"]
var Quotations = <?php echo $events; ?>;
var which = Math.round(Math.random()*(Quotation.length - 1));
document.getElementById('textrotator').innerHTML = Quotation[which];
setTimeout('rotateEvery('+sec+')', sec*1000);
}