Need help editing an script that I downloaded

2 - you need to fully qualify the href address, ie include the http:// in front (and www. or other ans needed). If you do, this address will be left untouched as a link target. If you don't, the address you give (eg, mydomain.com) will be prefixed by http://myserver.com/: henc for example http://www.pdim.net/phpslideshow/advancelifts.com instead of, I presume http://www.advancelifts.com or http://advancelifts.com

1- Basically you have an array of 30 records, each with a picture and some additional info: company name, link, etc.
What you have already built is a way to navigate thru record[0], record[1], ... record[29].
Now figure an ind array, the values of which are initially 0 for ind[0]...n for ind[n]... 29 for ind[29]

You just need to "shuffle" the values of this array, and then you're done, you'll be able to navigate it thru record[$ind[0]], ... record[$ind[n]]... record[$ind[29]]

Now the shuffle part. The correct algorithm is :
$ind=array();
$imax=30;
for ($i=0; $i<imax;i++) $ind[]=$i;
for ($i=0; $i<($imax-1);i++) { // note that here it is 29, not 30
  $k=rand(($i+1),$imax);
  $tmp=$ind($k);
  $ind($k)=$ind($i);
  $ind($i)=$tmp;
}  //done

Hi Fibo,

Thanks for your amazing help! My #2 question is clear but I am still having difficulty understanding your suggestion on my q #1. So that you know, my skill level in PHP is not so good therefore you have to walk me through the process of change my code to randomizing. Please advise where (which lines?) I should delete and replace/add your new codes? Thanks again for helping and bearing.

Looking at the file, I guess that the best place to put your changes would be around line 149 of phpslideshow.php:
        if ($sort_images == 'name') {
            natcasesort($pic_info);
            $pic_info = array_reverse(array_reverse($pic_info)); //resetting array keys
        }
        else {
            $sortorder = $sort_images == "oldest" ? SORT_ASC : SORT_DESC;
            array_multisort($time_info, $sortorder, $pic_info, SORT_ASC, $time_info);
        }
I would probably change these line to create the correct arrays. the only line to keep would be (using "my" $ind array)
          array_multisort($ind, $pic_info, $time_info)

Sorry, it's late, I need some sleep.
Cheers

Hope you got some good rest. Ok here is what i did. I changed lines 149-156
from:
 if ($sort_images == 'name') {
            natcasesort($pic_info);
            $pic_info = array_reverse(array_reverse($pic_info)); //resetting array keys
        }
        else {
            $sortorder = $sort_images == "oldest" ? SORT_ASC : SORT_DESC;
            array_multisort($time_info, $sortorder, $pic_info, SORT_ASC, $time_info);
        }

and replaced it with  

$ind=array();
            $imax=30;
            for ($i=0; $i<imax;i++) $ind[]=$i;
            for ($i=0; $i<($imax-1);i++) { // note that here it is 29, not 30
              $k=rand(($i+1),$imax);
              $tmp=$ind($k);
              $ind($k)=$ind($i);
              $ind($i)=$tmp;
            }  //done

and I get this error:
Parse error: parse error, unexpected T_INC, expecting ')' in /home/pdimnet/public_html/phpslideshow/phpslideshow.php on line 152

Thanks.

You are missing a $ in this line:

for ($i=0; $i<imax;i++) $ind[]=$i;
                   ^ (should be $imax)

oops. thx kamermans!

Thanks fellas. I tried it and I get this error.

Parse error: parse error, unexpected T_INC, expecting ')' in /home/pdimnet/public_html/phpslideshow/phpslideshow.php on line 151

Oops. Sorry, I did write the code late at night and gorgot most of the $
Here are the correct lines:
$ind=array();
$imax=30;
for ($i=0; $i<$imax;$i++) $ind[]=$i;
for ($i=0; $i<($imax-1);$i++) { // note that here it is 29, not 30
      $k=rand(($i+1),$imax);
      $tmp=$ind($k);
      $ind($k)=$ind($i);
      $ind($i)=$tmp;
}  //done

(there were missing $ in both $i++)

A different error this time.
Parse error: parse error, unexpected '=' in /home/pdimnet/public_html/phpslideshow/phpslideshow.php on line 155

Hmm.

1/ If you used copy/paste, this might have created invisible problems (I think I remember seeing such a problem here), so let's try to remove that: delete then retype "new lines" and spaces or tabs at the beginning of each line.

2/ if the problem is stll there: can you copy/ paste it here, so that we can examine further?

Hi Fibo,
Here are the codes. You can download from http://www.pdim.net/phpslideshow/phpslideshow-codes.zip . It contains. the original codes and the edited code we are working on. Thanks!

Yes! It is working now. However, the slidehow is not random only sequential as before. For your efforts, I give you the points anyway. You can see the slide show at at http://pdim.net/phpslideshow/phpslideshow.php . Let me know if you want to continue in helping me I feel this help is worth more than 500pts therefore I will open up a new thread for more points opportunity. Thnaks.

Thx for the points.
Hmmm... it is sequential, but the sequence is random. You'll get each and every slide in the set, but each time in a different order: the program "shuffles" the sequence as you would do with a deck of cards.

If you just need a single slide at random, you can display the slide numbered rand(0,$imax).
However, in some occasions you might get something like slides 5, 18, 5, 4, 18 which will not be felt as random by yout viewer.

The programs as written "guararntees" (well, almost) that each visit will show the slides in a different order.