Random link generator for wordpress plugin authors

[MrP]

Hi, I decided to post this here because it was kind of taking my other thread off topic. For the background on what lead me to this - see here

Did you read it..? - if not please do, it may make the rest of this more understandable

Right... with that out of the way, I just like to thank grynge for the original idea and input so far.

Here is the code I've come up with. It will generate a random link with random anchor text. Currently, it will pick from 3 URLs, giving each URL one of 3 different anchor texts. It could easily be add to too give more URLs and anchor texts.

There are two ways this can be used:

First method:

The idea is to call the main function during plugin install process. This method will add a 'static' link to the plugins options. Then when the plugin is parsed to the front end (visitors view), if the link is set to display, the same static link will show every time.

<?php 
### Function to call on plugin install #########################
function make_random_link ()
{
 # get base url
 $sitebase = get_option('siteurl') . '/';
 
 # build array of landing pages
 // edit these to your page links
 $url = array ('page-1', 'page-2', 'page-3');
 
 # build arrays of anchor-texts
 // edit these to your required anchor texts
 $Ankr1 = array ('anchor-text1', 'anchor-text2', 'anchor-text3');
 $Ankr2 = array ('anchor-text4', 'anchor-text5', 'anchor-text6');
 $Ankr3 = array ('anchor-text7', 'anchor-text8', 'anchor-text9');
 
 # generate random number for url
 $u = mt_rand(0, 2);
 # generate random number for anchor-text
 $a = mt_rand(0, 2);
 
 # build random url
 $random_url = $sitebase . $url[$u];
 
 # find which url we have and get appropriate anchor text
 if ($u == 0){
 $anchor_text = $Ankr1[$a];
 } else if ($u == 1){
 $anchor_text = $Ankr2[$a];
 } else {
 $anchor_text = $Ankr3[$a];
 }
 
 # build and return complete link
 $random_link = '<a href="'. $random_url .'" title="'. $anchor_text .' - '.$sitebase.'">'. $anchor_text .'</a>';
 return $random_link;
}
 
### Add to plugin install function ###############
$get_author_link = make_random_link ();
add_option('author_link', $get_author_link);
 
### To display link ##############################
# see if link will show
if (get_option('show_author_link') == "YES") {
 
 #check we've got a link - if we have, load link in to var
 If (get_option('author_link') != '') {
  $Author_link = get_option('author_link');
 
  # display link with random anchor-text
  echo '<div style="width:'.$cft_mn_wth.'px; margin:0 auto; font-size: x-small; text-align: center;">'. $Author_link .'</div>';
 }
}
?>

Method 2:

Almost the same except the main function is called while the page is being parsed instead of when the plugin is installed. Done this way, it will generate a random link on-the-fly (every time the page loads).

<?php 
### Function to call on plugin install #########################
function make_random_link ()
{
# get base url
 $sitebase = get_option('siteurl') . '/';
 
 # build array of landing pages
 // edit these to your page links
 $url = array ('page-1', 'page-2', 'page-3');
 
 
 # build arrays of anchor-texts
 // edit these to your required anchor texts
 $Ankr1 = array ('anchor-text1', 'anchor-text2', 'anchor-text3');
 $Ankr2 = array ('anchor-text4', 'anchor-text5', 'anchor-text6');
 $Ankr3 = array ('anchor-text7', 'anchor-text8', 'anchor-text9');
 
 # generate random number for url
 $u = mt_rand(0, 2);
 # generate random number for anchor-text
 $a = mt_rand(0, 2);
 
 # build random url
 $random_url = $sitebase . $url[$u];
 
 # find which url we have and get appropriate anchor text
 if ($u == 0){
 $anchor_text = $Ankr1[$a];
 } else if ($u == 1){
 $anchor_text = $Ankr2[$a];
 } else {
 $anchor_text = $Ankr3[$a];
 }
 
 # build and return complete link
 $random_link = '<a href="'. $random_url .'" title="'. $anchor_text .' - '.$sitebase.'">'. $anchor_text .'</a>';
 return $random_link;
}
 
 
### To display link ##############################
# see if link will show
if (get_option('show_author_link') == "YES") {
 
 #check we've got a link - if we have, load link in to var
  $Author_link =  make_random_link ();
 
  # display link with random anchor-text
  echo  '<p>'. $Author_link .'</p>';
 
}
?>

So there it is...

I have tested this on wordpress 3.1.4 and not had any errors. Also with minor editing I don't see why it wouldn't work on any php based site. There are probably improvments that could be made to this (I'm quite new to php ).

Thanks for reading my blabber, I would be interested to hear your thoughts.