Ok, so this question might be a bit tiresome, but my php experience is very limited (for now!), and I just can't get my head around what I need to do here.

Here's the situation:

I want to integrate this - http://blog.kno.at/tools/one-random-photo-from-your-flickr-stream/ - a function for displaying a single random Flickr image, onto my SilverStripe homepage. It's fairly straightforward and I've confirmed it works on my server by running it on a test php page on its own.

However, getting it to display on Silverstripe is another matter. As I understand it, I can't just chuck a php include into Page.ss, but this is where I get derailed. Between Page.ss, Page.php and layout/page.ss I just can't figure out how to get the php to include. And I suspect the problem is simply that I am flying almost blind with my lack of php knowledge.

Can anyone advise me how to get this going? Much appreciated, thanks

In Page.php, add the following function to the Page_Controller class:

function RandomFlickerPhoto(){
    ob_start();

    // be sure to swap out this url with your own badge
    $badge  = 'http://www.flickr.com/badge_code_v2.gne?count=1&display=random&size=m&layout=x&source=user&user=7353617%40N04';
    $width  = 400;
    $height = 240;
    $gray   = true;
    // you should be able to place this file in the same directory as Page.php
    include_once('flickpic.php');

    $str = ob_get_contents();
    ob_end_clean();
    return $str;
}

Then in your template you can just use $RandomFlickerPhoto anywhere you want the photo to show up. The 'Page.ss' in the templates directory is your outer template (header, footer, etc.) and the one in the Layouts directory is the inner template for the guts of a page.

Hope that helps. I haven't actually tried it so it may take a little tweaking.
Mark

Cheers mate! I suspect it is working, but now I'm encountering a lovely error from flickpic.php (which I didn't encounter in my test run).

[Notice] Undefined variable: user
GET /

Line 12 in /home/mwgd/public_html/mysite/code/flickpic.php
Source

3  *  randomFlickr.class.php usage sample
4  */
5  
6 require_once('randomFlickr.class.php');
7 
8 if ( !isset($_GET['imageUrl']) )
9 {
10     try
11     {
12         $x = new randomFlickr($user);
13         if ( $badge )
14         {
15             $x->setBadgeUrl($badge);
16         }
17         $x->fetch();
18     }

At no http://blog.kno.at/tools/one-random-photo-from-your-flickr-stream/ the author comments

In line 12 the randomFlickr-object is being created using a variable $user. This variable isn’t specified here, therefore will just be ignored. Then we check if a badge-url has been specified in $badge. If so, we change the object’s badge url according.

A few words about the fetch()-method. It will check if there’s a user id specified (the ugly flickr user-id string, that is, due the badges don’t seem to work with the usernames). If so, it uses the default badge-url for 1 random image and passes that user-id. Easy. If there’s no user specified, the badge-url will be used as-is.

But for some reason SS won't happily ignore it as he suggests? So as a stab in the dark, in Page.php I add

$user = 44137955;

But then the new error is this:

[Notice] Undefined offset: 0
GET /

Line 282 in /home/mwgd/public_html/mysite/code/randomFlickr.class.php
Source

273             $sBadge = $this->curlAccess($this->sBadgeUrl . ( $user ? "&user=$user" : '' ));
274         }
275         else
276         {
277             throw new Exception('allow_url_fopen disabled and CURL not found. Cannot access remote url '. $this->sBadgeUrl . ( $user ? "&user=$user" : '' ));
278         }
279         
280         preg_match(self::REGEX_SRC, $sBadge, $matches);
281         
282         $this->sSrc = $matches[0] . '.jpg';
283         $this->iId = $matches[1];
284         
285         preg_match(self::REGEX_URL, $sBadge, $matches);
286         $this->sUrl = $matches[1];
287         
288         preg_match(self::REGEX_TITLE, $sBadge, $matches);

Any ideas on this? (apologies if I'm missing anything obvious...and also don't worry if you can't be bothered with this troubleshooting!)

Yeah, Silverstripe by default ups the error reporting to include php notices (like unitialized variables). The easiest way to solve that is to add:

$user = false;

That would give you the normal functionality without triggering an error. I suspect you might have other issues going on though. What kind of hosting are you using? It looks to me like the curl call could be failing.

Alas, $user = false; just returns the same error as before

[Notice] Undefined offset: 0
GET /

Line 282 in /home/mwgd/public_html/mysite/code/randomFlickr.class.php
Source

273             $sBadge = $this->curlAccess($this->sBadgeUrl . ( $user ? "&user=$user" : '' ));
274         }
275         else
276         {
277             throw new Exception('allow_url_fopen disabled and CURL not found. Cannot access remote url '. $this->sBadgeUrl . ( $user ? "&user=$user" : '' ));
278         }
279         
280         preg_match(self::REGEX_SRC, $sBadge, $matches);
281         
282         $this->sSrc = $matches[0] . '.jpg';
283         $this->iId = $matches[1];
284         
285         preg_match(self::REGEX_URL, $sBadge, $matches);
286         $this->sUrl = $matches[1];
287         
288         preg_match(self::REGEX_TITLE, $sBadge, $matches);

Trace

    * randomFlickr->fetch()
      Line 17 of flickpic.php
    * include_once(/home/mwgd/public_html/mysite/code/flickpic.php)
      Line 53 of HomePage.php
    * HomePage_Controller->RandomFlickerPhoto()
    * call_user_func_array(Array,Array)
      Line 408 of ViewableData.php
    * ViewableData->XML_val(RandomFlickerPhoto,,1)
      Line 119 of .cache.home.mwgd.public_html.themes.pixelgreen.templates.Layout.HomePage.ss
    * include(/tmp/silverstripe-cache-home-mwgd-public_html/.cache.home.mwgd.public_html.themes.pixelgreen.templates.Layout.HomePage.ss)
      Line 357 of SSViewer.php
    * SSViewer->process(HomePage_Controller)
      Line 349 of SSViewer.php
    * SSViewer->process(HomePage_Controller)
      Line 172 of Controller.php
    * Controller->handleAction(HTTPRequest)
      Line 129 of RequestHandler.php
    * RequestHandler->handleRequest(HTTPRequest)
      Line 119 of Controller.php
    * Controller->handleRequest(HTTPRequest)
      Line 29 of ModelAsController.php
    * ModelAsController->handleRequest(HTTPRequest)
      Line 44 of RootURLController.php
    * RootURLController->handleRequest(HTTPRequest)
      Line 277 of Director.php
    * Director::handleRequest(HTTPRequest,Session)
      Line 121 of Director.php
    * Director::direct(/)
      Line 118 of main.php

etc. etc.

My hosting is from hostgator.com , using Curl 7.12.1 if that is any help.