Rotating Headers
Sep. 2nd, 2012 09:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meridian_roseSig.grumpybanners went down on Friday, meaning my rotating header did not show up. This site was the easiest, no php required, option to adding a rotating header. (ETA: Typically it is now working again)
After more than a day of this I decided to tackle the issue again. I knew it required php but I thought it would be difficult to implement. Turns out it's not that difficult to make a rotating header with a few tools and a user friendly php script, providing you have access to a host site (eg personal webspace).
You will need to upload files, so you'll probably also need to use an FTP client. I'd say these instructions as for intermediate users with some knowledge of website design/maintenance, or beginners who are willing to do a bit of reading and experimenting with the necessary software.
This post is largely for my reference, to remind me how I accomplished this, should I ever need to set it up again. My memory for such things cannot be relied upon! But if you find it useful, I'm happy to have helped.
You will need somewhere to store your images and the php file, ie some webspace. You may already have webspace as part of your interent service provider's package. Or you can sign up for some free or cheap webspace. Check the provider's documentation to ensure they support php.
You'll need an FTP client. This is probably one of the more fiddly aspects to get used to using. There are plenty of free clients – I'm still currently using WS-FTP95-LE. Newer versions may be more user friendly! You'll need your details from your webspace – user name, password, etc – to log in with the client.
Use the FTP client to load your headers into a suitable folder you've made on your host/webspace, eg 'images'.
Now go to this site which talks about how to randomize images on your web page (and in this case your journal). It includes a link to the php script.
Open that link and copy the entire text. Paste the text into a notepad document. Save the document as rotate.php
Now upload the rotate.php file to the same folder as your images.
Finally change the header url in your journal's customize style – custom css (LJ) or images (DW) to link to the php file. It will look something like this:
http://www.yourname.webspace.freewebspace.com/images/rotate.php
Simply upload or delete header images from the folder as you desire, the script will do the rest.
After more than a day of this I decided to tackle the issue again. I knew it required php but I thought it would be difficult to implement. Turns out it's not that difficult to make a rotating header with a few tools and a user friendly php script, providing you have access to a host site (eg personal webspace).
You will need to upload files, so you'll probably also need to use an FTP client. I'd say these instructions as for intermediate users with some knowledge of website design/maintenance, or beginners who are willing to do a bit of reading and experimenting with the necessary software.
This post is largely for my reference, to remind me how I accomplished this, should I ever need to set it up again. My memory for such things cannot be relied upon! But if you find it useful, I'm happy to have helped.
You will need somewhere to store your images and the php file, ie some webspace. You may already have webspace as part of your interent service provider's package. Or you can sign up for some free or cheap webspace. Check the provider's documentation to ensure they support php.
You'll need an FTP client. This is probably one of the more fiddly aspects to get used to using. There are plenty of free clients – I'm still currently using WS-FTP95-LE. Newer versions may be more user friendly! You'll need your details from your webspace – user name, password, etc – to log in with the client.
Use the FTP client to load your headers into a suitable folder you've made on your host/webspace, eg 'images'.
Now go to this site which talks about how to randomize images on your web page (and in this case your journal). It includes a link to the php script.
Open that link and copy the entire text. Paste the text into a notepad document. Save the document as rotate.php
Now upload the rotate.php file to the same folder as your images.
Finally change the header url in your journal's customize style – custom css (LJ) or images (DW) to link to the php file. It will look something like this:
http://www.yourname.webspace.freewebspace.com/images/rotate.php
Simply upload or delete header images from the folder as you desire, the script will do the rest.
no subject
Date: 2012-09-02 09:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-02 09:58 am (UTC)You could look into getting free webspace and it's not that hard to upload files via the FTP client once you've done it once or twice - think about the first time you posted to LJ or used Photobucket or customized your journal and how daunting it probably seemed at the time! And you don't have to use the webspace for anything except storing the images. My webspace is blank at the moment :D
no subject
Date: 2012-09-04 05:21 am (UTC)I'll bookmark this post in case of that ever happening, I think - though it's doubtful I will bother with it should that happen. Too much work. :P
Thanks.