PHP - Random Function

As above,

I have a lottery style site that picks a random number between 1-8 but my users complain for some reason that this is not enough.

So i was told to look into using fopen and random.org to generate a random number.

Anyone have experience of this and perhaps a code snippet for me to look at and possibly use?

help will be appreciated.

Hello all, I have some piece of code that is nested like this


$variable = 'This is a global argument';
function parentFunction($variable) {
function childFunction() {
echo 'Argument of the parent function is '.$GLOBALS['variable'];
}
childFunction();
}
parentFunction(5);


What I want to know is - Is there a way to access a variable from the parent function without passing arguments to the child function? (Something like how classes have parent::?). I don't want to use $GLOBALS because it might cause some variable collision, and I didn't want to pass arguments because incase I decide to change the arguments in the parent function I'd have to do it in the child function aswell. From my searching around in the Internet it seems like this is not possible, but if theres a slight chance that there might be something out there, i'm willing to give it a shot .

Thanks in advance

I have this function completely written in my class file that I am working on.  The point to this function is to be able to check the login of a user or administrator for either of the control panels associated with my site.

It will check the session intime as well as the page / module referenced.  Once it passes all those checks, it will check and ensure the emailaddress/password stored in the current session still holds true and the account is still active...  if the account is still active it will update the lastActivity as well as update all of the session variables with what is currently in the database.

What I am looking for is basically a look at the function, see if it looks good..  If there is any part to it that could create security holes for the site just off the login function itself...

Usage: $q->validUser($_SESSION['user'], $_mod);

<?php
 function validUser($sess, $p) {

if ($sess['inTime'] == '' && $p != 'login' && $p != 'logout') {
session_destroy();
$login = '0';
$_int = '';
return $login;
} else if ($sess['inTime'] < time()-3600 && $p != 'login') {
$sess['inTime'] = '';
session_destroy();
$this->check_login($sess, $p);
} else {
$this->user = $sess['emailAddress'];
$this->pass = $sess['password'];

$login = $this->sql_query("SELECT * FROM users WHERE emailAddress = '".$this->user."' AND password = '".$this->pass."' 
   AND status = '1' LIMIT '1'");
if ($login = $this->sql_numrows($login) < 1) {
$sess['inTime'] == '';
session_destroy();
$login = '0';
} else {
// logged in, lets update the database for last_activity AND the session.

$this->sql_query("UDATE users SET lastActivity = '".now()."' WHERE
  emailAddress = '".$this->user."'");
$login = $this->sql_query("SELECT * FROM users WHERE emailAddress = '".$this->user."' AND password = '".$this->pass."' 
       AND status = '1' LIMIT '1'");
$login = mysql_fetch_assoc($login);
foreach ($login as $key => $value)
{ 
$sess[$key] = $value;
}
$sess['inTime'] = time();
$login = '1';
}
return $login;
}
}

?>

That is the main function, sql_query and sql_numrows is:

<?php
function sql_query($query = "", $transaction = FALSE) {
unset($this->query_result);

if ($query != "") {
$this->num_queries++;
if ($transation == BEGIN_TRANSACTION && !$this->in_transation) {
$result = mysql_query("BEGIN", $this->db_connect_id);
if (!$result) {
return false;
}
$this->in_transaction = TRUE;
}

$this->query_result = mysql_query($query, $this->db_connect_id);
} else {
if ($transaction == END_TRANSACTION && $this->in_transaction ) {
$result = mysql_query("COMMIT", $this->db_connect_id);
}
}
if ($this->query_result) {
unset($this->row[$this->query_result]);
unset($this->rowset[$this->query_result]);

if ($transaction == END_TRANSACTION && $this->in_transaction ) {
$this->in_transaction = FALSE;
if (!mysql_query("COMMIT", $this->db_connect_id)) {
mysql_query("ROLLBACK", $this->db_connect_id);
return false;
}
}
return $this->query_result;
} else {
if ($this->in_transaction ) {
mysql_query("ROLLBACK", $this->db_connect_id);
$this->in_transaction = FALSE;
}
return false;
}
}

function sql_numrows($query_id = 0) {
if(!$query_id) {
$query_id = $this->query_result;
}
return ($query_id) ? mysql_num_rows($query_id) : false;
} ?>

Any insight that can help to benefit these functions would be appreciated.

Question 1) Is the only and proper way to call a parent function "parent::function()"?  Are there other/better ways from within a child function?

Question 2) What are the deciding factors for when to make a function or attribute static?  How do you make that decision?  Assuming 5.3...

Thanks.

I need to call usort from a class function, and I'm puzzled about how to define the comparison function.

I've tried to define the comparison function in the same class, but I can't get usort to call it. I found one hint that it will work if I make the comparison function static, but I tried that, and it didn't work for me.

If I define the comparison function outside the class, it won't have access to object properties that it needs to operate.

The only solution I can think of is to define the comparison function outside the class and put the object properties it needs in globals. Is there a cleaner way to do this?