javascript for random movie onLoad

[andrew1218]

does anyone have or know of a javaScript that will play random movies when a page loads?
i can't do this with actionscript as i'm using movies created through oddcast/vhost (http://www.oddcast.com/oddcast/site/index.php) so i don't have access to the .fla as they are created dynamically online.
any help would be appreciated.

[catbert303]

Hi welcome to flashkit,

If you make an array containing the possible filenames of the movies, you can then pick one at random and use javascript to write the appropriate object and embed tags to the page,

<!-- in the body of the page where you want the movie to appear -->
<script type="text/javascript">
var movies = ["movie1.swf", "anotherfile.swf", "something.swf"]; // array containing filenames, add as many as you like
var movie = movies[Math.floor(Math.random() * movies.length)]; // pick one item from the array at random
// now write out the tags for the movie
document.write('<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=5,0,0,0" width=550 height=300>');
document.write('<param name=movie value="' + movie + '"> <param name=quality value=high> <param name=bgcolor value=#ffffff> <param name="menu" value="false">');
document.write('<embed src="' + movie + '" quality=high bgcolor=#ffffff menu=false width=550 height=300 type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed>');
document.write('</object>');
</script>

[andrew1218]

thanks so much for your help!
that's exactly what i needed!
- andrew

[paulhdear]

Hi, I'm new here, so apologies in advance for what may be a dumb question in the wrong place.
I am trying to do something similar to the above, but to play a random YouTube video from a list (of, say, 20 videos) rather than a swf file. In other words, on page load, I want one of my chosen YouTube videos to start playing, embedded on the page. I've just started getting to grips with HTML and Javascript (only just!), and I'm using Dreamweaver, if that's relevant.
Any help greatly appreciated!
Yours,
Paul

[Nig 13]

I would rather use PHP to do that, but if you want to use the same method as the answer above, then just do the same with the YouTube embed code, which should look something like this:

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/-UNFQ1o5brM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

your javascript code, in the form of the answer above, would look something like this:

<!-- in the body of the page where you want the movie to appear -->
<script type="text/javascript">
var movies = ["-UNFQ1o5brM", "xI3y5dJlKEU", "Xgoe8jaiwX4"]; // array containing YouTube Video IDs
var movie = movies[Math.floor(Math.random() * movies.length)]; // pick one item from the array at random
// now write out the tags for the movie
document.write('<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/' + movie + '" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>');
</script>

What you're randomly picking are the YouTube Video IDs found in the URL of the YouTube videos. For example, if your youtube link looks something like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4Z5G78viGc

then you add the ID at the end, to your array in the javascript code:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4Z5G78viGc

in more complicated youtube links, like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv8u5bY8Now&feature=BFa&list=LLNMDr9BuwR2hPQqEx4NuxOg

the ID is the code after ?v= and before the first occurring &, like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv8u5bY8Now&feature=BFa&list=LLNMDr9BuwR2hPQqEx4NuxOg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv8u5bY8Now&feature=BFa&list=LLNMDr9BuwR2hPQqEx4NuxOg

Wv8u5bY8Now is then the ID you want to add in your array of YouTube video IDs.

If you're interested in using PHP instead, then you'll need to have a server with PHP installed. Assuming you already have one, type this code instead of the javascript one:

<!-- in the body of the page where you want the movie to appear -->
<?php
$movies = array("-UNFQ1o5brM", "xI3y5dJlKEU", "Xgoe8jaiwX4"); // array containing YouTube Video IDs
$movie = rand(0, count($movies)-1); // pick one item from the array at random
// now write out the tags for the movie
echo '<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/' . $movies[$movie] . '" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>';
?>

Hope this helps

[paulhdear]

Thanks, [Nig 13].

At the moment, I've got around the problem by creating a YouTube playlist and embedding that, but it's not ideal (there isn't a "random shuffle" option on the YouTube playlist). So, I might revisit the
problem and use your advice. Many many thanks!
Paul