Select Single Paragraph From Text File At Random

Our school has lots of little phrases like:

Every day is a gift.
The best way to predict your future is to create it.
You will never find time for anything. If you want time you must make it.

Our staff like to motivate our students by having these on the walls around the school.

I had the thought that if I could put lots of these into a text file I could [somehow] run a query on the file and randomly choose one of the paragraphs and have that display on the student desktops using BGInfo [random choice because if they are all the same then the students would not find it as interesting/noticeable if they were all the same or they were predictable]

So my question is:

How do I query the file:

\\Server\Share\Quotes.TXT

pull out a single line, write that to another file so that BGInfo can display it?

Hope that is clear. Can it be done?

Thanks.

Note: There would be LOTS of phrases to choose from not just two [hopefully hundreds]

my intranet index page does a similar thing. sure you can modify it.

Code:

---

' Make a file called "Quotes.txt"
' Quotes.txt format:
' quote text1|author1
' quote text2|author2
' Example:
' Never miss a good chance to shut up.|Will Rogers

' The next line initializes all the variables
Dim MyPath, FConn, File, TmpStr, CNT
Dim QuoteArr, QuoteText, QuoteAuthor, LineArr
ReDim LineArr(0)

' This line should be your path to the Quotes.txt file
MyPath = "quotes.txt"

' These lines open the text file for reading
Set FConn = Server.CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set File = FConn.OpenTextFile(Server.MapPath(MyPath),1)

CNT = 0

' This reads in all the lines of the file
Do While Not File.AtEndOfStream
TmpStr = File.ReadLine
ReDim Preserve LineArr(CNT)
LineArr(CNT) = TmpStr
CNT = CNT + 1
Loop
' Close the file
File.Close
Set File = Nothing
Set FConn = Nothing

' This finds a random quote from the array
Randomize()
QuoteArr = Split(LineArr(Int(RND() * Ubound(LineArr))),"|")

QuoteText = QuoteArr(0)
QuoteAuthor = QuoteArr(1)

' The output will look like "quote text here - author"
Response.Write("<font face='verdana' size='-1' color='green'><i>""" & QuoteArr(0) & """</i> - " & QuoteArr(1) & "</font>")

---

think i got the basics for this somewhere on the net. don't recall precisely.

I will give that a go. However it does not appear to match what I need. Can anyone get any closer? [I am not good at coding/adapting code]

Thanks.

I was a bit bored tonight so I wrote you this little program.

Code:

---

Usage:
      getline /IN:Source.txt /OUT:Destination.txt [/L:Line Number]

---

pretty self explanatory I think, drop the "/L" paramater all together to return a random line, let me know if you have any trouble (I've also attached the source for anybody to check before they run it if they see fit :))


Attachment 7703

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LosOjos

I was a bit bored tonight so I wrote you this little program.

Code:

---

Usage:
      getline /IN:Source.txt /OUT:Destination.txt [/L:Line Number]

---

pretty self explanatory I think, drop the "/L" paramater all together to return a random line, let me know if you have any trouble (I've also attached the source for anybody to check before they run it if they see fit :))

---

Thanks. However when I try to run this I get the following error:

http://gyazo.com/179e05c145e062fb178ab35aa893bfe3.png

I have come across this error before and when I try to install the version of .NET frame work it says [something like] Windows 7 needed [can't remember exactly]

If you would be willing to install Perl, this is a piece of cake, and i'd happily scrounge up the appropriate scriptage...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by browolf

my intranet index page does a similar thing. sure you can modify it.

Code:

---

' Make a file called "Quotes.txt"
' Quotes.txt format:
' quote text1|author1
' quote text2|author2
' Example:
' Never miss a good chance to shut up.|Will Rogers

' The next line initializes all the variables
Dim MyPath, FConn, File, TmpStr, CNT
Dim QuoteArr, QuoteText, QuoteAuthor, LineArr
ReDim LineArr(0)

' This line should be your path to the Quotes.txt file
MyPath = "quotes.txt"

' These lines open the text file for reading
Set FConn = Server.CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set File = FConn.OpenTextFile(Server.MapPath(MyPath),1)

CNT = 0

' This reads in all the lines of the file
Do While Not File.AtEndOfStream
TmpStr = File.ReadLine
ReDim Preserve LineArr(CNT)
LineArr(CNT) = TmpStr
CNT = CNT + 1
Loop
' Close the file
File.Close
Set File = Nothing
Set FConn = Nothing

' This finds a random quote from the array
Randomize()
QuoteArr = Split(LineArr(Int(RND() * Ubound(LineArr))),"|")

QuoteText = QuoteArr(0)
QuoteAuthor = QuoteArr(1)

' The output will look like "quote text here - author"
Response.Write("<font face='verdana' size='-1' color='green'><i>""" & QuoteArr(0) & """</i> - " & QuoteArr(1) & "</font>")

---

think i got the basics for this somewhere on the net. don't recall precisely.

---

Hi.

I have just tried to adapt the script that you suggested. I have added the path to my "quotes.txt" file at line 14 [that being the only change I have made]

It errors out at line 17 as follows:

http://gyazo.com/e2f6352d3b5ba2f25e3b73594b2bdd61.png

Any ideas?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tom_newton

If you would be willing to install Perl, this is a piece of cake, and i'd happily scrounge up the appropriate scriptage...

---

Ok. I have just downloaded strawberry-perl-5.12.0.1.msi and I am installing it at a single station accepting all of the defaults.

What now?

The script you need is

Code:

---

#!/usr/bin/perl -Tw

use strict;

srand();
my $line = "";
rand($.) < 1 && ($line = $_) while(<>);
print $line;

---

Put this in a file with extension ".pl"

then run

Code:

---

script.pl infile >outfile

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by DaveP

Thanks. However when I try to run this I get the following error:

http://gyazo.com/179e05c145e062fb178ab35aa893bfe3.png

I have come across this error before and when I try to install the version of .NET frame work it says [something like] Windows 7 needed [can't remember exactly]

---

Sorry, knocked it together at home, forgot to change it to framework 3.5

This version should work for you: Attachment 7704

@LosOjos Working perfectly! Thank you. Now all I have to do is deploy it and get a list of suitable quotes from Staff/around school.

Thanks again.

Edit: Here is one I can't use on the network:

Quote:

---

I used all my sick days so I called in dead!

---

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by DaveP

@LosOjos Working perfectly! Thank you. Now all I have to do is deploy it and get a list of suitable quotes from Staff/around school.

Thanks again.

---

Always happy to help :)

As I said in my last post it is working and I am very happy. However I have noticed this [non fatal] error popping up when students log in:

http://gyazo.com/750f2a85c8e176c61423be590289f2a3.png

Students have permissions to run GetLine and they have full control on the output file.

Any ideas?

Is the program running when the student logs in then? What is the command line at startup?


EDIT: I know this isn't an ideal way of handling an unknown error, but as it's working for you and it's not a system critical process, I've just encased the whole program in a general exception handler (i.e. rather than receiving the aforementioned error message, the error will be written to the command line, so the student will be non the wiser): Attachment 7705

I think I may have sorted it. It would appear that the problem arose whenever a Student logged onto a machine that had not been restarted since the changes to BGInfo.BGI had been made and so the output file did not yet exist. I think it is sorted now [possibly?]