Case Study
Randomize and Automatically Update Content on Pages
The Need
Customers would like to provide a random content on pages for things like testimonials, reviews, case studies, recent projects, etc. They would like this automated so they do not have to log in each day, or week, to select new or different items to show on their home page, or within internal web pages. It must also be easy to add new items to the list of randomized content so that the customer does not need to make edits to the web site or any pages. New pages are generated automatically and summaries randomly appear in the appropriate page area.
The Variables
Need to allow the customer to identify what elements they want to display How frequently do they want content to change, how many random items they want to display, do they always want to ensure at least one of the newest items appears.
The Solution
Create a simple dataset table that holds all of the information for an element. For example, Case studies on the Software Ridge site have a title, needs, variables, and solutions description, date added, and a classification (i.e., Business Software, Integrations, and Website Design) columns. We created entries for these, and as new ones arrive we add them to this table. The website automatically updates which ones to display on the home page each week; randomly selecting from all of the records.