Hi trfletch,

Here's an XSLT snippet that I posted on the old forum:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE xsl:stylesheet [ <!ENTITY nbsp "&#x00A0;"> ]>
<xsl:stylesheet
    version="1.0"
    xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
    xmlns:msxml="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt"
    xmlns:msxsl="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt"
    xmlns:bdk="http://bodenko.com"
    xmlns:umbraco.library="urn:umbraco.library"
    exclude-result-prefixes="msxml msxsl umbraco.library bdk">
    <xsl:output method="xml" omit-xml-declaration="yes" />

    <xsl:param name="currentPage" />
    <xsl:variable name="maxItems" select="number(5)" />

    <msxsl:script language="JavaScript" implements-prefix="bdk">
        function Random(r) { return Math.ceil(Math.random()*r); }
    </msxsl:script>

    <xsl:template match="/">
        <xsl:for-each select="$currentPage/ancestor-or-self::node[@level=1]/descendant-or-self::node[@nodeTypeAlias='Testimonial']">
            <xsl:sort select="bdk:Random($maxItems)" order="descending" />
            <xsl:if test="position() &lt;= $maxItems">
                <xsl:value-of select="@nodeName" /><br />
            </xsl:if>
        </xsl:for-each>
    </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Set the "maxItems" variable to the number of testimonials that you want to display (probably 1 in your case).  Set the @nodeTypeAlias to whatever your doc-type alias is for the testimonials (I guessed it was "Testimonial").

The idea here is that the for-each performs a random sort... rather than a random selection ... it still has the same effect (unless you are dealing with hundreds/thousands of nodes - then there'll be a performance hit - but for a few nodes, it's fine).

Cheers, Lee.

Hi,

Have a look at Tim's blog post. He's done a similar thing...

Cheers,

/Dirk

I voted up Lee's approuch.  I used his example a while ago to do exactly what you are trying to do (display random testimonials). You can see the result here: http://www.nceexam.com.

Cheers Ricky, glad that I could help (for a while ago!)

Hi,

Thanks for the responses, I have tried Lee's method and it works fine if I have more than 1 in the maxitems variable but I only actually want one testimonial displayed on the page and if I put 1 in the maxitems variable it just shows the same one everytime (the first node in the list). Any ideas?

A modification to just get one item count be something like...

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE xsl:stylesheet [ <!ENTITY nbsp "&#x00A0;"> ]>
<xsl:stylesheet
        version="1.0"
        xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
        xmlns:msxml="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt"
        xmlns:msxsl="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt"
        xmlns:bdk="http://bodenko.com"
        xmlns:umbraco.library="urn:umbraco.library"
        exclude-result-prefixes="msxml msxsl umbraco.library bdk">
        <xsl:output method="xml" omit-xml-declaration="yes" />

        <xsl:param name="currentPage" />

        <msxsl:script language="JavaScript" implements-prefix="bdk">
                function Random(r) { return Math.ceil(Math.random()*r); }
        </msxsl:script>

        <xsl:template match="/">
                
                <xsl:variable name="testimonialNodes" select="$currentPage/ancestor-or-self::node[@level=1]/descendant-or-self::node[@nodeTypeAlias='Testimonial']">
                <xsl:value-of select="testimonialNodes[bdk:Random(count($testimonialNodes))]" /><br />
                
        </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Thanks Chris, I can sort of see how your code may randomly find one of the nodes but how do I then get it to display some data from that node? Such as the node name?

Once you have the node you can use standard xpath to get any data

<xsl:value-of select="testimonialNodes[bdk:Random(count($testimonialNodes))]/data[@alias='PageTile']" />

or

<xsl:value-of select="testimonialNodes[bdk:Random(count($testimonialNodes))]/@nodeName" />

Hi Chris,

Thanks again for your help, this appears to be working partly if I add $ to the front of testimonialNodes on value of select like so:

 <xsl:value-of select="$testimonialNodes[bdk:Random(count($testimonialNodes))]/data[@alias='testimonialsnippet']" />

I say partly because every now and then it shows nothing as if it is finding a node without any data in the testimonialsnippet property but all the Testimonial nodes have data in this property. Although this does bring me to another question which would be how do I get it to only find the ones that do have data in that property type (I may have testimonials that do not have anything for that property).

I think you'd benefit from reading upon xslt. It'll make fixing simple or syntax issues much quicker.

Have a read at http://our.umbraco.org/wiki/reference/xslt (see sub pages in right hand side)

Thanks Chris,

I have read that before and do have a basic understanding of XSLT and I have created many lists and menu's using it but I have never created one with Javascript in to select random nodes therefore I do not really understand what that part of it is trying to do. This is what I currently have:

<xsl:param name="currentPage" />
       <msxsl:script language="JavaScript" implements-prefix="bdk">
                function Random(r) { return Math.ceil(Math.random()*r); }
        </msxsl:script>


        <xsl:template match="/">
 <div class="testimonialstitle">
 Our clients say:
 </div>
                <xsl:variable name="testimonialNodes" select="umbraco.library:GetXmlNodeById(1085)/node [string(data [@alias='testimonialsnippet']) != '']"/>
        <xsl:value-of select="$testimonialNodes[bdk:Random(count($testimonialNodes))]/data[@alias='testimonialsnippet']" /><br />
        </xsl:template>

It is showing random testimonials like I want but every now and then it shows nothing and I can't work out why it is doing it, I have added the following to the variable:

[string(data [@alias='testimonialsnippet']) != '']

which I hoped would make it only show testimonials if they had something in the testimonialsnippet property (even though at the moment they all do) but this did not solve the problem.

You definately seem on the right track, I can't see why that would return blank values.

Yes I know it is very strange, I have just republished the entire site clearing the cache to see if that helped but it has not resolved the issue. Is there anyone else out there that can shed any light on this?

Can anyone see what is causing my issue above or does anyone know of an alternative method to randomly show the content from a node? Thanks in advance for any help offered.

Can anyone help at all with this? I have been going over this for ages now, I currently have the following code:

       <msxsl:script language="JavaScript" implements-prefix="bdk">
                function Random(r) { return Math.ceil(Math.random()*r); }
        </msxsl:script>
        <xsl:template match="/">
<xsl:variable name="testimonialNodes" select="umbraco.library:GetXmlNodeById(1085)/node [string(data [@alias='testimonialsnippet']) != '']" />
<xsl:for-each select="$testimonialNodes[bdk:Random(count($testimonialNodes))] " >
<xsl:value-of select="data [@alias = 'testimonialsnippet']"/>
</xsl:for-each>

I was under the impression that:

<xsl:variable name="testimonialNodes" select="umbraco.library:GetXmlNodeById(1085)/node [string(data [@alias='testimonialsnippet']) != '']" />

should be creating a variable called testimonialNodes that is child nodes of node 1085 where the testimonialsnippet property is not blank but somehow I am still getting a blank output every now and then! It just doesn't make sense. Is my XSLT wrong in some way or is this some sort of bug?

Another issue I have just noticed is that it also sometimes displays more than one testimonial.

Ok I have finally resolved this, just in case anyone is interested the code I used to get it working is as follows, it's a shame you can't mark your own posts as the solution!

 <xsl:variable name="maxItems" select="number(1)" />
  <xsl:template match="/">
<div class="testimonialstitle">
 Our clients say:
 </div>
      <xsl:for-each select="umbraco.library:GetXmlNodeById(1085)//node">
        <xsl:sort select="randomTools:GetRandom(0,count(umbraco.library:GetXmlNodeById(1085)//node))" order="ascending" />
        <xsl:if test="position() &lt;= $maxItems">
         <span class="testimonialstext">
  <img src="/images/start-quote.jpg"/>
  <xsl:value-of select="data [@alias = 'testimonialsnippet']"/>
  <img src="/images/end-quote.jpg"/>
  </span>
       </xsl:if>
      </xsl:for-each>
  </xsl:template>



  <msxsl:script language="c#" implements-prefix="randomTools">
    <msxsl:assembly href="../bin/umbraco.dll"/>
    <![CDATA[
        /// <summary>
        /// Gets a random integer that falls between the specified limits
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="lowerLimit">An integer that defines the lower-boundary of the range</param>
        /// <param name="upperLimit">An integer that defines the upper-boundary of the range</param>
        /// <returns>A random integer within the specified range</returns>
        public static int GetRandom(int lowerLimit,int upperLimit) {
            Random r = umbraco.library.GetRandom();
            int returnedNumber = 0;
            lock (r)
            {
                returnedNumber = r.Next(lowerLimit, upperLimit);
            }
            return returnedNumber;
        }
    ]]>
  </msxsl:script>

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