an_goodboy2000
Comments: 3
 

Can u provide a sample on how to use this to create a tag cloud

pomppu
Comments: 2
 

I've been banging my head onto a wall while trying to get this to work. I cannot provide a working sample code, but here's a try so if anyone can tell me what's wrong with my attempt, then there's the sample for you too, an_goodboy2000.

My problem is that there is something wrong with the array of objects I'm creating. I get an error message for each tag object in my array saying: "Warning: Cannot use a scalar value as an array in /home/[removed]/links.php on line 103"

The line 103 looks like this: <code>$tags[$key][tag_class] = 'tag'.$bucket_count;</code>

This is my code:
<code>
require("databaseconnection.php");

class tag {
var $tag_name;
var $tag_count;
var $tag_class;
}

$tags=array();

$sql = "SELECT tag, COUNT(tag) as count FROM links_tags GROUP BY tag ORDER BY count";
$result = mysql_query($sql);

while ($rowInfo = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
{
$tempTag=new tag();
$tempTag->tag_name = ($rowInfo['tag']);
$tempTag->tag_count = ($rowInfo['count']);
$tags[]=$tempTag;
}

cloud_tags($tags);
</code>

Could someone please show me what I'm doing wrong. Best regards and thanks in advance.

sunnyc
Comments: 3
 

Its good the code is published but as an_goodboy2000 requested can someone please explain how to use this code so even we can learn and implement it on our site.

pomppu
Comments: 2
 

I can post thorough and easy-to-understand instructions on how to use this as soon as someone more knowledgeable points out what the problem with my attempt is. I'm pretty sure it is a very small thing.

sunnyc
Comments: 3
 

can hawkee programers please help popppu as i see you have implemented this on your site. your help is much appreciated.

an_goodboy2000
Comments: 3
 

ya the hawkee guys should be able to help us out here since they are already using this code? pomppu am going through your code if i find the soln will let u know

Hawkee
Comments: 398
 

pomppu, this code does not use a class. You just need to create an array. So in your code use $tempTag[tag_name] = $rowInfo['tag'] and forget creating a new tag() object. This should solve your problem.

Hawkee
Comments: 398
 

This should do the trick here:

require("databaseconnection.php");

$tags=array();

$sql = "SELECT tag, COUNT(tag) as count FROM links_tags GROUP BY tag ORDER BY count";
$result = mysql_query($sql);

while ($rowInfo = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
{
$tempTag[tag_name] = $rowInfo['tag'];
$tempTag[tag_count] = $rowInfo['count'];
$tags[] = $tempTag;
}

$tags = cloud_tags($tags);

sunnyc
Comments: 3
 

Pomppu, could you please help us how to implement this on my site. Sorry I cannot provide the URL to my site as it is on a test bed internally behind the firewall.

I got machine setup with fedora core 4 running apache, mysql, perl, and php.

I am not a php programmer myself and i know little bit about CGI scripting. Your help will be much appreciated.

phpOtter
Comments: 2
 

Great snippet. I created a class around it to make management easier and to let you set the number of buckets (fonts) and the base css class name. How to use in the next post.

class cloud_tag
{
// constructor. init our variables
function cloud_tag()
{
$this->tag_label = "tag";
$this->tag_sizes = 7;
}

// set the label for the css class
function set_label($label) {$this->tag_label = $label;}

// set the number of buckets
function set_tagsizes($sizes) {$this->tag_sizes = $sizes;}

// create a cloud tag
function make_cloud($tags)
{

usort($tags, array($this,'tag_asort'));
if(count($tags) == 0) return $tags;

// Start with the sorted list of tags and divide by the number of font sizes (buckets).
// Then proceed to put an even number of tags into each bucket. The only restriction is
// that tags of the same count can't span 2 buckets, so some buckets may have more tags
// than others. Because of this, the sorted list of remaining tags is divided by the
// remaining 'buckets' to evenly distribute the remainder of the tags and to fill as
// many 'buckets' as possible up to the largest font size.

$total_tags = count($tags);
$min_tags = $total_tags / $this->tag_sizes;

$bucket_count = 1;
$bucket_items = 0;
$tags_set = 0;
foreach($tags as $key => $tag)
{
$tag_count = $tag[tag_count];

// If we've met the minimum number of tags for this class and the current tag
// does not equal the last tag, we can proceed to the next class.

if(($bucket_items >= $min_tags) and $last_count != $tag_count and $bucket_count < $this->tag_sizes)
{
$bucket_count++;
$bucket_items = 0;

// Calculate a new minimum number of tags for the remaining classes.
$remaining_tags = $total_tags - $tags_set;
$min_tags = $remaining_tags / $bucket_count;
}

// Set the tag to the current class.
$tags[$key][tag_class] = $this->tag_label.$bucket_count;
$bucket_items++;
$tags_set++;

$last_count = $tag_count;
}

usort($tags, array($this,'tag_alphasort'));

return $tags;
}

/*-------------------------------------------------------
internal-use-only below here
-------------------------------------------------------*/

// sorts a list of tags by their count ascending.
function tag_asort($tag1, $tag2)
{
if($tag1[tag_count] == $tag2[tag_count]) return 0;
return ($tag1[tag_count] < $tag2[tag_count]) ? -1 : 1;
}

// sorts a list of tags alphabetically by tag_name
function tag_alphasort($tag1, $tag2)
{
if($tag1[tag_name] == $tag2[tag_name]) return 0;
return ($tag1[tag_name] < $tag2[tag_name]) ? -1 : 1;
}

/*-------------------------------------------------------
member variables
-------------------------------------------------------*/

var $tag_label; // the css base class name
var $tag_sizes; // number of buckets (font sizes)
}

phpOtter
Comments: 2
 

how to use the cloud_tag class (see post below for class source):

// create some fake input

$tags = array();
$tempTag[tag_name] = 'ajax';
$tempTag[tag_count] = 3;
$tags[] = $tempTag;
$tempTag[tag_name] = 'mysql';
$tempTag[tag_count] = 3;
$tags[] = $tempTag;
$tempTag[tag_name] = 'linux';
$tempTag[tag_count] = 1;
$tags[] = $tempTag;
$tempTag[tag_name] = 'php';
$tempTag[tag_count] = 6;
$tags[] = $tempTag;

// instantiate a cloud
$cloud = new cloud_tag();

// the class already has defaults, but let's override them for fun

$cloud->set_label('cloud'); // css classes will be cloud1, cloud2, etc.
$cloud->set_tagsizes(7); // 7 font sizes will be used

$newtags = $cloud->make_cloud($tags); // make a tag cloud

an_goodboy2000
Comments: 3
 

Hi phpotter
can u give an example of how to extract the tags and class from the returned array and display a basic tag cloud for the test data you have given

thnx
Regards

F*U*R*B*Y*
Comments: 408
 

Hawkee, can you give an example on how to use this please? :) it looks great and i am yearning to use it on my website :P

Hawkee
Comments: 398
 

Furby, you need to create a database of tags / keywords and add up the number of items for each keyword. Once you've built an array with this information use the format given above to determine CSS tags for each item. Here is the CSS we use here at Hawkee:

http://www.hawkee.com/snippet/2495/

nyfalcon
Comments: 9
 

Wow this is really helpful thanks