Randomize Content

Using Smarty, you can randomize blocks of content in a message. The content will be randomized at send time or during message preview. This is useful if you need to display advertising content randomly in a message.

In this example we will assign a variable with a random value between 1 and 4. Then in the content, we can use an {if}{else} statement to print the random result:

{$data.min = 1}
{$data.max = 4}
{$data.random = "{math equation='rand(min, max)' min=$data.min max=$data.max}"}
{if $data.random == 1}
  Ad 1
{elseif $data.random == 2}
  Ad 2
{elseif $data.random == 3}
  Ad 3
{else}
  Ad 4
{/if}

<h1>Debug Data</h1>
{$utils->jsonPrettyPrint($data)}
<br><hr><br>

Every time the message is sent or previewed, the content will change according to the number that was selected at random by Smarty.

We can also render a random value from an array:

{* Math for Random *}
{$random.min = 0}
{$random.max = 3}
{$random.index = "{math equation='rand(min, max)' min=$random.min max=$random.max}"}

{* Array *}
{$array_list = ['value1','value2','value3','value4']}

{* Return a Random Number Between 0-3 for the Array *}
{$random_result = $array_list[$random.index]}

<p>{$random_result}</p>

In the next article learn about calculating distance between postal codes.