Question

I’m looking for a simple extension that allows via admin console to load some background pics and display them on the frontend per user session (not on refresh). I don’t think anything is out there so some pointers on how to start building one would be great too. Thanks!

Answer 1

Here is a solution for you.

You can upload images through Magento admin into media storage. Lets say you created a subdir “backgrounds” in there and uploaded various images there. Then all you need to do is add the following code into app/design/frontend/[your-interface]/[your-theme]/template/page/html/header.php

<?php

 if(!$background = Mage::getSingleton('core/session')->getBackground()){
  $img_arr = array();
  if($handle = opendir(Mage::getBaseDir('base').'/media/backgrounds/')){
   while(false !== ($entry = readdir($handle))){
    if(!preg_match('/^\.+$/', $entry)){
     $img_arr[] = $entry;
    }
   }
   closedir($handle);
  }
  if($img_cnt = count($img_arr)){
   $background = Mage::getBaseUrl(Mage_Core_Model_Store::URL_TYPE_LINK).$img_arr[rand(0, $img_cnt-1)]
   Mage::getSingleton('core/session')->setBackground($background);
  }
 }

?>
<?php if(isset($background) && $background) : ?>
<style> background:url(<?php echo $background; ?>); </style>
<?php endif; ?>

Did not tested it live. Let me know.