Simple Script Snippets: Change CSS with PHP Date

A great way to keep your site up-to-date and current is to have a seasonal element – Santa at Christmas, Snow in the Winter, Pumpkins at Halloween, Bunnies at Easter..

One popular method of doing this is to have a banner area, however another way could be to use different backgrounds dependent on the time of year.

Either way – you may not have the time to go along and make the changes every few weeks/months, so here’s a way to automate it. Just make all the images and stylesheets you need ahead of time!

Here’s an example that will change your spreadsheet based on the month, with a fallback if you don’t want a special design every month:

<?php $dateCheck = date('F');

		if ($dateCheck == "March"):?>

      <link href="styles-spring.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" />

      <?php elseif ($dateCheck == "July"): ?>

		<link href="styles-summer.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" />

		<?php elseif ($dateCheck == "October"): ?>

		<link href="styles-halloween.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" />

		<?php elseif ($dateCheck == "December"): ?>

		<link href="styles-christmas.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" />

<?php else: ?>

		<link href="styles.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" />

<?php endif; ?>

And in this example the stylesheet changes based on the time (H = is hours on a 24 hour clock with leading zeros):

<?php $timeCheck = date('H'); echo $time;

		if ($timeCheck > 04 && $timeCheck <= 09):?>

		morning: <link href="styles-morning.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" />

		<?php elseif ($timeCheck > 09 && $timeCheck <= 17): ?>

		<link href="styles-day.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" />

      <?php elseif ($timeCheck > 17 && $timeCheck <= 20): ?>

		<link href="styles-evening.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" />

      <?php elseif ($timeCheck > 20 && $timeCheck <= 04): ?>

		<link href="styles-night.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" />

		<?php else: ?>

		<link href="styles.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" />

		<?php endif; ?>