Joomla CLI script to generate unique codes with a predefined length.

gencodes.php

<?php
/**
 * gencodes.php
 *
 * This Joomla CLI script can generate unique codes of a predefined length.
 * The codes are written to standard output.
 *
 * Modify the value of variables $how_many and $code_length to your liking.
 *
 * Installation: upload this file to your Joomla CLI folder.
 * Example usage: php gencodes.php > codes.txt
 *
 * Written by: René Kreijveld, email [at] renekreijveld [dot] nl
 *
 */

// Make sure we're being called from the command line, not a web interface
if (PHP_SAPI !== 'cli')
{
	die('This is a command line only application.');
}

// We are a valid entry point.
const _JEXEC = 1;

// Load system defines
if (file_exists(dirname(__DIR__) . '/defines.php'))
{
	require_once dirname(__DIR__) . '/defines.php';
}

if (!defined('_JDEFINES'))
{
	define('JPATH_BASE', dirname(__DIR__));
	require_once JPATH_BASE . '/includes/defines.php';
}

// Get the framework.
require_once JPATH_LIBRARIES . '/import.legacy.php';

// Bootstrap the CMS libraries.
require_once JPATH_LIBRARIES . '/cms.php';

class CreateCodesCli extends JApplicationCli
{
	function createCode($length) {
		// Generate codes from these characters.
		// This prevents hard-to-read codes with characters like
		// A and 4, 1 and I, 0 and O
		$chars = "2356789ABCDEFGHJKLMNPQRSTUVWXYZ";
		$code = "";
		while (strlen($code) < $length) {
			$code .= $chars{mt_rand(0,strlen($chars))};
		}
		return $code;
	}

	public function doExecute()
	{

		// How many codes do you want to generate?
		$how_many = 1000;
		// How long (in characters) must your code be?
		$code_length = 8;

		for ($x = 1; $x <= $how_many; $x++) {
			// Generate code
			$code = $this->createCode($code_length);
			// Write to standard output
			$this->out($code);
		} 		

	}
}

JApplicationCli::getInstance('CreateCodesCli')->execute();