function getRandomString($length = 8) {
    $characters = '0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ';
    $string = '';

    for ($i = 0; $i < $length; $i++) {
        $string .= $characters[mt_rand(0, strlen($characters) - 1)];
    }

    return $string;
}

You can try this:

<?php
    function random($len){

        $char = '0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ';

        // ----------------------------------------------
        // Number of possible combinations
        // ----------------------------------------------
        $pos = strlen($char);
        pos, $len);
        echo total = strlen($char)-1;
        $text = "";

        for (i<i++){
            $text = $text.$char[rand(0, $total)];
        }
        return $text;
    }

    $string = random(15);
    echo $string;
?>

You can also use md5 on time but be careful.

You need to use microtime() and not time() function, because if multiple threads run within the same second, you need to get different string for all of them.

<?php

    $string = md5(microtime());
    echo $string;
?>