Dynamic Dropdown menus

Anon

Hey, i'm just starting off with php3, and a webcomic. i was wondering how do you code it so that its like www.penny-arcade.com ? like with the dropdown menu and everything. thanks in advance.

dolphinsnot

I don't know. i've never seen penny-arcade.com, and their page is taking forever to load.

Did you read their source code to see what the drop-down does? have you looked into javascript? have you researched different drop-down solutions? have you tried a search engine (javascript, drop-down, dropdown, drop, down, php, dynamic, open source, download, archive, script, blah blah blah)?

have you done any actual work here, or do you just want someone to make your comic strip go?

there are many ways to go about scripting any given website.

do some work, learn a litte, come back.

ask a specific question, get a specific answer.

-dolphinsnot

Anon

ok then. i'm extremely new to php3 and such, and yes i have looked at the source,and i'll ask a more specific question.

in a drop down menu, how should i go about coding it to automatically update a list of links to jpgs that i upload?

dolphinsnot

ahhh....i got the page to load finally...i see what you're talking about now.

do you plan to use a database to store all of this information?

i would highly reccommend it. are you familiar with MySQL?

do you have lotsa experience with HTML and JavaScript?

I would reccommend using a database backend in conjunction with some sort of template system.

you could basically have all your page info (and even images, if you like) stored in a database...php could then pull information from the database and put it into an empty .html 'template'.... this would be a file, written in html (and javascripit, most likely) that would contain static page elements such as layout, navigation system, stylesheets, etc. you mark slots in it with labels, your php template engine plugs those holes....

as far as the dynamically-generated drop down menu goes, your template could have an empty slot for the drop down menu, your php template engine would search your database for image/page titles along with their URLs, and build the proper drop-down accordingly...with a little snippet of JavaScript added into the mix, the Site Visitor would be automatically taken to the page by simply selecting from the drop-down (no 'Go' or 'Submit' button required)...

Anyhow, if this sounds interesting to you, and you'd like me to give you a list of links to get ya started; or if you have any questions about what i just explained; go ahead and respond to this here message, and i'll get back to you as soon as i am able.

-Beep-

:o)

-dolphinsnot

Anon

allright. thanks a lot man.

dolphinsnot

http://www.phpbuilder.com/columns/david20000512.php3

---an article on this site explaining how to use the Templates feature of PHPLIB...read it, find PHPLIB, download it, use it.

http://www.phpbuilder.com/columns/tim20010101.php3

---an article on 'proper' php code formatting...some of it is debatable, but it's well debated in the article's comments section. you may learn something useful here.

http://www.php.net

---The Mutha Ship! When you find a funciton somewhere that stumps ya, check there before here. Make use of the 'Search Function List' feature, and Crawl through the 'Links' section.

http://www.hotscripts.com
http://php.resourceindex.com
http://freshmeat.net

---all of these sites have tons of open-source php scripts to download, along with helpful tutorials and documentations. Download them! Install Them! Read Them! Staring at code for hours and hours and working through Installing php scripts helped me greatly in the beginning.

http://mysql.com

---homepage for MySQL open-source database software.

http://phpwizard.net/projects/phpMyAdmin/

---A MySQL Administration program written entirely in php...I cannot express how valuable installing this app was for me. I learned a lot about databases and php from this program when I was a super-newbie.

before you can build your drop-downs, you'll need to get an understanding of loops, arrays, pointers, and database interaction...look for these things in the resources i listed above....

hope this gets you started! fyi - i just saved you the 4 weeks of research it took to me find all the links listed above.

good luck to ya, and come back when you have problems getting things to work and can't find an answer on your own.

-dolphinsnot