PHP Menus

[Manat]

Hello all. I have to create a Menu system for our site's new navigation process.

I was wondering if you guys can help me out.

If you go here, http://www.mattel.com/about_us/default.asp

You will see their menu system. This is the sort that I want to create. You click on a Parent menu link, and a submenu list opens up relative to the parent menu. And when you click on say 'Toys', it defaults to the All Toys submenu, and both links are highlighted.

How would I code this menu in PHP? And if every page in my site will use this menu, will every page need to be a .php page?

How would I begin to code this?
Can you guys also provide a little snippet to show me and explain the general structure of such a project?

Thanks

[bbaassiri]

one thing you could do is look at watch page is being accessed and toggle an image src based on that page

now this will work but for scalibility (ie as your menus gets larger) it can get messy

 <?
                if (ereg( "/about/corporate_background.php", $PHP_SELF)) {
        ?>
                        <td align=left width="151"><a href="/about/corporate_background.php" onMouseOver="imgOver(pic1)" onMouseOut="imgOut(pic1)"><img src="/images/about/sdcorporate_background.jpg" alt="Corporate Background" width="150" height="15" border="0"></a></td>
        <?
                } else {
        ?>
                        <td align=left width="151"><a href="/about/corporate_background.php" onMouseOver="imgOver(pic1)" onMouseOut="imgOut(pic1)"><img src="/images/about/scorporate_background.jpg" alt="Corporate Background" width="150" height="15" border="0"></a></td>
        <?
                }
        ?>

where sd is a dark image and the other isn't

[michael]

This would be really easy to do.

The fun part is: Do you want the backend controlled by mySQL?

Define your menu, and how you want it laid out. Use a table to seperate the top elements and the bottom.

 
<style>
	BODY 		{scrollbar-face-color: #cccccc; scrollbar-shadow-color: #ababab;
		  	scrollbar-highlight-color: #f6f6f6; scrollbar-3dlight-color: #c4c4c4;
			scrollbar-darkshadow-color: #000000; scrollbar-track-color: #c2c2c2;
			scrollbar-arrow-color: #0e0e0e }
	form.thin 	{margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;}
	IMG 		{ border: 0; } 
	TR.grey1   	{ background-color: #c0c0c0 }
	TR.grey2   	{ background-color: #d0d0d0 }
        TEXTAREA        { behavior: url(/php/inc/behaviors/maxlength.htc) }

</style>

<?

$classes=array('grey1','grey2');

echo '<tr>';
foreach ($toplevelmenu as $menuitem=>$link) {
$classused = !$classused;
echo '<td class='.$classes[$classused].'><a href='.$link.'>'.$menuitem.'</td>';
}
echo '</tr>';

echo '<tr>';
foreach ($secondlevelmenu as $menuitem=>$link) {
$classused = !$classused;
echo '<td class='.$classes[$classused].'><a href='.$link.'>'.$menuitem.'</td>';
}
echo '</tr>';


?>

Yeah. It's something like that.

Would it work, assuming you fill in the blanks. Yes.
Good design? Not so much.

[Manat]

Why isn't good design?
And what would be the pros and cons in terms of A php menu system like mattel.com and a php menu controlled by MySQL?

I don't see the advantages and disadvantages in comparison.
And why do you say it's bad design? It's highly structured.

Thx

[michael]

For me this would be a two fold process: (Ignoring the three step process I lament.)

1. Make it build the page dynamically.
2. Store this dynamic page on the server hard disk drive. <-- Give users this one.

[Manat]

Thanks Micheal, but I didn't understand what your wrote at all.
What do you think is the benefits of having the menu stored on my hard disk versus in the mySql DB?

Also, in your code snippet, why did the textarea include an .htc file?

Can someone give me a detailed explanation(in idiot english language) of how I would go about to structure this and also if you can add some code snippets.

Thank you

I would like my menu system to act like the one on www.mattel.com

Thanks

[michael]

Let me start over.

You would wish to have menus which build from an sql database.

That way, if you have to change your menus, and you use them in more than one place, you can just change the values in the Db.

But, this method is notoriously more slow. And is unnecessary in cases where the menus may not ever change.

The course of action I recommend is to make your php page dynamically create the page from the sql db.

Then, save this generated page to the hard disk drive of the server. (fwrite($fp, implode('\n',file('http://yourpage.com/yourfolder/generatemenu.php');

Whenever you change a menu, rebuild the page.

In the actual page to show the user, do a Readfile('mycached menu.php');

[michael]

The HTC behaviour is something I do on all pages.

It's a small dhtml programme which limits the amount of text you can write into a text area.

It's just a hack becasue my users don't know when to stop talking. =)

[Manat]

Understood.

I now understand the strucutre, but how would I actually build the php menu?

I'm kinda new to PHP, so I have no idea where to start to build this PHP menu.

Thanks
MK

[michael]

Refer to the code I wrote at the top of the page.

[Manat]

echo '<tr>';
foreach ($secondlevelmenu as $menuitem=>$link) {
$classused = !$classused;
echo '<td class='.$classes[$classused].'><a href='.$link.'>'.$menuitem.'</td>';
}
echo '</tr>';

Where does the image go, the image that you click on?
And how do I manage the $link variable?
Does it become updated through the querystring?

Also, I have to keep state since I'm not using frames at all.