Navigation Breadcrumbs Problem

[markbowman]

I am trying to generate breadcrumbs for users who travel through my site so they can step back if they want or have clicked on a link they did not want.

Example of what I am trying to do!

I have a home page displaying categories from my db

Music
Video
DVD

Once clicked (say music) it will take you to another page where the sub categories are displayed

• POP
• Rock
• Dance

What I want php to do is display the breadcrumbs
Home >> Music >> POP >> Artist

It seems easy to do with static pages and directories but not when the pages are dynamically generated using just the one page.

Can anyone help or suggest anything better

Thanks

Mark

The script I have been using is below from http://www.evolt.org/article/Breadcrumbs_for_PHP_Lovers/17/4455/

INCLUDE FILE

<?php

function breadCrumb($PATH_INFO) {
global $page_title, $root_url;

// Remove these comments if you like, but only distribute
// commented versions.

// Replace all instances of with a space
$PATH_INFO = str_replace("", " ", $PATH_INFO);
// split up the path at each slash
$pathArray = explode("/",$PATH_INFO);

// Initialize variable and add link to home page
if(!isset($root_url)) { $root_url=""; }
$breadCrumbHTML = '<a href="'.$root_url.'/" title="Home Page">Home</a> &gt; ';

// initialize newTrail
$newTrail = $root_url."/";

// starting for loop at 1 to remove root
for($a=1;$a<count($pathArray)-1;$a++) {
// capitalize the first letter of each word in the section name
$crumbDisplayName = ucwords($pathArray[$a]);
// rebuild the navigation path
$newTrail .= $pathArray[$a].'/';
// build the HTML for the breadcrumb trail
$breadCrumbHTML .= '<a href="'.$newTrail.'">'.$crumbDisplayName.'</a> &gt; ';
}
// Add the current page
if(!isset($page_title)) { $page_title = "Current Page"; }
$breadCrumbHTML .= '<strong>'.$page_title.'</strong>';

// print the generated HTML
print($breadCrumbHTML);

// return success (not necessary, but maybe the
// user wants to test its success?
return true;
}

?>

INCLUDE THE FILE IN THE PAGE

<?php $page_title = "";
include('/includes/breadcrumb.php'); ?>
<title><?php echo $page_title ?></title>

AND USE THE FUNCTION IN THE PAGE

<?php breadCrumb($PATH_INFO); ?>

[jesus_hairdo]

I have done something similar in concept but used a different approach.

Each category has a parent-category field.
The parent-category field holds the ID of its parent category, so if you had:

Cat1 --> subcat1 --> subsubcat1

subsubcat1 would have a parent_category value the same as the ID value for subcat1,
subcat1 would have a parent_category value the same as the ID value for Cat1.

So you basically work backwards and construct the path.

if you create an array of each of these sections, then just recurse backwards thru it, to construct the text

My category table has just the following fields, id, category and parent_category_id. id is just an autonumber primary key field, category is the actual text (ie "Email") and parent_category_id is simply the id value for the category's parent.

Here is the function i use on my FAQ system.

function category_root($root_category_id, $link_type="faq")
{
	/* 
	   this function takes the current category_id as a parameter and works out the FAQ path
	   the link_type can be either faq or userguide, if its FAQ the last entry is NOT linked, whereas for userguide it is
	   the returned result is an array with 2 indeces.
	   Index 'link' is the html to display the path,
	   Index 'text' is the text of the path for use in a page title
	*/
	global $PHP_SELF;
	$root_index = 0; //this is needed as a numerical index for the root_array
	while ($root_category_id != 0)
	{		
		$root_sql = "SELECT id, category, category_description, parent_category_id FROM categories WHERE id = '$root_category_id'";
		$root_result = mysql_query($root_sql) or die( "Error in SQL, <BR><B>$root_sql</b><br>". mysql_error());
		$root_row = mysql_fetch_array($root_result);
		$root_category_id = $root_row[parent_category_id];
		$root_array[$root_index][id] = $root_row[id];
		$root_array[$root_index][category] = $root_row[category];
		$root_array[$root_index][description] = $root_row[category_description];
		$root_index ++;
	}
	//check whether or not to have FAQ as a link or just text.
	if (count($root_array) == 0)
	{
		//we are at the root of the FAQ so just show FAQ text
		$category_path_link = "FAQs / Userguides";
	}
	else
	{
		//we are not at the root of the FAQs so link to FAQ text.
		$category_path_link = "<a href=\"/it/?main_url=/it/helpdesk/faqs/faq.php\">FAQs / Userguides</a> ";
	}
	$category_path_text = "FAQs / Userguides";
	for ($i = count($root_array) - 1; $i >= 0; $i-- )
	{
		//go backwards through the array (as the array is backwards), so this will start with the main category, then the sub-category and so on.
		if ($i == 0 && $link_type=="faq")
		{
			$category_path_link .=" --&gt; <a title=\"". $root_array[$i][description] ."\">". $root_array[$i][category] ."</a>";
		}
		else
		{
			$category_path_link .=" --&gt; <a href=\"/it/?main_url=/it/helpdesk/faqs/faq.php?category_id=".$root_array[$i][id]."\" title=\"". $root_array[$i][description]."\">". $root_array[$i][category] ."</a>"; //this needs changing to have a status bar mouse over showing the description.
		}
		$category_path_text .= " --&gt; ".$root_array[$i][category];

}
$return_array[link] = $category_path_link;
$return_array[text] = $category_path_text;
return $return_array;
}

Jamie