navigation

biffboy1126

I have a decent grasp of php, and I've seen that many people use php to build the nav menus for their sites. I have looked at a lot of code tonight from scripts on hotscripts.com and still can't seem to really get a feel for where I need to start to write my own. All that I am looking for is a basic menu with 5 options to sit right below the banner on my site and a lot of the scripts I have looked at seem like overkill to me.

I was thinking I should use an array to list the link options, but if someone could just point me in the right direction I would be eternally grateful.

John

TheDefender

The very basic way to do it woul dbe to create a file called, hmmmm, let's say: nav.inc.php

OK, in this file, create your navigation structure in basic HTML...

Now, on your main file (we'll call it index.php), figure out where you
want the links to be displayed, and just include it.

include('./nav.inc.php');

This can be in a table, nested in a <div> tag, whatever...

That's the most basic. If you want to change the link(s), just edit your nav.inc.php file.

You can also manage your links in a database or flatfile, in which case, you would need to use PHP to generate your links dynamically. If your links don't change (or don't change that often), then the above should work for you.

rachel2004

One slight change to TheDefender's suggestion:

Use

instead of

XHTML compliance requires lowercase for all tags. Otherwise, another good post by TheDefender.

TheDefender

Yeah, sorry about that... I still find myself reverting to old habits sometimes... Thanks for the correction rachel2004. I have edited my earlier post to reflect the change.

biffboy1126

Alright let me rephrase a little...

Im looking to create something along the lines of the link system used on the main page of phpbuilder, where there are tabs, or even just boxes, all non active are one color and the active tab/box is another color, and highlighting changes the color. And I want the head of the page to stay consistant throughout the website (as there will only be a few main pages).

Would I be better off using the include with a css, or should I create a dynamic link list because I don't want the links to run down the left hand margin of the page, I want them to sit underneath the banner.

Sorry for dragging this out, what seems to be an obvious answer to most of you I'm sure. Thanks again.

TheDefender

The principle is the same, and yes, CSS is your best bet to defining the actual styles... Afterall, that's why it is there.

Your links may look something more like this:

$currentpage = basename($_SERVER['PATH_TRANSLATED']);
$linkarray = array("Home" => "index.php", "Contact" => "contactus.php", "About" => "aboutus.php");

FOREACH($linkarray as $key => $link){
	If($currentpage == $link){
		$style = "color: #ff0000;";
	} else {
		$style = "color: #00ffff; text-decoration: none;";
	}
	echo "<a href=\"".$link."\" style=\"".$style."\">".$key."</a> ";
}

There are a bunch of ways to do this, but this is one... You can define your styles any way you wish... Play with the settings, and see if that helps any... Let us know. And don't worry about "dragging" anything out... We're here to help.

zapa

nice one TheDefender, that will go in my snippets 🙂

TheDefender

Thanks Zapa... Yeah, I have used it a few times... It's a good quick, down and dirty method for creating a reusable link list... Some people have questioned the use of the PATH_TRANSLATED value, and suggest using PHP_SELF, but this mthod has worked more consistently for me in the past... I also have several variants to include things like putting a pipe ( | ) symbol between them, and whatnot... Everyone is different in what they want...

I have used it to create a pretty slick alphabet link system for a corporate intranet directory I wrote... (Thanks to help from some of the regs around here.)

The attached pic shows how the links change when the letter is selected, and whatnot...

biffboy1126

Ok, thanks for the help thus far. If I wanted to add to the code snippet you have put down here, such that when I highlight a link the color behind the link changes and the text-decoration changes, would I create a .css file, include that in the document, then for $style: reference the specific class in the .css file?

TheDefender

Yeah... I only used the direct style definition so you caould see how it is applied to the code... using an external style sheet is just fine... (In fact, that's actually how I do it).

biffboy1126

Ok I have played around long enough... lol

How do I apply certain things to my navigation menu such as onMouseover traits defined in my css? I have chosen the two styles for my links when one is selected as the current page and the others are not.