How can code chunks be represented by {variable}?

DPMan

I am trying to integrate a menu (transmenu) into my blog. To make this menu work, three different chunks of menuing code like the chunks below, need to appear in three different places in my templates. Since the content of my menu will be dynamic (changing based upon login credentials, etc.), it won't do to hard code the menu options, and I don't want to do three different function calls whenever I want to generate the code chunks.

The QUESTION!

Is it possible to write ONE function that would shove each of these chunks into three different variables {CHUNK1}, {CHUNK2}, {CHUNK3} that I could put in my templates? (So the code chunk1 below would go into my template as {CHUNK1}, chunk2 would be {CHUNK2}, etc.)...

Am I making any sense? If so, can someone help me understand what I need to do? I think I have seen where someone did something like this before. Help? :eek:

-(code chunk1 - goes in <head>)----------------------

    <script language="javascript">
    function init() {
        if (TransMenu.isSupported()) {
            TransMenu.initialize();
            menu1.onactivate = function() { document.getElementById("liguria").className = "hover"; };
            menu1.ondeactivate = function() { document.getElementById("liguria").className = ""; };
            menu2.onactivate = function() { document.getElementById("lombardia").className = "hover"; };
            menu2.ondeactivate = function() { document.getElementById("lombardia").className = ""; };
            menu3.onactivate = function() { document.getElementById("veneto").className = "hover"; };
            menu3.ondeactivate = function() { document.getElementById("veneto").className = ""; };
            menu4.onactivate = function() { document.getElementById("toscana").className = "hover"; };
            menu4.ondeactivate = function() { document.getElementById("toscana").className = ""; };
            menu5.onactivate = function() { document.getElementById("lazio").className = "hover"; };
            menu5.ondeactivate = function() { document.getElementById("lazio").className = ""; };
            document.getElementById("umbria").onmouseover = function() {ms.hideCurrent();this.className = "hover";}
            document.getElementById("umbria").onmouseout = function() { this.className = ""; }
        }
    }
    </script>

-(code chunk2 - goes in <body>)----------------------

<div id="menu">
    <a id="liguria" href="#">Liguria</a>
    <a id="lombardia" href="#">Lombardia</a>
    <a id="veneto" href="#">Veneto</a>
    <a id="toscana" href="#">Toscana</a>
    <a id="umbria" href="#">Umbria</a>
    <a id="lazio" href="#">Lazio</a>
</div>

-(code chunk3 is long, but also goes in <body>)-----
Code chunk three is a long javascript chunk

thorpe

im not 100% sure what your trying to do, but you could get these chunks into either a variable...

$chunk2 = ''.
'<div id="menu">'.
'    <a id="liguria" href="#">Liguria</a>'.
'    <a id="lombardia" href="#">Lombardia</a>'.
'    <a id="veneto" href="#">Veneto</a>'.
'    <a id="toscana" href="#">Toscana</a>'.
'    <a id="umbria" href="#">Umbria</a>'.
'    <a id="lazio" href="#">Lazio</a>'.
'</div>';

or you could store it in a function...

function chunk2()
  return ''.
  '<div id="menu">'.
  '    <a id="liguria" href="#">Liguria</a>'.
  '    <a id="lombardia" href="#">Lombardia</a>'.
  '    <a id="veneto" href="#">Veneto</a>'.
  '    <a id="toscana" href="#">Toscana</a>'.
  '    <a id="umbria" href="#">Umbria</a>'.
  '    <a id="lazio" href="#">Lazio</a>'.
  '</div>';
}

hope this helps.

DPMan

The problem with storing the code in a $variable is that I can't put it in a .thtml file. So I guess I need to know what I must do to be able to have the contents of $variable be referred to as {variable}. In some code I have seen complex contents being contained in {this sort of variable}, and then placed in .thtml files. In this way, the contents can change. Unfortunately, I have not yet been able to figure out how it is done.

(This is obviously way above me, but I thought I could learn it. Oh well.)