A Definitive Tutorial for multi-column displays

[Squiggles]

Hi All,

I'd like to know if there's a good tutorial around that can help me regarding multi-column displays. I'd like to work on photo galleries where the table displays 3 images across, until the last item. Apart from this, I'd like to have some sort of tutorial wherein I can display more columns at a time.

Any suggestions?

Many thanks in advance.

[cliveharber]

I don't know of any specific tutorials that will help with your problem, but I recently built this for a client. You can see the results at http://www.ftconline.org.uk - use the Assemblies link in the side menu.

<?php

function builder ($in) {
                 //build the markup for the table cells
	     while (count($in)%3 != 0) {
    	          array_push($in, '<td>&nbsp;</td>');
                 }
                 return $in;
            }

            function row_builder ($in) {
                 //build the markup for the table rows
	     for ($i=0; $i<count($in); $i++) {
    	          array_push($in[$i], "</tr>\n");
                      array_unshift($in[$i], '<tr>');
                      $in[$i] = implode("", $in[$i]);
                 } 
	     return $in;
            }

$dir = scandir('./assemblies');

for ($i=0; $i<2; $i++) {
     array_shift($dir);
}

$num = count($dir);

for ($i=0; $i<$num; $i++) {
     $file = array_shift(explode(".", $dir[$i]));
     $dir[$i] = $file;
}

$dir = array_unique($dir);

$img = NULL;
$str = NULL;
$i=0;
$img_array = array();
$str_array = array();
$txt_array = array();

   //read the files in the directory and determine what they are and then
   //determine if they have images or not

foreach ($dir as $file) {
     $gif = "./assemblies/$file.gif";
     $jpg = "./assemblies/$file.jpg";
     $pps = "./assemblies/$file.pps";
     $link = "<a href='{$_SERVER['PHP_SELF']}?find=assembly&name=$file'>";
     $name = str_replace("_", " ", $file);
     if (file_exists($pps) && (file_exists($gif) || file_exists($jpg))) {
          //build the image link
         $img .= '<td>';
         $img .= $link;
         if ($gif) {
              $img .= "<img src='$gif' alt='$file' />";
         } else {
              $img .= "<img src='$jpg' alt='$file' />";
         }
         $img .= '</a></td>';
              //build the string link
             $str .= "<td>$link$name</a></td>";
 //write the arrays
 $img_array[$i] = $img;
             $str_array[$i] = $str;

             $img = NULL;
             $str = NULL;

     } else if (file_exists($pps)&& !(file_exists($gif) || file_exists($jpg))) {
    	$txt .= "<td>$link$name</a></td>";
            $txt_array[$i] = $txt;

            $txt = NULL;
     }
     $i++;
   }

  //build the relevant arrays with mark up
  $img_array = row_builder(array_chunk(builder($img_array), 3));
  $str_array = row_builder(array_chunk(builder($str_array), 3));
  $txt_array = row_builder(array_chunk($txt_array, 3));

  //build the display table with images
  echo '<table style="width:100%; text-align:center;" >';

  for ($i=0; $i<count($img_array); $i++) {
       echo $img_array[$i];
       echo $str_array[$i];
  }

  echo '</table><br />';

  //build any remaining text links
  echo '<table style="width:100%; text-align:center;" >';
  for ($i=0; $i<count($txt_array); $i++) {
       echo $txt_array[$i];
  }
  echo '</table>';

?>

The requirement was to link an image link to a downloadable .pps file, and if no image was available to provide a link anyway - there would also be a variable number of files in the required directory at any one time.

I hope that this helps you with your problem.

[Roger_Ramjet]

This one came up in the last few days so search and you'll find plenty of info already posted.