like sulu at the helm - nav. magic

[ATS16805]

hi there. i'm trying to figure out how i would set up the following navigational coolness:

<div id="leftcol" >
			<ul id="navlist">
				<li><a href="index.php">About the Doc.</a></li>
				<li><a href="ch01.php"><?php print info file target; ?></a></li>
				<li><a href="ch02_writing-editing.php">Writing &amp; Editing</a></li>
			</ul>
	</div>

i'm sure it can be done somehow-- but exactly what approach to take-- well, that's why i've come here of course!

i want it to read:

• index

• ch01

• ch01_writing-editing

i'm okay w/ getting the file names, via this technique in general:

<?php

$process = $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'];
$patharray = pathinfo($process);
$thispage = rtrim($patharray['basename'], (".".$patharray['extension']));

echo $thispage;

echo "<pre><br />This is the \$patharray : ".$patharray."<br />"; 
print_r($patharray); 
echo "</pre>";
?>

but it's the question of how to plug that [concept of data generation] into my nav. structure where it's flying just above my big fat head

maybe this whole pathinfo() bit isn't the way to go. it's not necessarily functional as much as it's just for Fun-tional. (to learn something)

what would you do with it?

[banzaimonkey]

Try this:

$path = (pathinfo($_SERVER['PHP_SELF']));
print($path['filename']);

I'm not sure what else you want to do. Your post is a bit confusing. 😛

[ATS16805]

banzaimonkey wrote:

I'm not sure what else you want to do. Your post is a bit confusing.

no doubt.

after i posted, it occurred to me that i probably just need to have some function reading the file names, setting up the nav menu-- as separate from the actual process of loading the navigation.inc -- where i'm keeping that < ul >

the idea is that the text for each nav item (each < li >< a > contents) is automatically generated based on the file name. my problem is i can't think how to grab all of the file names at once to do that generation.

what comes to mind is something like what is shown in a tutorial i've studied elsewhere*:

if (is_dir($dir)) {
	if ($dh = opendir($dir)) {
	// iterate over file list
	// print filenames
		while (($filename = readdir($dh)) !== false) {
			if (($filename != ".") && ($filename != "..")) {
			$count ++;
			echo $dir . "/" . $filename . "<br /> \n";
			}
		}
	// close directory
	closedir($dh);
	}
}

but i don't know if it's the right choice, nor precisely how i should go about using it. however, like i said-- it was an afterthought-- i just haven't had time to get to trying it yet, and i'm still open for suggestion, of course. thanks!

*melonfire - file and directory manipulation
(there is also a copy of this tutorial at weberdev.com )

[banzaimonkey]

If you're using PHP5 you can use scandir() to find out what's in a folder. Combined with is_dir() and is_file(), you can decide to parse the filename (as above) or crawl further.

scandir() returns an array through which you can cycle using a foreach() loop, and easily test for files using is_file() and output those that validate.

All told, you might have something like this:

<?php
  function navigation($dir)
  {
    $dirlisting = scandir($dir);

echo '<ul>';
foreach($dirlisting as $value)
{
  if (is_file($value))
  {
    $path = (pathinfo($value));
    $url = ($path['filename']);
    echo '<li><a href="' . $url . '.php">' . $url .'</a></li>';  
  }
}
echo '</ul>';
  }
?>

As you'll notice, everything is placed in a function. This means you can include the script and call it as a function on each page of your website with a small snippet of code:

<?php include('<pathto>/nav.php'); navigation($dir); ?>

If you expect to have files other than .php files in your directory, you may need some further tweaking.

[ATS16805]

cool. thanks for that bit. not sure when i'll get to playing w/ it again, but the thanks means as much!

btw, would there be any advantage in making a Class of this function? (yes, or no, and why have you answered as such, please -- i'm trying to learn more about OOP in the background as well... i think i have misunderstood classes -- using objects where functions would probably do the trick, etc.)
no biggie if you (or anyone reading) don't feel like answering this part!

thanks again! 🙂

[banzaimonkey]

ATS16805 wrote:

would there be any advantage in making a Class of this function?

Probably not. A single class or script can hold multiple functions. If you wanted to create a recursive structure to map our your entire website, or use it as part of a CMS, it might be a good idea to use an OOP approach, but for something simple like this, that's overly complex, imo.