Site already built.

africano

Ive started working in a new office and they have a website, its done in php. I didnt make it, the person that did is gone, its got an administrators access, where you can change text, edit images etc. The way the site is done there is no way of telling where one is as there is no difference when you click on a button. Can I change this??? PLEASE HELP ME, it would score me some points at work!

Thanks.

condoug

You need to provide a bit more info that that:

there is no difference when you click on a button

What button?

no way of telling where one is

What do you mean?

Do you have a link to the website?

africano

yes, I mean...the main navigation buttons at the top of the screen that take you to the websites pages dont change at all when you click on them ( BREADCRUMB TRAIL) the website is:

www.elcheone.es

Another thing, is there tutorials about php??

chasiv

PHP is a scripting language. There are lots of resources. Here is a great starting place:

http://www.w3schools.com/php/default.asp

But I recommend you get some reference books as well...

As for the buttons, they do work and they point to the .php files in the root directory of the web server. Unfortunately, there is a language barrior for me.

Looks like the images are in a subfolder called imagenes

Hope that helped.

africano

I know the buttons work.....But when you click on them they dont change color, highlight or anything like that....Thats what I mean, its not a good navigational design as there is no way (other than memory) to kow where you are in the site.

Any solutions??

condoug

Hi africano

You do not need to have knowledge of PHP to create simple image rollover buttons.

You can search a million websites for 'image rollovers', or 'css rollovers' which will guide you through what you need to know.

You should really setup a single offline webpage for testing/learning and create 3 or 4 navigation images as a place to begin rather than working on a live website. Once you have the images, create a 2nd image for each of them where the background colour or text colour is different. This will be your 'rollover' state.

If you have dreamweaver, you can click from the menu, Image > Insert Object > Image Rollover for ease. This will get you started.

If you don not have Dreamweaver, just look around the web for some tutorials.

Hope that helps.

chasiv

OK.. first the rollover code:

In the header put this:

<style type="text/css">
<!--
.rollover a { display:block; width:32px; background-color: #FFFFFF}
.rollover a:hover { background-color: #990000}
-->
</style>

Then for each image, use something like this... Of course, you'll want your anchor tag to have the URL.

<div class="rollover"> 
   <p>
     <a href="#"><img src="stuart.gif" width="32" height="32" border="0"></a> 
  </p>
</div>

That takes care of the rollover.... Now, if you want to have the current page button highlighted, just use a If... Then ... statement

If ($_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] == url) { 
       $style = "style='background-color:#FF0000';
} else {
      $style = "style='background-color:#000000;
}
<div $style><a href='link url'>....... </a></div>

That assumes your button background color = #000000 as the default, but edit as necessary.

africano

Where are the images from the website? I mean, would they be on my machine?? I just started working here, an office, and the guy who made the website made it and left. I just want to, as simply as possible change the buttons(rollover etc) I know how to use dreamweaver so could probably do it from there, please give me details, are the images of the buttons for example, are they on my pc?

condoug

The guy who built the website would have had FTP access to the Hosting server. if you are using his PC then my guess is the website content will be on there somewhere also. Just do a Search on the whole C:\ drive.

If not, then you need to ask your manager for FTP access details to the hosting server. You should have already been provided with this if you were given the job to look after the website.

Once you have access, connect to it and look in the public_html folder, or sometimes the httpdocs folder. Just copy the site back down to a folder on your PC and make the changes offline before uploading it back to the live site.

Without FTP access to your web server, you ain't getting anything done.

condoug

This is kinda turning into a non-php issue here so you run the risk of the post being removed.

Good luck africano.

africano

OK, Ive followed your advice and got a copy of the site that was on the host server, Ive now got a copy of the web offline. I can change images etc, but the files are .php, what do I need to open those files? Can I open them in Dreamweaver? what PHP software can I use?

I want to add the option that the buttons change when you click on them (Breadcrumb trail)

Thanks for the patience.

chasiv

In order to execute PHP files offline, you need to install the PHP software (www.php.net) and have your machine setup as a server (either Apache or Windows IIS).

africano

ok, thanks, but Can I open these files in dreamweaver? I wanto add rollover buttons, or at least make the buttons change color when they are clicked or mouse moves over them. Please.

chasiv

Unfortunately, I don't have Dreamweaver so I do not know. I prefer to write my own code from scratch and not use programs like that..

The mouse over codes are CSS code, so you can save the file as HTML and it will work. The If... then ... block is PHP and if you use that, you need to save it as PHP.

Horizon88

chasiv wrote:
Unfortunately, I don't have Dreamweaver so I do not know. I prefer to write my own code from scratch and not use programs like that..

The mouse over codes are CSS code, so you can save the file as HTML and it will work. The If... then ... block is PHP and if you use that, you need to save it as PHP.

Dreamweaver does open PHP files, it's what I use to do development when I have to use windows machines. And chasiv, don't just assume because it has WYSIWYG functionality you don't write your own code - I don't ever use the wysiwyg side of it, I only use Code View, which probably makes Dreamweaver one of the better IDEs for Windows.

rikmoncur

If you're using Dreamweaver, look in it's help files - there's a lot of useful info in there.

condoug

You will probably find that the pages have .php extension but it will be plain old HTML which displays the code for the buttons. To keep things simple, use Dreamweavers Image Rollover wizard. It bloats your code behind the scenes but my guess is you just want to get this done ASAP.

africano

Sorry for the long thread and the persistent question...but You guys are really helping me out, really even though you probably dont believe me!🙂

Ive got access to the files, downloaded an off line copy of the site to learn and test on....Ive downloaded the apache package and installed...but my question is now that Ive done all this...how can I run my site and what changes do I make to the code for the buttons to work..... Hope Ive explained myself enough and hope theres some kind souls who will help!

cheers my friends!