Menu in dreamweaver with variable number of pages

spiritonline

Hi there,

I'm having a truble creating a navigation menu in dreamweaver for a variable number of pages.

what I'm trying to do is create an "business proposal template"
(my apologies i do not know the correct English term)
for the company of a friend of mine.

Normally I wouldn't have a problem creating a navigation menu but since this menu has to be able to work with any amount of pages my friend wants to put up it differs from what I know.

The idea is that my friend can edit the templates himself within dreamweaver and that the menu will just work no matter the amount of pages.

If anyone can point me in the right direction, for example: similiar things tutorials or just ideas on how it can be done in PHP or in any other way for that matter I would highly apriciate it.

(screenshot to clarify what I mean: http://img176.imageshack.us/my.php?image=58297903as7.gif

thanks a million in advance !

Jason.

(ps: I only know basic HTML so please don't trow to hard stuff at me all at once 😉 )

djjjozsi

if its looks like a static menu, create a javascript document,

document.write('<a href="page1.html">page1</a>  <a href="page2.html">page2</a>');

Save this file as .js file,

and use the script command to include it into your html page:

<script language="JavaScript" src="menu.js" type="text/JavaScript">
</script>

nrg_alpha

djjjozsi;10900090 wrote:

document.write('<a href="page1.html">page1</a>  <a href="page2.html">page2</a>');

Just a note on validation.. while the above code will work (in that it will display the link, and the link will be functional), the page will not validate according to the W3C.. It is not legal to do it this way....A method that does validate however could be:

<script type="text/javascript">
   var str="page1.html";
   document.write(str.link("http://www.whereever.com/page1.html"));
</script>

There is also another method that constructs the link via the DOM:

<script type="text/javascript">
   var globalDiv = document.getElementById('whatever_div_by_id_that_contains_these_links');
   var pageLink = document.createElement('A');
   pageLink.innerHTML = ('LINK');
   pageLink.href = "http://www.whereever.com/page1.html";
   globalDiv.appendChild(pageLink);
</script>

In this method, you get the Id of the div that the link is inside of, and create a DOM chain that appends children accordingly.. (first method is easier though).

spiritonline

Hi,

first off thanks a million to both of you for taking the time to help me out, I really appreciate it 🙂

I do have a question however regarding this piece of code:

<script type="text/javascript">
   var str="page1.html";
   document.write(str.link("http://www.whereever.com/page1.html"));
</script>

When I will use this how will it be set up to use ? Do I just embed it into the HTML code and the rest will go automatically by file names on the right URL ?

PS: The general Idea is that the template can be modified by someone with basic basic dreamweaver knowledge will this still be possible when using this code ?

once more, thanks !

nrg_alpha

spiritonline;10900185 wrote:
I do have a question however regarding this piece of code:
<script type="text/javascript">
   var str="page1.html";
   document.write(str.link("http://www.whereever.com/page1.html"));
</script>
When I will use this how will it be set up to use ? Do I just embed it into the HTML code and the rest will go automatically by file names on the right URL ?

You can imbed that in your HTML document.. but you would have to write some additional javascript code that places the correct URL values in the links.. (I just used that snippet as an example of something that validates)...

But the immediate question I have is, would you want to go the Javascript route? What happens if the end user has their browser's javascript functionality turned off? Me personally, I would use PHP to generate the navigation... this way, it doesn't matter if the user has Javascipt enabled or not.

PS: The general Idea is that the template can be modified by someone with basic basic dreamweaver knowledge will this still be possible when using this code ?

Well, I'm not sure how it would be done with reliance on Dreamweaver to be perfectly honest, as I'm thinking of PHP here, not an IDE (Integrated development environment) like Dreamweaver. I'm guessing from your screenshot you are looking into 'pagination'? (the link brings you to this site's search results on the subject). I've never tried it before.. but there should be some information in those links that could help you out.

spiritonline

Once more thanks a ton for your time!

True, I didn't think of that before.
I agree that PHP would be a much better choice.

If you can ? Could you please help me out a bit on how to do this ?

Well, I'm not sure how it would be done with reliance on Dreamweaver to be perfectly honest, as I'm thinking of PHP here, not an IDE (Integrated development environment) like Dreamweaver.

What I meant is that the final user won't be me. The final template has to be editable (within dreamweaver) by someone with no coding knowledge, of course this person could be thought some things but it can't become to complicated.

(PS: I went over the search results but I couln'd quite understand how to implement it into what I need.)

Kind regards,

Jason.

nrg_alpha

spiritonline;10900188 wrote:
Once more thanks a ton for your time!
If you can ? Could you please help me out a bit on how to do this ?

Jason, I have never attempted this sort of thing before..(nor do I have the time for it to be honest) that's why I gave you the link of search results, as they contain solutions that you may be looking for.. If those results don't help perhaps looking up pagination and PHP on Google? This is the best I can offer I'm afraid.

spiritonline

Alright, thanks for all your troubles I will try to go from here 🙂