dynamic menu

[Gilead]

I've been wondering about this for a long while, while I think I have a handle on how to do this, I'd like to run it by you guys to see if there is a better way to do it.

Two parts:
php section
$page=$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];
if ($page="index.php") {
page1="#";
image1="home3.png";
page2="profile.php";
image2="profile.png";
page3="nextpage.php";
image3="nextpage.png";
}
html section
Then echo the variables out in the html tags
<a href="<?php echo $page1; ?>" title="Home"><img src="<?php echo $image1; ?>" height="25" alt="" title="" border="0" /></a>

Then the menu can be dynamic, still have the mouseovers/dropdowns but able to be included by itself.
Thanks!

[rocknbil]

Not really sure what the extra values are for, but I'd use an array of arrays defined in one location.

<?php
$page=$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];

$pages = array ( 
 'index.php' => array('#','home3.png','profile.php','profile.png','nextpage.php','nexpage.png'), 
 'about.php' => array('index.php','home2.png','what-we-do-php.php','what-we-do.png','nextpage.php','nexpage.png'), 
} 
?> 

<ul id="navigation"> 
 <li><a href="<?php echo $pages[$page][0]; ?>" title="Home"> 
 <img src="<?php echo $pages[$page][1]; ?>" height="25" alt="" title="" border="0" /></a></li> 
 <li><a href="<?php echo $pages['about.php'][0]; ?>" title="Home"> 
 <img src="<?php echo $pages['about.php'][1]; ?>" height="25" alt="" title="" border="0" /></a></li>  
</ul> 

[Gilead]

You need one var for the new location of the link and one for the image used. If you are on that page, have it display the third image(indicating where you are) along with the link be # so you don't go anywhere.

Arrays are generally static, what is echoed will change depending on what page you are on. The key being if you are on the index page, you don't want to go to the index page. (recursion) and you want to show the image indicating where you are instead of the normal image in the navigation menu.

Does that make more sense?

[rocknbil]

They're static, yes, but then so are hard coded if/then/switch blocks. With an array, you can change it easily in one place.

you want to show the image indicating where you are instead of the normal image in the navigation menu.

Still not getting it all, but if you standardize naming of files/etc., and make sure there is a file for every page, you can do something like this. I'm using REQUEST_FILENAME but you can use other environment variables, whatever works.


// Presuming there will always be an index.png for index.php,
// about.png for about.php, etc.

<img src="/images/navigation/"<?php explode('.',$_SERVER['REQUEST_FILENAME']) . '.png'; ?>" alt="Where I am">

You can use the page title or other variables present to output the alt image, etc.