Building DHTML menu with PHP

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January 1st, 2002, 07:58 AM

hopsakee

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Building DHTML menu with PHP

Hi!

I'm trying to build a script that makes it possible to generate a dhtml navigation menu. The plan is to distinguish several levels of hierarchy (using the output of a database), in this case three: category, product, item.
Realising a complete exposition will distract you from further reading, I simply would like to ask for some idea's how to do this.
An example of the appearence of the menu can be found at www.samsung.nl (difference: no images are to be used).
Thanks!

Max

January 1st, 2002, 10:17 AM

andnaess

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If you're able to write the DHTML you're pretty much there. All you need to do is see which entities repeat, what data is variable, and what you need to extract with PHP. Then it's simply a matter of echoing the right data.

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André Næss

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January 1st, 2002, 02:20 PM

hopsakee

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I've got not too much experience with DHTML, but the technique, used at www.samsung.nl, is not very difficult. Problem for me is to write a script, that, regardless the number of levels in the menu, can automate the process of making the menu.
Although not al the comments are translated from dutch, here you find the first lines of my script:

PHP Code:


		
			
<?

require("connect.php");



// MenuBuilder. Twee versies: IE4+ en anders --> I specify a browsercheck



$browserinfo = explode(";",$HTTP_USER_AGENT);

if((substr($browserinfo[1],1,4) == "MSIE")&&(substr($browserinfo[1],6,3) >= 4))

 { 



// IE4+ menu

// Variabelen instellen --> coming section is declaring some variables



$bgcolor     = "#888888";

$bgcolordir  = "#aaaaaa"; //Als er nog resultaten op lager niveau achterzitten

$borderstyle = "solid";

$borderwidth = "1px";

$bordercolor = "#000000";

$bgtextcolor = "#ffff99";

$textcolor   = "#000000";

$fontsize    = "9px";

$fontfamily  = "helvetica, verdana, arial";

$menubreedte = "120px";



// Afhankelijk van het aantal niveaus subpag's instellen (doelgroepen achterwege gelaten => eerst dynamisch deel werkende krijgen)

$subpag         = array("$dir_pagina/categorie.php3?ID=","$dir_pagina/product.php3?ID=","$dir_pagina/item.php3?ID="); //hoogste niveau eerst (=> means: highest level first)



// Afhankelijk van het aantal niveaus de tabelnamen specificeren

$sub         = array("categorie","product","item"); //hoogste niveau eerst



// Bepaal de koppeling tussen categorieën. Eerste is altijd leeg. => here the ID's how to relate the levels to each other are specified

$koppeling   = array("","CatID","ProductID");



// Bepaal wat te laten zien voor de listing => fieldnames for displaying in the menu are specified

$show        = array("CatNaam","ProductNaam","ItemNaam");



// Bepaal de naam van de IDvariabelen

$idvar         = array("CatID","ProductID","ItemID");



// Aantal niveaus => count the number of levels

$aantal_niveaus = count($sub);



// Niveaus opbouwen

$datasub  = array();

$countsub = array();



for($i=0; $i<$aantal_niveaus; $i++)

 {

  echo "niveau $i <br>";

  echo $show[$i]."<br>";

  

  // resetten

  $query_ext = "";



  if($i!=0)

     {

      $query_ext = "WHERE $koppeling[$i] = ??";

     }



  $datasub[$i]    = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM $sub[$i] $query_ext");

  $countsub[$i]   = mysql_num_rows($datasub[$i]);

    for($p=0; $p<$countsub[$i]; $p++)

   {

       $rij = mysql_fetch_object($datasub[$i]);         

  echo $rij->$show[$i];

  echo $rij->$idvar[$i];"<br>";



//

// Here is where I ended...it's a mess!

// How to do this?

//



   }

 }



// einde menubuilder

 }

 else

 {

// Alternatief menu

 }

I hope you know a better way doing this. I start making level one, but the next levels...they will be the problem.
Thanks.

Max

Building DHTML menu with PHP

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