PHP includes menu - problems with sub-items

fallen_angel · #1 (**permalink**) Jan 16th, 2007, 21:22

I'm using PHP to include my menu for a site (which is a styled <ul>), and to highlight the current site. It's working well, except that for menu items which have sub categories, there's no closing </li> on the menu item, so if it's one of those pages, it's not getting highlighted (I'm adding in a "current" id using the php). I've tried making it an if/else statement, but that's not working either. Obviously I've got the syntax wrong somewhere, but I can't figure out where (I'm pretty new to PHP). Any advise appreciated.

HTML

Code: Select all

      <!-- NAVIGATION -->
      <div class="navigation">
        <div class="curved_corner"></div>
        <p class="navtitle">What's here?</p>
 <!-- start navigation include -->
        <?php include("includes/menu_include.php"); ?>
 <!-- end navigation include -->

CSS

Code: Select all

.navlist { width: 199px; color: #467aa7; background-color: #F2F3F5; border-right: 1px solid #c8c8c8; border-bottom: 1px solid #c8c8c8; font: 12px verdana,sans-serif; }
.navlist li { list-style: none; }
.navlist a { color: #467aa7; text-decoration: none; display: block; border-left: 1em solid #c8c8c8; border-top: 1px solid #c8c8c8; padding: 4px 8px; }
.navlist a:hover { border-color: #606B8B; }
ul.navlist li#current a { border-color: #606B8B; }
.subnavlist li a { border: 0; border-left: 0.8em solid #c8c8c8; padding: 3px 4px; margin-left: 20px; }

Menu include HTML (menu.html)

Code: Select all

<ul class="navlist">
    <li><a href="index.php">Home</a></li>
    <li><a href="designs.php">Designs</a>
       <ul class="subnavlist">
        <li><a href="design1.php">Design 1</a></li>
        <li><a href="design2.php">Design 2</a></li>
        <li><a href="design3.php">Design 3</a></li>
       </ul>
    </li>
    <li><a href="graphics.php">Graphics</a></li>
    <li><a href="about.php">About</a></li>
    <li><a href="links.php">Links</a></li>
    <li><a href="contact.php">Contact Me</a></li>

And finally, the include that I'm having problems with:

Code: Select all

      <?php
      $submeunuitem = ("<li><a href=\"" . basename($_SERVER['PHP_SELF']) . "\">(.*)</[^>]+></a>|U");
      
      if ( $submenuitem == "|<li><a href=\"" . basename($_SERVER['PHP_SELF']) . "\">(.*)</[^>]+></a>|U" ) {
      $menusub = file_get_contents("menu.html");    
      $menusub = preg_replace("|<li><a href=\"" . basename($_SERVER['PHP_SELF']) . "\">(.*)</[^>]+>|U", "<li id=\"current\"><a href=\"" . basename($_SERVER['PHP_SELF']) . "\">$1</a>", $menu);
      echo $menusub;     
      
} else {
      
      $menu = file_get_contents("menu.html");
     $menu = preg_replace("|<li><a href=\"" . basename($_SERVER['PHP_SELF']) . "\">(.*)</[^>]+></li>|U", "<li id=\"current\"><a href=\"" . basename($_SERVER['PHP_SELF']) . "\">$1</a></li>", $menu);
     echo $menu;     
}      

     ?>

Am I trying to go about it the right why using an if/else, or is it simply that I've got the syntax wrong?

ukgeoff · #2 (**permalink**) Jan 18th, 2007, 23:26

Is the menu you want to 'include' fixed or does it change depending on content elsewhere?

If it's fixed, then you are going about this all the wrong way.

fallen_angel · #3 (**permalink**) Jan 19th, 2007, 16:17

No, it's fixed. It works fine without any sub-menus, but doesn't like the sub-menus at at. After I posted I had another look around google to see if I could find any other ways of doing it, and some seemed to be using an array, and some were using if/else, but that required an 'if' for each menu item, which I could imagine would become very tedious. All of them seemed to be way more complicated than what I've been using (and way beyond my PHP level). At the moment I've actually gone back to using the CSS method of adding an ID to the <body> and to each <a> link in the menu, which is a bit of a PITA because my memory's awful and I can see myself forgetting to add either the <body> or <a> id and wondering why the 'current' highlighting's not working.

ukgeoff · #4 (**permalink**) Jan 19th, 2007, 17:15

In the css forum you will find a 'sticky' thread. In there is a link to a tutorial on css driven menu systems.

Work through that and you will be ok.

You can always come and ask about specifics.

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PHP includes menu - problems with sub-items