XML powered all-knowing menu

[Bizt]

Hi,

I would like to create a menu where the menu options were taken from
an XML file. The reason is that I would be able to update the xml file
(by simply adding new child nodes) after I uploaded new web pages.
Each page would run the same PHP script to create the menu. As the xml
file would supply every page, this would mean less time taken up when
adding new pages. Below is an example of the xml file content:
<?xml...
<menu>
<option title="Home" href="home.php">
<option title="Gallery" href="gallery.php">
<option title="Paintings" href="paintings.php">
<option title="Drawings" href="drawings.php">
<option title="Links" href="links.php">
<option title="Contact" href="contact.php">
</menu>
When the menu is displayed in the browser it would look like this:
Home
Gallery
Links
Contact
Each would contain html (<a href...) to allow it to link to another
page but, for example, if the user clicked the Gallery link the next
page would look like this:
Home
Gallery
Paintings
Drawings
Links
Contact
This would, however, require that the script knows where the user was.
I figured using a GET variable somehow so that the script could open
the correct menus'.

I did manage to create a script that could do what I am asking here.
It also allowed me to add new menu options (which is why I opted to
create this in the first place). The problem was I had to predefine
how many levels the xml tree structure would have. I want to be able
to create a script that can allow any amount of levels to be used and
allow the next page to be able to open the correct menu. For example,
my multi-level xml file may look something like this:
<?xml...
<menu>
<option title="Home" href="home.php">
<option title="News" href="news.php">
<option title="Recent News" href="recentnews.php">
<option title="Archive" href="archive.php">
<option title="About me" href="news.php">
<option title="Disclaimer" href="news.php">
<option title="Gallery" href="gallery.php">
<option title="Paintings" href="paintings.php">
<option title="Drawings" href="drawings.php">
<option title="Links" href="links.php">
<option title="Contact" href="contact.php">
</menu>
As the new menu shows, Gallery (as before) only has the two levels
(i.e. Gallery>Paintings or Gallery>Drawings) whereas Home has three
levels within (i.e. Home>News>Recent News). So when the user is within
the Recent News page, the new menu will look like this:
Home
News
Recent News
Archive
About me
Disclaimer
Gallery
Links
Contact
I figured this would require that the script is passed a variable,
contained in the menu link (GET), from the previous page. The variable
would contain informtion for the same script running on the next page
to open the correct menu from the xml file. This is that part that i
dont know how to do.

How could I pass information from one page to the next for the script
(used by all pages) to open the correct menu? If there are any scripts
that are availble online that could do something similar, please
direct me? If anybody has anything that could point me in the right
direction please comment. Thanks

Burnsy

[micha]

Bizt wrote:

Hi,

I would like to create a menu where the menu options were taken from
an XML file. The reason is that I would be able to update the xml file (by simply adding new child nodes) after I uploaded new web pages.
Each page would run the same PHP script to create the menu. As the xml file would supply every page, this would mean less time taken up when
adding new pages. Below is an example of the xml file content:
<?xml...
<menu>
<option title="Home" href="home.php">
<option title="Gallery" href="gallery.php">
<option title="Paintings" href="paintings.php">
<option title="Drawings" href="drawings.php">
<option title="Links" href="links.php">
<option title="Contact" href="contact.php">
</menu>
When the menu is displayed in the browser it would look like this:
Home
Gallery
Links
Contact
Each would contain html (<a href...) to allow it to link to another
page but, for example, if the user clicked the Gallery link the next
page would look like this:
Home
Gallery
Paintings
Drawings
Links
Contact
This would, however, require that the script knows where the user was. I figured using a GET variable somehow so that the script could open
the correct menus'.

I did manage to create a script that could do what I am asking here.
It also allowed me to add new menu options (which is why I opted to
create this in the first place). The problem was I had to predefine
how many levels the xml tree structure would have. I want to be able
to create a script that can allow any amount of levels to be used and
allow the next page to be able to open the correct menu. For example,
my multi-level xml file may look something like this:
<?xml...
<menu>
<option title="Home" href="home.php">
<option title="News" href="news.php">
<option title="Recent News" href="recentnews.php">
<option title="Archive" href="archive.php">
<option title="About me" href="news.php">
<option title="Disclaimer" href="news.php">
<option title="Gallery" href="gallery.php">
<option title="Paintings" href="paintings.php">
<option title="Drawings" href="drawings.php">
<option title="Links" href="links.php">
<option title="Contact" href="contact.php">
</menu>
As the new menu shows, Gallery (as before) only has the two levels
(i.e. Gallery>Paintings or Gallery>Drawings) whereas Home has three
levels within (i.e. Home>News>Recent News). So when the user is within the Recent News page, the new menu will look like this:
Home
News
Recent News
Archive
About me
Disclaimer
Gallery
Links
Contact
I figured this would require that the script is passed a variable,
contained in the menu link (GET), from the previous page. The variable would contain informtion for the same script running on the next page
to open the correct menu from the xml file. This is that part that i
dont know how to do.

How could I pass information from one page to the next for the script
(used by all pages) to open the correct menu? If there are any scripts that are availble online that could do something similar, please
direct me? If anybody has anything that could point me in the right
direction please comment. Thanks

Burnsy

you don't need passed vars. i see two ways:

1. your xml contains the href and your file has an uri. compare the two
to find out which option the user clicked on(i.e. which file is open
now). i found that unreliable if your content stretches over a couple
of folders.

2. each file contains a value determining it's position in the nav.
that' what i use.

now the structure

1. if you wanna stick with xml:

use DOM XML funtions to find parent/child nodes to find out which
submenus to display. lot of bother for just a nav in my opinion.

2. use an multidimensional array instead of xml

style of

$nav['menu_name']['void'] = "href"; //this would be a main menu item
$nav['menu_name']['submenu1_name'] = "href"; // and it's submenu items
$nav['menu_name']['submenu2_name'] = "href";

each page is contains simply contains info for it's matching array
element. this way you can assign a couple of files to one menu item,
too (i needed that, because there's files on my page which are not
accessible through the nav, but only among each other)

micha