Styling php generated menu items

[vkfmj]

I am bidding on a project that was coded completely in php with basic tables containing the data. My job is to make the site look pretty. I am a designer and I can *read* the php, but am not the person to generate or tweak code.

I can generate the CSS styling to do the bulk of the design, but am running in circles trying to figure out how to style this output successfully:

<?
$sql = "select * from masterCategory";
$masterResult = mysql_query($sql);
while ($mr = mysql_fetch_array($masterResult)){
    echo "&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;";
    echo "<font color=\"#FFFFFF\" size=\"+1\">".$mr["name"]."</font><br>";
    $sql = "SELECT * FROM category where masterid = ".$mr["id"]." ORDER BY id";
    $result = mysql_query($sql);
    While($r = mysql_fetch_array($result)){
        echo "&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;";
        echo "<A href=\"preview.php?cat=".$r["id"]."\">".$r["name"]."</A><br>";
    }
    echo "<br>";
}
 
 
?>

[Please use CODE tags when posting source code. Thanks! --pbmods]

The client determines the mastercategories (3 at the moment) and there are varying numbers of names under each mastercategory.

Here is the way I would like it to look:

Master 1
some1
some2
some 3
Master 2
some 1
some 2
some 3

I can style the list once I learn how I can it recognize each piece of the list as generated by the php. I prefer not to do &nbsp inserts all over the place :>)

My undying gratitude to you who can provide the solution!

[adamalton]

I don't fully understand what you're trying to do... do you want to put it all into a table? Or just have each name/link on a new line? What are all the  s for? I know what they do, but surely they are just indenting everything?

As far as I can see the data should get printed out like you said. Well actually like (indented by all the  s):

Master 1
www.name1.com
www.name2.com
Master 2
www.name1.com
www.name2.com

A quick explanation of your php code (not sure what *read* means!):
Lines 1 and 2 get all of the master categories from your database.
And then lines 4-12 say:
for each one of the master categories -
print lots of   and print the category name.
And then get from the database all of the records that match that category,
and for each of the matching records
print lots of  
and print the link for it.

I hope something in that helps!...?
(Ok, so that ddn't actually come out indented anyway!)

[vkfmj]

The info that is produced now is the menu system for the site. When it displays now, (see www.refrazegame.com) the main headings are in white and the subcategories are a yellow. Body of text is black. I was able to do that much applying some CSS to the pages. The person who coded the pages, used the html code to insert spaces. I want this to be a list format styled with CSS but am unsure of how to "define" the subcategories as the php generates them. I left the "spaces" that the original coder put in to make the categories line up. I want to remove those and use pure CSS to say this is a list.

Here is the current code:



<ul><!--Attempt to use list function -->
[PHP]<?
echo "<li>";
$sql = "select * from masterCategory";
echo "</li>", "</ul>";
$masterResult = mysql_query($sql);
while ($mr = mysql_fetch_array($masterResult)){

echo "<font color=\"#FFFFFF\" size=\"+1\">".$mr["name"]."</font><br>";
echo "<ul>","<li>";
$sql = "SELECT * FROM category where masterid = ".$mr["id"]." ORDER BY id";
$result = mysql_query($sql);
While($r = mysql_fetch_array($result)){

echo "<A href=\"preview.php?cat=".$r["id"]."\">".$r["name"]."</A><br>";
}

echo"</li>";

echo "<br>";
}


?>
[/PHP]</ul> <!-- moved the end of the listing AFTER the preview code -->

But, using this method, I just get too many indents. Please see:
listing go awry

Do I just insert echo <li> </li> for each line of generated subcategories? I know I can keep playing with it until I find what works, but I was hoping to spend some time on the proposal :>)
Am I making this too complicated?

I don't fully understand what you're trying to do... do you want to put it all into a table? Or just have each name/link on a new line? What are all the &nbsp;s for? I know what they do, but surely they are just indenting everything?

As far as I can see the data should get printed out like you said. Well actually like (indented by all the &nbsp;s):

Master 1
www.name1.com
www.name2.com
Master 2
www.name1.com
www.name2.com

A quick explanation of your php code (not sure what *read* means!):
Lines 1 and 2 get all of the master categories from your database.
And then lines 4-12 say:
for each one of the master categories -
print lots of &nbsp; and print the category name.
And then get from the database all of the records that match that category,
and for each of the matching records
print lots of &nbsp;
and print the link for it.

I hope something in that helps!...?
(Ok, so that ddn't actually come out indented anyway!)