Main Page Navigation in PHP

[Zapppa]

I am relatively new to PHP, trying to learn more every day.

I have been enjoying using Server Side Includes in my sidebars, footer etc with good results, much handier and more efficient!

I would like to do the same for the header and main site navigation.

However, the main problem that I am not sure how to deal with comes from having 'active' links (differently coloured menu tab for the page the user is on) in my menu.

Here is a small menu example:

<div class="menu">
                 <ul>
                         <li><a href="nav.php" class="active">Home</a></li>
                         <li><a href="nav2.php">About</a></li>
                         <li><a href="products1.php">Products</a></li>
                         <li><a href="products2.php">Products 2</a></li>
                         <li><a href="products3.php">Products 3</a></li>

                        
                    </ul>
    </div>

When the user is on the Home page, the class is set to active - i.e. a different colour.

If I do a simple server side include with my navigation this will of course be across all the pages. Can anyone please advise on what I need to do to make the menu work correctly across all the pages? (have different tabs selected for each respective page).

Any help / insight is much appreciated.

[JeremyC]

You could declare a variable before you include the header file.

<div class="menu">
    <ul>
        <li><a href="nav.php" <?php if( $page == 'index') echo 'class="active"'?> >Home</a></li>
        <li><a href="nav2.php" <?php if( $page == 'about') echo 'class="active"'?> >About</a></li>
        <li><a href="products1.php" <?php if( $page == 'products') echo 'class="active"'?> >Products</a></li>
        <li><a href="products2.php" <?php if( $page == 'product2') echo 'class="active"'?> >Products 2</a></li>
        <li><a href="products3.php" <?php if( $page == 'product3') echo 'class="active"'?> >Products 3</a></li>
    </ul>
</div>

$page = 'products';

include 'header.php'; 

This will set the desired desire link to active based on the conditional statement in the link elements.

[Cups]

How many pages in your site in total?

Do you have content in directories and do they relate to menu headings?

eg /products/this.php and so on?

[Zapppa]

Thanks for the replies so far. I willwill have around ten links, all in the sane directory.

[Zapppa]

You could declare a variable before you include the header file.

<div class="menu">
    <ul>
        <li><a href="nav.php" <?php if( $page == 'index') echo 'class="active"'?> >Home</a></li>
        <li><a href="nav2.php" <?php if( $page == 'about') echo 'class="active"'?> >About</a></li>
        <li><a href="products1.php" <?php if( $page == 'products') echo 'class="active"'?> >Products</a></li>
        <li><a href="products2.php" <?php if( $page == 'product2') echo 'class="active"'?> >Products 2</a></li>
        <li><a href="products3.php" <?php if( $page == 'product3') echo 'class="active"'?> >Products 3</a></li>
    </ul>
</div>

$page = 'products';

include 'header.php'; 

This will set the desired desire link to active based on the conditional statement in the link elements.

thanks!! I will try this tomorrow when i get into work

[Cups]

For such a small nav bar then JeremyC's solution will be fine I'd say, just means hardcoding the file-key "about" in each of your ten files.

<?php

$this_page = "about";

include 'nav_bar.php' ;

?>

If you wanted to do it another way you could detect the filename from your $_SERVER array.

(just do var_dump($_SERVER); on one of your pages to see what else is available to you).

Then you could keep your pages in an array and generate your nav bar from that:

nav_bar.php

<?php 
// you just maintain this array, which you keep handy at the top of the file

$pages = array(
  '/index.php' => 'Home',
  '/about.php' => 'About',
  '/contact.php' =>  'Contact us',
  // etc
);

// grab the var
$this_page = $_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME'];

#TODO you could test if $this_page exists in the permitted array first

echo '<ul>' ;  // start menu

foreach( $pages as $key=>$val ) {  // loop thru array

echo '<li><a href="'  . $key . '"'; // start nav link

if( $key == $this_page) echo ' class="active"';  // if array key '/index.php' matches $this_page 

echo '>' . $val  . '</a></li>' . PHP_EOL ; // end nav link

} // end of loop

echo '</ul>' ; // end menu

Sorry, I am unable to test this on my setup today, but that should give you another idea about how you could tackle this problem -- but as I say, JeremyCs idea is just fine.

[Chrisant]

I new in php I use script above in my web but only the last menu appear

    <?php
    include "configuration/connection.php";
    $sql=mysql_query("SELECT * from mainmenu where active='Y' ORDER BY id_main");
    while ($m=mysql_fetch_array($sql))

    $pages = array(
    "$m[link]" => "$m[menu_name]",
    // etc
    );

    // grab the var
    $this_page = "$m[link]";

    #TODO you could test if $this_page exists in the permitted array first

    echo '<ul>' ; // start menu

    foreach( $pages as $key=>$val ) // loop thru array

    echo '<li><a href="' . $key . '"'; // start nav link

    if( $key == $this_page) echo ' class="active"'; // if array key '/index.php' matches $this_page

    echo '>' . $val . '</a></li>' . PHP_EOL ; // end nav link

    // end of loop

    echo '</ul>' ;?>

anyone can please help me,.. ??