Hey Gang,
Not really a web designer...really a UNIX admin with a web design need. I am creating a web site containing data about servers. As servers get added, the main menu has to change to include the new server WITH its link to that server’s data page. The main menu needs to appear on every page.
Currently, I update the HTML for the menu on the index page, and then just cut-and-paste the new menu to the top of ALL the other pages. This is getting to be a nightmare. Is there a way to dynamically link the text to all the other pages, such that I can change the text AND the hyperlinks in ONE location and have the new data appear in the right spot on all the other pages (without having to manually change them.)
I would LIKE to avoid using frames to do this. Flash is not ENTIRELY out of the question, but it would be best if I could do this with HTML/DHTML/XML/JSP or something equally simple to serve up (pages will be served by Solaris and apache.)
Thanks!
Mike
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You should use frames.
Check http://www.w3schools.com/h
The common and easy solution is to use a server side include. A single file with the menu code that gets included in every page. You cahnge it in one place and it automatically gets picked up by every page.
All it requires is that the server be configured to support includes. Information here:
http://bignosebird.com/ssi
Cd&
To do this as simple as possible......you have to use PHP, JSP, ASP.NET, or some other type of web programming language. HTML alone will not be able to dynamically do this. You will need to choose one, and go from there.
From there, you can do one of two things.
1.) Have menu.php(or whatever extension) and do the actual work there. Use that language's include syntax, and include it in every page that needs the menu. Then you update menu.php, and it automatically updates all pages with the include.
2.) Dynamically link menu.php to textfile or database, and you update the database or text file, which updates menu.php, which updates all of the other files. (Before we could get into specifics, you would have to choose a language.)
--Seth
Hi,
the solution actually depends upon what you mean by 'menu' and what yours looks like. However, you could include the data within each page with a *.js page.
<html>
<head>
<script type='text/javascript' language='javascript' src='somepathAndname.js'>
</script>
.......
</html>
The *.js file should contain your menu items with the following caveats:
1) there should be no html in the file; this includes <script...>
2) if you need to include data, do so:
var menuItems = new Array("http://path/filenam
3) if you absolutely must have html, docWrite it:
document.write("<a href = '" + menuItem[0] + "'>some Server<\a>")
If you supply an example of your menu....
Vinny
Hi,
Looks like you have plenty of suggestions, but I'll throw in my 2 cents anyway.
It all depends on how automated you want it, and how simple you want to keep it.
If you aren't going to be changing the list that much, I would consider VincentPugalia's solution (Date: 07/08/2004 07:29PM CDT).
I would modify it a bit, just to make it even simpler.
//-- file include.js
function displayServerList(){
var serverList = '';
serverList += '<a href="addresstoserver1">Se
serverList += '<a href="addresstoserver2">Se
serverList += '<a href="addresstoserver3">Se
document.write(serverList)
}
Then in head your html page.
<script language="javascript" src="include.js"></script>
Then wherever you want it displayed within the page.
<script language="javascript">
displayServerList()
</script>
However, if this list is going to update very frequently, I would investigate the very first comment. Use a mysql database with php.
__
A1
VERY SIMPLE. There are many ways.
If you can run ASP pages, you can simply include another file. You would create a file with your navigation and call it navigation.html. then on the ASP page you could just add this code <!-- #include file="Navigation.html" --> . This would simply include it as the page is being created.
A very similar way in PHP files is to use the same Navigation.html page with this code in your target document:
<? include("Navigation.html")
Using Javascript that you can run on any page server. Create a file called Navigation.js and in that file you build it like this:
Document.write('<a href="target">link1</a>');
then on your page where you want to include the navigation you would just put this code:
<script language="JavaScript" src="copyright.js"></scrip
PK
You don't even need ASP, PHP or Javascript and maybe all these are needless complexities on a basic Solaris machine running Apache as this combination natively supports Server Side Includes, just turn it on this feature and use it as documented in Apache documentation. Basically, you need to enable this using the options
AddType text/html .shtml
AddOutputFilter INCLUDES .shtml
where .shtml is the file name extension of the files you want the server to parse.
Then you have to make sure that the directories where these files will be found have a .htaccess configuration file with the directive:
Options +Includes
There is a tutorial at:
http://httpd.apache.org/do
There, they describe an example for including a standard footer as well as many other neat tricks you can do with this feature.
All good suggestions...and, actually, the shtml option would probably have been a better option from the standpoint of making the shtml file to include.
I ended up already implementing the solution with JavaScript, and it works beautifully. The only drawback, as alluded to previously, was the fact that creating the initial include file with the menu and the links was a pain, as you just have to type it out in VI, with all the formatting added manually. I suspect a shtml include file would have been easier to initially implement, but now adding new servers and such will be fairly easy.
Thanks again!
Mike
Business Accounts
Answer for Membership
by: ZylochPosted on 2004-07-08 at 15:23:20ID: 11507413
Yes, it is possible with server-side scripting languages like JSP, but you would also need a database or a text file.
I'm pretty clueless at JSP, so I'll give you a small example in PHP:
Depending on whether you use a textfile or a database, you would need to manually add the server unless you create something to do it for you. For that reason, it's best if your site isn't heavily used to use a textfile (very easy), but if you have a large volume of people, you should use a database (for PHP, best is with MySQL);
For an example with a textfile, it might be something like this:
<?php
//For the text files, put a different server on each line.
$menufile="files/server.tx
//Open with PHP
$fp = fopen($menufile, "r");
//Get the server names and close the file.
$contents = fread($fp, filesize($menufile));
fclose($fp);
//Now $contents has what's in the file, so split up the files into an array by the newlines.
$arrayOfServers = explode("\r\n", $contents); //If this is stored on Unix server, use the \r\n, otherwise use \n.
?>
<!-- Skip a bit until you get to your menu part, this could be something simple like this:
<body>
<div>
<?php
for ($i=0;$i<count($arrayOfSer
echo("<a href='SOME LINK'>" + $arrayOfServers[$i] + "</a><br>");
}
?>
</div>
</body>
I know that the above menu is simplified, and that it doesn't have the server links, but it can easily done if you either
1) Make another file with the server links (make sure the links are on the same line as the name is, i.e. if ServerName is on line 1 in server.txt, then ServerNameLink has to be on line 1 in serverlink.txt then you can use the for loop above because the $i will refer to both arrays.
2) In server.txt, have it in this format:
ServerName1,ServerLink1
ServerName2,ServerLink2
ServerName3,ServerLink3
Then have PHP explode() the according to "\r\n" then explode each of the members of the resulting array using a for() loop by the commas to get an array of server links (for the href) and an array of servernames (for the link names)
Of course, this is assuming you are using PHP, if you are using another server-side scripting language, either learn about filehandling in it or ask the experts in that particular section.