[SOLVED] $_SERVER question for navigation

[samoht]

Hello all,

 

I have a remodeling site that has multiple services. Each service is in its own subfolder with an index.php. I have a leftnav bar that allows the user to navigate to each service - and I want to highlight the current service nav button.

 

My problem is with the url. since the basename will always be index.php - how should I set the condition for the test of the url?

Connected to this problem is - how do I code the path to the service so that it works on my local machine as well as when I upload the page (without having to manually change the path)

 

Currently I have

<?php  
$rpage = $_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME'];
$page = substr(($rpage),0,5);
?>
<div id="ltnav">
<ul id="navleft">
        <li<?php if($rpage== "/homestead/remodel/index.php"){echo " class=\"current\"";}?>>
          <a href="http://www.nextgenwt.com/homestead/remodel/">Remodel</a>
        </li>

I don't want to put the full path in (at least not hard coded)

 

Thanks for any help

[pkSML]

<?php
$rpage = $_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME'];
$page = substr(($rpage),0,5);
?>
<div id="ltnav">
<ul id="navleft">
        <li<?php if(stristr($rpage, 'remodel')){echo " class=\"current\"";}?>>
          <a href="http://www.nextgenwt.com/homestead/remodel/">Remodel</a>
        </li>

 

Great way to merge PHP with CSS!

 

BTW, you may not want to use dashed lines separating your columns. It gets muddy with IE6 when scrolling.

[samoht]

Thanks!

 

I'll consider different column seperation, maybe an img?

 

Anyway, any ideas on how to get my <a href=""> to a relative path?

Can I

http://"<?php echo $_SERVER['ROOT'].$_SERVER['SCRIPT_NAME']."/realtivepath/";?>

 

or something like this - but script_name will give me to much. Can I go back 1 file?

??

[pkSML]

You can just use a relative path.

 

For example, if they're at the kitchens/index.php page, your link to remodeling would be <a href="../remodeling/index.php">.

[Jessica]

If each one is in a folder, you don't need the index.php stuff, and it will look nicer.

site.com/kitchens/ SHOULD work the same as site.com/kitchens/index.php

 

Why don't you define your Site's BASE url as a constant:

define('SITE_URL', 'http://site.com/');

and then whenever you have a link do:

 

print '<a href="'.SITE_URL.'kitchens/">';

[samoht]

The problem is that the main page (something.com)'s index.php will also have the leftnav include so if I use a relative path of ../kitchens/ in leftnav.php - that wont work on the main page.

 

I like the idea of defining a base url  - but will that mean I hae to manually change that definition when I move the site from the local server to the live?

 

Is there a function that can find my base url for me?

[Jessica]

Yes, but it's ONE constant, as opposed to on every page. It will take two seconds to change.

[pkSML]

The problem is that the main page (something.com)'s index.php will also have the leftnav include so if I use a relative path of ../kitchens/ in leftnav.php - that wont work on the main page.

 

I like the idea of defining a base url  - but will that mean I hae to manually change that definition when I move the site from the local server to the live?

 

Is there a function that can find my base url for me?

 

The answer is almost too easy...  That is, if you have access to the $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] variable.

At the beginning of your script, have this if statement.

<?php
if (stristr($_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'], "nextgenwt"))
{ // If we're on production server
$path = "/homestead/";
}
else { // If we're on localhost
$path = "/"; // I don't know your localhost path, so you'll have to fill in this one
}
?>

 

Your links will look like this:

<a href="<?php echo $path ?>remodel/">Remodel</a>

 

This solution will work on both servers, and work on all the pages.

[samoht]

Thanks Stephen - this is what I needed!