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Nobody likes frames. But if you're not using frames, you have to update every
page of your site every time you modify your menu. Don't you wish there was
another way? Well, there is. Simple PHP includes allow you to create a
professional, frameless site without too much work. Want to learn how? Read
on...
PHP includes are very simple and really practical. How they are used is they
allow you to use one line of code in every page that you want your menu on
in place of say 30 - 50. Also, you never have to edit this code once it's
there, you can just edit your menu file. They work by taking all the content
of a file and putting it into the file being viewed at the location where
the INCLUDE tag is.
I'll start off by teaching you how to create a basic site that uses a menu
in tables. Run Notepad and create a file for your menu, in a table. It might
look something like this:
<table border=0 bordercolor="black" cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 width=780
height=100%>
<tr>
<td width=100 valign="top">
<img src="main.jpg"><br><Br>
<a href="index.php">News/Home</a><Br>
<a href="index.php?page=stuff">Stuff</a><Br>
Blah<Br>
Blah<Br>
Blah<Br>
Blah<Br>
Blah<Br>
Blah<Br>
</td>
Make sure that you do not close the table!! Now save this file as menu.php
and start a new one. It'll have the code for you main page. It should look
something like this:
<? include("menu.php") ?>
<td width=580 valign=top>
<?
if(!$page) {
include("http://www.hobbiton.org/~zeroone/test/news.txt");
}<Br>
else{
include("http://www.hobbiton.org/~zeroone/test/files/" . "$page" . ".php");
}<Br>
?><Br>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
There are two vital things you should notice here. First, we have the <?
include("menu.php") ?>. This tells the computer to include the menu file.
The second thing is this code:
<?
if(!$page) {
include("http://www.hobbiton.org/~zeroone/test/news.txt");<Br>
}<Br>
else{
include("http://www.hobbiton.org/~zeroone/test/files/" . "$page" . ".php");
}
?>
Make sure you change the URLs to URLs on your server. This code tells the
computer that if the url is something like "www.yourpage.com/index.php" then
it will include the news file, in this case (since I've set it to the URL
of my test site's news file).
IF, however, the URL is something like "www.yourpage.com/index.php?page=stuff"
then it will change the content of the page to whatever is in the file
"stuff.php". At this point, there is something I should mention. When you
have links on a php page, they will be something like
"www.yourpage.com/index.php?whatever=pagename" instead of something like
"www.yourpage.com/pagename.php". This is because the web browser is actually
displaying the index file, but it's including content from another file on
the index file. The "whatever=pagename" tells the computer that the variable
"whatever" is set to the name of the page, "pagename" in this case. That
variable tells what page's content should be displayed, using the code above.
Next, create another file. Just type some nonsense in it and name it "stuff.php".
In your menu file, make sure you have a link to "stuff.php". The link should
be something like "http://www.yoursite.com/index.php?stuff" because of the
reasons I mentioned above.
Now, upload those files and see what it looks like. It SHOULD look a little
bit like the site http://www.hobbiton.org/~zeroone/test - please note the
server that site is on is going down permanently soon, so you may not be
able to access it.
If that all worked out, you've got a simple PHP layout. Play with it a bit,
and you'll be able to implement it into your site's design to make being
a webmaster easier. I hope this tutorial was helpful. Please send your comments
to me at wipeoutgc@hotmail.com.
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