Navigation with PHP/MySQL

[stlewis]

Currently I generate navigation for my site from an Access database; in brief I run a 'sweep my folders for new pages' program, stitch them into the hierarchy, and then run a 'publish index' program. This generates the Joust menu that I use.

It's fine, although as the site grows the menu will get slower. And although most users get the hang of it, some don't and a prettier look, with mouse droppings might be good.

Has anyone any experience with using PHP for this? I would pump my index into MySQL, and the PHP would dynamically refresh the menu for each page loaded. Or will that kill the site dead?!!!

Or (Option 3), I could set up something to blast my (newly non-framed) pages with new menus before publishing...

www.bricksandbrass.co.uk

[stlewis]

Currently I generate navigation for my site from an Access database; in brief I run a 'sweep my folders for new pages' program, stitch them into the hierarchy, and then run a 'publish index' program. This generates the Joust menu that I use.

It's fine, although as the site grows the menu will get slower. And although most users get the hang of it, some don't and a prettier look, with mouse droppings might be good.

Has anyone any experience with using PHP for this? I would pump my index into MySQL, and the PHP would dynamically refresh the menu for each page loaded. Or will that kill the site dead?!!!

Or (Option 3), I could set up something to blast my (newly non-framed) pages with new menus before publishing...

www.bricksandbrass.co.uk

[stlewis]

but I have had a go at php/MySQL-driven dynamic navigation.

Go to www.thelondonhouse.co.uk/test/page1.php

Each page has to be .php. It calls a bit of code:

<?PHP
include("../php/FnMenu.php");
$Output = BuildMenu('9');
print ($Output);
?>

The FnMenu script looks for its page record with an id of 9. And then follows this logic:

Each page is either:

- top level page (show this page, aunt pages, and children in menu)
- middle level page (show the parent of this page, sister pages, and direct children in menu)
- bottom level page (show the parent of this page, and sister pages)

There seems to be a performance hit for the first trip down a leg, but after that it is quite snappy. What is your experience of it?

If you think it is promising I will increase the number of pages from the current 15 to test a bigger load.

Why am I doing this? I currently use Joust which is a heavy piece of JavaScript.
The pros are:
1. It seems happy with all major browsers v3 and later.
2. Frame-based navigation is easy to keep accurate and consistent.
3. Can be managed easily from the Ms Access database I have built.
4. Individual pages are small - no navigation code is needed.
The cons are:
1. Frame-based - although Joust gives help to search engines, people still sneer!
2. Performance as the menu gets large starts to decline.
3. May not work with WebTV etc.
4. Outliner convention seems to fool a small % of visitors.
5. Cannot make site look innovative/flashy.

I have built a few small sites using the navigation tools provided by Dreamweaver/Fireworks and that is ok, but once you get to a large site, keeping this upto date becomes a nightmare.

With this php approach, to add a page you add it to the managing Access database - and put the id as the BuildMenu parameter. Reload the MySQL table; I would do this from my Access database - one click and run the resulting stack of SQL commands into the production system. Oh, and ftp the new page as usual.

Can you please think of any other gotchas? I know a sitemap.htm file will be needed for search engine spiders...


Many thanks...

www.bricksandbrass.co.uk

[Jen Worden]

Simon, I'm responding to this at 4:30pm after dealing with rebuilding servers that did monumental damage to multiple sites - so my brain can't think of any "gotchas" at the mo'.

However, your test pages went ridiculously quick and unless I knew they were being dynamically built, I would never have known.

Bring on the bigger test. (though I may visit it tomorrow [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img] )

cfn ... Jen

Jen Worden
Web Developer
www.meadoworks.com

[stlewis]

Go to The London House and kick the wheels!

I have (after a lot of mental sweat) improved the logic so that the menu is better and added a little tarting up to show it moving in the right design direction.

My next step is to push it to the php community directly to get further comments and improvements.

Any from this forum would, as always, be really welcome.

www.bricksandbrass.co.uk

[stlewis]

I may yet tweak the php logic but the menu seems to work, so it has gone live at www.thelondonhouse.co.uk . The next task is to do the same for Bricks and Brass...

www.bricksandbrass.co.uk