Thread: Single Menu Page with Bv and PHP

I'm not sure if anyone has asked this question to Navaldesign or not. First let me thank you for learning and undertaking this task of teaching us how to upload a single menu bar to all of our pages at one time. My question relates to you saying that we need to make the html box in all of our pages the same size as our menu bar. It makes me wonder what happens if people decide to change the size of their menu bar. Does this then mean you have to go back and change the sizes of the html boxes on all of the pages ? If the answer is yes doesn't that then defeat the purpose of having a menu called from a single page seeing that you will have to change the size of every html box on every page? ( I hope the answer is no because I really would like to use this )

No, it doesn't affect anything. The purpose i suggest making it the same size is just to help you, during the creation of the pages, to have a visual understanding of how the page layout will be.

That's great news.

Originally Posted by navaldesign

How to create and use a single Menu and use it in all your pages, WITHOUT using Iframes.



You can see this page in www.navaldesign.info/Tips/phpmenu.php

On the link above, Naval, I see two menu's, (blue and grey) which is php and which is html, the blue or the grey? Thanks

Please note that if you care about SE optimization, you can use a CSS text menu, that allows for text menu buttons. This way, your links will be immediately visible to the SE crawlers. How would I create this?

Just make sure, when using menus that make use of external files, like themes or javascript or css, to upload the necessary files in the same folder. If you use ANY of BV’s menubars or dropdown menus, BV will automatically upload everything. If you use the same menubar in different folders, it would be wise to publish the menu page in all the folders. Which folders are you referring to?

[quote]

Thanks Naval, for your patience with me, I'm still learning but learning from the best there is to learn from, BVodians ROCK!!!

1. The menus are both html. The way they are embedded in your pages is php. and, they are both embedded using the method explained. As i said, i have used a page where i built the menu. In this page i placed two menus, just to show that you can use either type of menus that BV offers. The same goes also for Go menus and text menus, as well as for ANY other element.

2. CSS menus are not easy. There are free offline (free software that you download) and online generators on the net, as well as paid for programs that will build css based text menus. They also provide instructions on how to use them in your pages.

3. If you have subfolders in your site (not necessary, i just reffered this as some users have their sites organized in subfolders) you need to do as explained.

Of all the different types of menu's we can create in BV, which one does the spiders like the most?

Thank you Naval, in advance

Text menus and nab bars (the one with the buttons).

I have been following the instructions given here to build (actually rebuild) a site. I am ready to publish - actually re-direct from my present host. I uploaded my 'menu' & the other 2 pages + my index + some photos in my public_html I was ready to re-direct when I decided to check the public_html file just to make sure I had put the photos in properly. When I clicked on the file a message came up saying 'topofpage' (what I called the page containing my header) had a fatal error - html in line 16 was wrong. I delayed re-directing & sent an email straight off to B.V.

Their answer said the error was that there was something after html tag & nothing should come after that. I've checked the page html & re-checked the instructions & I have followed the instructions exactly. What is interesting is that on 'topofthepage' & 'menu' there is indeed little blue writing after html at the top of the page on the html box of both. Converesly 'mysidebar' has the identical code I put in the box below, but no blue writing after html up top? What is going on? Is there a problem & what do I need to do? I'm anxious to see this store of my live - see what other problem (if any) I have to fix to get my pages right.

It is not clear to me what the actual problem with the code could be.
Please post here the entire code of the "topofpage" and your page, as you can see them in BV using the View, Page HTML command.

The code should be correct; please visit www.dinkydi.info I just published this morning using exactly the same code in both my pages as before & as you can see it's working fine. (should do its your code!)That page has NOT got the blue markings in the top box like the one for the other site. I might re-do the "top" for the other site again & see what happens. If still no luck - I'll get back.

There is no way we can see the php code, and that's why i asked for the code.

I have completely redone my site using the php format suggested and I just wanted to let you all know I am loving all the extra time I have to worry about other issues with my business.

Thank You

I have re-done the page twice & the same thing happens everytime. As per instructions I opened page html & have clicked on 'start of page' & put in this code <? function topofpage() { ?> then I have clicked on 'end of page' & pasted in
<?
}
?>

I have put the same code (changing name ofcourse!) on 4 pages (6 with repeats) . On 'topofpage' & also 'myspecialsbar' the last code appears in blue at the very end of everything uptop as soon as I paste it in. On 'menu' & the page of my new site www.dinkydi.info it does NOT appear in blue after I have pasted it in the box after clicking on 'end of page' in the page html.
How you can do the same thing & get two different results, I don't know, I don't know I don't know. Blue Voda said that nothing is allowed after the html. I don't know, I don't know. I don't even know for sure that there is a problem as I haven't published the page that is supposed to have the error. Help.............

Will you please post here the code as it appears in the problematic pages ? Go in View, Page html, copy the code from the window, and paste it here. This is the only way i can help you. And, WHICH PART and WHERE does it appear in Blue colour ?

</html><?
}
?> that appears right at the end of the grey section of the generated html page. This is from my page entitled 'topofpage'. Exactly the same code appears on 'myspecialsbar'; though I didn't get a faults message for that page.

Vicki,

</html><?
}
?>

That would be your problem than. Your server is trying to pull up a page called "html" when it loads that page.

You have to have it say

<? function topofpage() { ?>

for it to work for you. Or whatever the php page is that you are trying to call up.

The blue color appearance is normal. What ever you place directly in the page html will appear as blue. So this is not your problem.
If you wish, send me your topofpage and the main page where you have embedded it using myform. I will see what is going wrong and send them back to you.

Thanks, will do. The mystery deepens. Please check out the lastest version of http://www.dinkydi.info The php is working properly (there is a pinkish hue around the menubar) & I have done exactly the same thing each time. No copycat blue symbols have appeared at the end like there have on the other two immediately after I add the code in the box.

No 1/ This problem with getting the code right has had an interesting side effect - I've ended up building another site. While I'm certain it's not the BV record for the shortest time - I sure about 2.5 days (while working etc) for building a site I had no intention of building for many months & wasn't sure what I was even going to put on it when I started - is a bit of a record especially as I built my own templete etc. As I said my php works on that site.

No 2/ Has the mystery deepened? As stated previously I put the same php code on several different pages now with opposite results. Now I have 2 more mysteries. On some of the pages of my new site www.dinkydi.info the links are orange when the colour I've made them is brown (like it is on other pages)! More interestingly the H1 tags on my home page are black (which is the colour I expected them to be) on most other pages the colour they have turned out is brown. I will paste the two codes I have used. The first one comes out black & the next ones comes out brown. Any one know why? Perhaps an answer would solve my first mystery problem with why info put in the html of pages turns out different.

<center><H1><font size=4>Information on Modifying & Tuning Engines </font></H1></center>

<center><H1><font size=4>Tips for Starting & Running a Web-site</font></H1></center>

Sorry Vicky, forgot your pages, looking at them now

George,
Is it possible to create a java script menu and then using your method to call for it using the html box?
I will also have a text menu footer for the SE's.
Thanks

Hi Terry,

Of course, no problem. Infact, the BV drop down, which i used in my example, is Javascript.

Thanks George, it worked perfectly. I am using 3 different menus
(1 ,2 & 3).

Naval,

Great explanation of including menus for easy update... stellar!

This means I have to go back into the navigation menu and rename all links (throughout the site) to a .PHP rather than .HTML#xxx hyperlink, right?

and

make sure that all pages (they all of the main menu in them) as .PHP files when I publish.

Did I get this right. I've only just begun, so it won't be so bad, but is there a "change all function" that can do this?

Any problem with my pages, or should I go ahead & publish?

Originally Posted by DKFoster01

Naval,

Great explanation of including menus for easy update... stellar!

This means I have to go back into the navigation menu and rename all links (throughout the site) to a .PHP rather than .HTML#xxx hyperlink, right?

and

make sure that all pages (they all of the main menu in them) as .PHP files when I publish.

Did I get this right. I've only just begun, so it won't be so bad, but is there a "change all function" that can do this?

Te is no change all function. In fact, if there were, this method would be uselles.

yes, all pages need to be php. Which means that after you build your menus this way, you will need to republish them as php. And, in the menu, you must change the links to php

This is a fantastic tip, I wish this was a complete forum for itself and I hope this problem has not already been addressed (if so sorry) but there are just too many responses to try and go through each one to find the same issue.

My problems are two fold - 1.) the links aren't working for my menu and 2.) the footer is showing up twice when published. Very strange.

I'm hoping to be able to use this for a new site I'm working on, here are some temp pages I published to try it out.
www.casadecampoluxuryvillas.com/totd/test.php
www.casadecampoluxuryvillas.com/totd/uc.php

my menu doesn't publish in php but the links work when I publish it with html: www.casadecampoluxuryvillas.com/totd/menu.html

Let me know if I should send some php/html code for you to see. The menu seems to show ok - just not the links. The menu for the links was done using the regular menu bar tool - nothing too complicated.

Any help would be appreciated.

Please use my form to send me ALL three (page, header, footer) .bvp format files.

Dear Navel,

I sent the files, I really appreciate you taking a look at them. I believe I followed the directions correctly, I'm just stumped. All the best. Sbrenusa

Originally Posted by sbrenusa

Dear Navel,

I sent the files, I really appreciate you taking a look at them. I believe I followed the directions correctly, I'm just stumped. All the best. Sbrenusa

Hi sbrenusa,
you have mail

I published http://www.aboriginalarttreasures.com as php & everything was working fine. My main menu, which is horizontal, is done on it's own page as per instructions. On several pages (as appropiate) I also had a menu bar at the bottom of the page with related pages on it. eg. Privacy page at the end of the Home/Index Page; about the artists at the bottom of the paintings page etc. No problems.
Last week (after looking at a couple of stores of other members) because I have so many pages in my store I decided to add a menu bar with some of my product pages to my specials column. (This is also on its own php page.) That worked fine; but my problem now is - all the other menu bars on the other pages have disappeared. They aren't visible in preview or when published. What's happened?

Olease provide a link to one of the problematic pages where the menu disappeared.

Here's 2 for you. My index page has a menubar with links to privacy & Links on it. The products page has a whole swag. I've put links in the 'flags' on the products page - but also put menubar with all the links in at the bottom. Quite a few other pages have menubars as well. I did all my links very carefully as I was building the store.

Hi Vicki,

i need a link to the pages themselves (the problematic ones) not the files. Please post a link to your pages.

However,i believe this is a conflict between two of the embedded pages: Menu and Myspecialbars both have a dropdown menu which is, in both cases, named "Menu1" so i believe that this causes a conflict between the two.

Here are all the pages that have problems with the menu bar (at the bottom) not showing:-
http://www.aboriginalarttreasures.com/index.php
http://www.aboriginalarttreasures.com/caveart.php
http://www.aboriginalarttreasures.com/history.php
http://www.aboriginalarttreasures.com/paintings.php
http://www.aboriginalarttreasures.com/products.php

There were a couple of others, but I changed the menu bars to hyperlinks.

The names of the two php pages if you want to check them are:-
http://www.aboriginalarttreasures.com/menu.php &
http://www.aboriginalarttreasures.com/myspecialsbar.php

If I need to change a name, please tell me what where. It probably is something like that because it seems it happened right after I added the menubar to myspecialbar. (Incidently I remember when I first added the menubar it didn't appear on 'preview' & it tooks several attempts at moving it around etc before it finally appeared). Unfortunately I didn't notice there was a problem immediately & even then I thought it was just on one page.

As i said, there is a conflict between the two menus. Here is the solution:

Open your "Myspecialbars" page. Copy the menu. Paste it back in the page 3 - 4 times. Each time you paste it, BV assigns it a new name (instead of MenuBar1 it will assign the new menus names like MenuBar2, MenuBar3 etc.)
Delete the first ones and only keep the last (which will have a name like MenuBar4 or 5, depending on how many times you have pasted the menu in the page.)
Save your specialbars page and publish it again.

Hi,
I have been able to successfully use this method to place all my elements so far in my first attempt at building a website. www.crookwellshow.com.au The site is in its infancy but is live. I'd really like to use a CSS menu generator which I found on line at http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/css...enerator.shtml
I need some guidance !!!! The generator only works on line and it gives you a working result on "their" page and two windows - one with the CSS code and one with the HTML code that is required. I've tried fiddling around with trying to place those codes in my page construction but with no success.
I'm not in the "good books" with my wife having spent so much valuable time 'playing and learning and reading', which I really enjoy.
I've had to 'bite the bullet' and ask for help.
Everything I've learnt about web construction I've learnt from this forum and my own persistence in trial and error.
Hope I can achieve this as I'm not content with what I did achieve with the Blue Voda menus (maybe I could if I kept redesigning and experimenting)
Thanks in advance.
Rick

George,
This technique works for all menus, including text menu? Thanks.

Originally Posted by Meanderer

Hi,
I have been able to successfully use this method to place all my elements so far in my first attempt at building a website. www.crookwellshow.com.au The site is in its infancy but is live. I'd really like to use a CSS menu generator which I found on line at http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/css...enerator.shtml
I need some guidance !!!! The generator only works on line and it gives you a working result on "their" page and two windows - one with the CSS code and one with the HTML code that is required. I've tried fiddling around with trying to place those codes in my page construction but with no success.
I'm not in the "good books" with my wife having spent so much valuable time 'playing and learning and reading', which I really enjoy.
I've had to 'bite the bullet' and ask for help.
Everything I've learnt about web construction I've learnt from this forum and my own persistence in trial and error.
Hope I can achieve this as I'm not content with what I did achieve with the Blue Voda menus (maybe I could if I kept redesigning and experimenting)
Thanks in advance.
Rick

Hi, should of popped this one in the css area. On the generator part, create the code as per instructions on that site, then go to your BV page properties html area & paste the code bellow into “Between the head tag” & replace the part in red with your new CSS code that the site has shown in the 1st box.

<style type="text/css">
Delete this text & place your CSS part of the code here.
</style>

The html part of the code you need to paste in a html box on the front of your bv page where you would like your menu to be. Test in preview. Good luck.

Originally Posted by WSBlue

George,
This technique works for all menus, including text menu? Thanks.

Yes.

Originally Posted by Collectors-info

Hi, should of popped this one in the css area. On the generator part, create the code as per instructions on that site, then go to your BV page properties html area & paste the code bellow into “Between the head tag” & replace the part in red with your new CSS code that the site has shown in the 1st box.

<style type="text/css">
Delete this text & place your CSS part of the code here.
</style>

The html part of the code you need to paste in a html box on the front of your bv page where you would like your menu to be. Test in preview. Good luck.

Thanks Chris,
I won't get a chance to try it for another 24 hours. Can't wait to try it out. Will get back with the result as soon as I have.

I realised that I should have put it into the CSS forum a day after and then didn't ant to double up. I guess I could have deleted the post here put it across there.
I have just 5 hours before I have to get up for work so I better get some shut eye. Thanks again.
Rick

Geroge, Why your samples have all these:
Start of Page, Between Head Tag, Inside Body Tag, Beginning of Body, End of Body, End of Page.

Mine only show Before Tag, Inside Tag, After Tag ?

Step 5. Define and publish your page as PHP page

Repeat exactly the step 3 operations, for this page.


So we will save 2 pages; one is called menu and the other is phpmenu ?

Originally Posted by WSBlue

Geroge, Why your samples have all these:
Start of Page, Between Head Tag, Inside Body Tag, Beginning of Body, End of Body, End of Page.

Mine only show Before Tag, Inside Tag, After Tag ?

@WSBlue,

If you right click on the HTML BOX that you have inserted on your page, and you select HTML, you will see just the three as you have. But if you right click on the page outside your html box you will see all the Tags that you see in Georges examples. i.e one is html box and the other is page html.

The second question you raised. Yes you publish TWO pages. However, one is just a page with the ELEMENT, i.e your menubar and the other page is your web page (or template page) that you are placing the menu in position. (Remember, he has suggested you make the HTML box the same size as the finished menu contents so that you can see it represented (space wise) on your page where you are positioning it. (If you follow his instructions and place the generated menu into the very top left corner of the menu page, then the very top left corner of the html box you place on your webpage will be the datum position)
Hope that makes sense to you.
Cheers,
Rick

Originally Posted by Collectors-info

On the generator part, create the code as per instructions on that site, then go to your BV page properties html area & paste the code bellow into “Between the head tag” & replace the part in red with your new CSS code that the site has shown in the 1st box.

<style type="text/css">
Delete this text & place your CSS part of the code here.
</style>

The html part of the code you need to paste in a html box on the front of your bv page where you would like your menu to be. Test in preview. Good luck.

Thanks again Chris,
It worked a treat. I'll be fiddling around with menus for a while until I decide exactly what suits the site.
Regards,
Rick

Originally Posted by Meanderer

@WSBlue,

If you right click on the HTML BOX that you have inserted on your page, and you select HTML, you will see just the three as you have. But if you right click on the page outside your html box you will see all the Tags that you see in Georges examples. i.e one is html box and the other is page html.

The second question you raised. Yes you publish TWO pages. However, one is just a page with the ELEMENT, i.e your menubar and the other page is your web page (or template page) that you are placing the menu in position. (Remember, he has suggested you make the HTML box the same size as the finished menu contents so that you can see it represented (space wise) on your page where you are positioning it. (If you follow his instructions and place the generated menu into the very top left corner of the menu page, then the very top left corner of the html box you place on your webpage will be the datum position)
Hope that makes sense to you.
Cheers,
Rick

Hi! Meanderer,
How do I name the web page.
ex.
mydomain.com ( for index page)
mydomain.com/a.html (for other pages)
Am I right?

And

If I have another domain, how to I name the menu page. It can't be the same, right?

Thank you.

@ WSBlue,

OK, sounds like you need to do a bit of reading up but here's a further explanation.
The subject of this thread is to create a menu element and by using a html box being able to place it on any page you construct. Then whenever you need to alter the menu you only have to go to the original element page, alter it, save it, publish it and then it will be changed in all pages of your site that call for it.
Now, when you first create your menu, you follow George's instructions to the letter. The page that just contains the menu you name it (say) 'menu' but in the page properties you select the file type to be php when published. (NOT html). You don't use any extension when naming ....... BV does that for you with any page!
You never have to use the name 'menu' again in any other pages. If you want the menu to show on your home page, you place the html box on that page. (html box contains the script/code for the menu.php page). When saving this NEW page, you just name it index if it's to be your home page. You can "title" your page Index in the properties box. But NEVER use a title for the 'menu' page. :- just save it as menu.
When someone types in your domain address www.yourdomain.com it will automatically try to find the index.html OR the index.php page. So if you use this system described in George's Thread, it will be index.php. Now, if you have already had an index page named index.html you will have to delete it using file manager in your control panel and just leave the index.php file there..

If you have another domain, BV will have created another folder automatically for that other domain. Whilst you could use the name menu in the second domain folder, it's wiser to change the name slightly at least. You couldn't use the SAME menu page element because the links would different.

Hope that clears it up for you. I know what you are going through. Sometimes we gloss over a single point when reading instructions and it throws everything out and we go around in circles until someone sets us straight again :) Been there, done that! LOL
Good Luck
Rick

Originally Posted by Meanderer

@ WSBlue,

OK, sounds like you need to do a bit of reading up but here's a further explanation.
The subject of this thread is to create a menu element and by using a html box being able to place it on any page you construct. Then whenever you need to alter the menu you only have to go to the original element page, alter it, save it, publish it and then it will be changed in all pages of your site that call for it.
Now, when you first create your menu, you follow George's instructions to the letter. The page that just contains the menu you name it (say) 'menu' but in the page properties you select the file type to be php when published. (NOT html). You don't use any extension when naming ....... BV does that for you with any page!
You never have to use the name 'menu' again in any other pages. If you want the menu to show on your home page, you place the html box on that page. (html box contains the script/code for the menu.php page). When saving this NEW page, you just name it index if it's to be your home page. You can "title" your page Index in the properties box. But NEVER use a title for the 'menu' page. :- just save it as menu.
When someone types in your domain address www.yourdomain.com it will automatically try to find the index.html OR the index.php page. So if you use this system described in George's Thread, it will be index.php. Now, if you have already had an index page named index.html you will have to delete it using file manager in your control panel and just leave the index.php file there..

If you have another domain, BV will have created another folder automatically for that other domain. Whilst you could use the name menu in the second domain folder, it's wiser to change the name slightly at least. You couldn't use the SAME menu page element because the links would different.

Hope that clears it up for you. I know what you are going through. Sometimes we gloss over a single point when reading instructions and it throws everything out and we go around in circles until someone sets us straight again :) Been there, done that! LOL
Good Luck
Rick

Thank you so much for your deep explaination.
Now I got it work.
BUT when I add something new on the menu and republish it, I don't see the new added thing in index page even in Live.
I don't have to republish my index, do I ? Thanks again.

Originally Posted by WSBlue

Thank you so much for your deep explaination.
Now I got it work.
BUT when I add something new on the menu and republish it, I don't see the new added thing in index page even in Live.
I don't have to republish my index, do I ? Thanks again.

When you add something new to the menu, first you save it, then publish it. It should then show up in your other pages next time you call them up on the internet. If they don't show the changes then the problem is the cached files saved on your home computer. So first try "refreshing the page. If that doesn't so it first time, hit the F5 key repeatedly many times. That should cure it. :)
I'm off to bed as it's almost 1:30am.
Glad to be of help
Rick

Now is 02:00 for u . Rick. Good night.
I am only 22 :00 here

Hi! Can anyone please take a look.

http://buyindonesia.com/ ( Why it can't show the menu? At first, I got it right but don't know what I did, I make the menu disappear and have retried over and over agin but still can get it fixed.)

http://buyindonesia.com/a.html ( It can show the menu BUT when I add new thing in the menu page and save and republished it, the new thing not included?)

Please help. Thank you.

The correct pages are http://buyindonesia.com/a.php

and http://buyindonesia.com/index.php .

In your index page the menu doesn't show because it retrieves the html page (you need to delete it) and not the php. However, you also have made some other mistake because you have inserted the menu code in that page too.

The a.php page seems correct, i can't know if there are links missing.

Originally Posted by navaldesign

The correct pages are http://buyindonesia.com/a.php

and http://buyindonesia.com/index.php .

In your index page the menu doesn't show because it retrieves the html page (you need to delete it) >Where to delete it, I did delete it at ftp but still can't get it right. and not the php. However, you also have made some other mistake because you have inserted the menu code in that page too. >where to see it and get rid of it?

The a.php page seems correct, i can't know if there are links missing.

Hi!
George,
http://buyindonesia.com/a.php
http://buyindonesia.com/index.php
click any above, they show
Fatal error: Cannot redeclare menu() (previously declared in /home/rbnwrmty/public_html/menu.php:7) in /home/rbnwrmty/public_html/menu.php on line 33
I ahve changed the file extension from html to php at page properties before published.
I have gone through almost all the whole threads but still can't get then done.
Regards,
PJR

It is obvious that you are making some mistake, as it sems that you have, in the main pages, the same code that re-declares the menu function. Please read again the instructions and follow them to the letter.

Regarding the html file, it now results deleted...

Originally Posted by navaldesign

It is obvious that you are making some mistake, as it sems that you have, in the main pages, the same code that re-declares the menu function. Please read again the instructions and follow them to the letter.

Regarding the html file, it now results deleted...

George,
You have mail from me.
Regards,
PJR

Hi Philips,

i will reply later.

Thanks

I have set up several aspects to my template (a top image, side image and a menu) and all seem to work as they should. My problem is that since I had saved these as individual images as pages and am using the PHP to recall them, when I look at the html code there are three sections for <head>, <title>, etc.....

This cannot be good for the search engines so how do I get around that?

Thanks for this incredible thread!

The only way ìs to manually edit the published files (download them, edit hem in Notepad, upload them again). However, if, as suggested, you do NOT name your pages, or add keywords, metatags etc, there is NO problem with SEs

Originally Posted by navaldesign

Sorry, no, it can't be done because the menu also requires the relevant images and / or javascript and themes. So you need to publish the menu page in those folders.

Hello everyone, first post here. I am actually brand-spanking new to building web pages and programming in html, php, or anything else for that matter.

Anyhow, I am using the concepts outlined in this wonderful thread to create a page header, a few menus, along with some common images that will be used throughout the site.

It concerned me that it was not possible to organize the site pages in individual folders using this method, and I was determined to figure out a way. I hope this hasn't been covered, and if I'm saying something that is totally retarded, please tell me.

Anyhow, I created a horizontal button menu using BV. It generates a set of bv101016.gif and bv101016_over.gif files (different numbers for each obviously) for each button in the menu. Obviously using this method, those files need to be in the same folder as the .php file that calls for them. However, if you edit the HTML directly, you can specify a URL for those files, along with the mouseover and mouseout files quite easily.

Using this method, you can use that same .php file using the <?php include ($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT]."path/file.php"); file(); ?> command (I think I got that close) to enact the .php script from any folder within your site. As long as the .gif files are specified in the html as URLs, they will work. When you need to make changes, you may need to re-edit the html direclty, but that is better IMHO than re-publishing the menu in each and every folder (of which you may have many).

I did something similar with a drop-down style menu that created a .js file when published. Opening the menu.php file in notepad I edited the src = "file.js" to include the path...

src = "http//xxx.biz/file.js"

worked like a charm.

Hope this makes sense or is helpful and isn't a repeat.

1. It is not necessary to edit the file code. Simply publish the menu anywhere, and the images will be also published. Then go back in BV, and, in the place of the image location (c/documents/.....) place http://www.yourdomain.com/path/to/bv01016.gif where, obviously, path/to is the actual path to the folder of the menu. PUBLISH the page again and you are done.

Or, do it straight way, in order to avoid publishing twice, and use the File publisher (embedded in BV) to simoultaneously upload the pictures.

2. Yes, it is quite possible, i simply wanted to keep that simple. In fact, not one person here has ever wondered why I have put that as a function and not as a direct include. A function would allow, for more advanced users, to define their own parameters for the menu, thus being able to change colours, buttons etc.

3. The src = "http//xxx.biz/file.js" is a different thing. The "include" command is (usually) disabled for URLs.

Navaldesign, I have successfully set up my menus as described in this thread, I have a query.

Bearing in mind that the text in my menu contains carefully researched keywords, do the se spiders interpret each separate page as actually having the menu physically present on the page?

The menu this way is seen on each page. That's one reason we suggest it :)

Originally Posted by navaldesign

1. It is not necessary to edit the file code. Simply publish the menu anywhere, and the images will be also published. Then go back in BV, and, in the place of the image location (c/documents/.....) place http://www.yourdomain.com/path/to/bv01016.gif where, obviously, path/to is the actual path to the folder of the menu. PUBLISH the page again and you are done.

Or, do it straight way, in order to avoid publishing twice, and use the File publisher (embedded in BV) to simoultaneously upload the pictures.

2. Yes, it is quite possible, i simply wanted to keep that simple. In fact, not one person here has ever wondered why I have put that as a function and not as a direct include. A function would allow, for more advanced users, to define their own parameters for the menu, thus being able to change colours, buttons etc.

3. The src = "http//xxx.biz/file.js" is a different thing. The "include" command is (usually) disabled for URLs.

I'm not sure I follow you here. I created both a navigation bar with buttons and a javascript menu that will appear on multiple pages using your format. The buttons in the nav bar are the bv01016.gif files I mentioned, that appear when published. However, there is nowhere in BV that I can see that allows me to specify the file path to that image. AFAIK that image only exists on the server.

I'm curious though, is this method the best way to include a javascript menu and a navbar that will repeat on every page? What about headers and footers and rotating ad banners? In fact, my rotating ad banners don't rotate at all anymore.

Yay I'm learning now :D Thanks

When yo insert an image in a BV page, you can
1. Specify a location on your computer, using the Browse feature
2. Or, type directly the image file name. If the file name is simply "image.gif" , when viewing the page on the net (the published page) the browser will look for the image file in the same directory where the page is. In BV and in preview the image will NOT appear. If, instead, you define the image location as http://www.yourdomain.com/path/to/image.gif the browser will look for it in the specified location.
In this second case, the image will NOT appear in BV, but it will when published AND in preview

3. If your banners don't work any more, it is probably some conflict somewhere. Without seeing the code i can't know what is wrong

Hello Naval

I've read this thread and I get the jist and I understand you can use this to do menus, headers and footers etc.

Could I design a page that includes all those features in one go so I could simply name it 'mytemplate' (or something) and then use that?

Thanks

Darren

Yes, you can. The add the rest of the content in the specific page

okay - I've weeded through quite a bit of this thread and think I got lost somewhere in the middle. Could I just sum up what I understand and someone please tell me if I'm on the right track?

here goes:

I'm attempting to do the php menu (php is a completely new thing for me) as suggested.
So, I design the menu (using one of the suggested CSS menu design programs or even just using a text box with links - whatever I can decide works?)
In page properties, I make sure to save it as php extension when it publishes.
save the file... in some folder. Am I supposed to make different folders to save each page?
then, I insert the html box (with code) into EACH page that I want the menu to appear? but I put that box (same size as original menu) in the upper left corner of every page?
Do I save ALL pages with php extensions? what was Beth talking about saving some in php and some in html ... what is the difference? or do I just save the ones where I want to use my menu.php as a php extension. (What is php anyway?) and the others as html?

I hope I am not confusing things more... Please straighten me out. I'm sure there will be more questions as I go, but I would appreciate the initial direction.

You will need to save ALL pages as php - and not html to use this.

When you save the page, it will already save into the blue voda folder you have your files for this program in. (You should make a folder for each website - not for each page). Each page you do this with, will need it's own page - the navigation, your header page (but do NOT call it header when you save it LOL) - etc.

On the page you save with the header or menu, etc - THERE you put the box in the upper left corner. On the real pages, but the box exactly where you want this to appear.

I know you contacted me in the other forum also. If you need further help - feel free to email me again - I sent you the email address from that pm - and we'll get it fixed for you.

After you get this - it'll be easy - and will make your pages down the road a breeze :)

anyone have much experience with the css tab designer program talked about earlier in this thread? mine seems to be invisible on preview... any ideas why?

Originally Posted by Bethers

The menu this way is seen on each page. That's one reason we suggest it :)

Thank you Beth

I learned a while back it is easier to work with a page template. The first thing I do is to build what I call my template page. It has all of the common elements without the bells and whistles of the indivdual pages. i save it as "template" and when I make a new page, I save that page by its proper name. I am famous for making mistakes as well. I have learned to copy and paste html, etc, as well....just an idea.

Originally Posted by bishopjack

I learned a while back it is easier to work with a page template. The first thing I do is to build what I call my template page. It has all of the common elements without the bells and whistles of the indivdual pages. i save it as "template" and when I make a new page, I save that page by its proper name. I am famous for making mistakes as well. I have learned to copy and paste html, etc, as well....just an idea.

Thats more or less the standars way. However, if you need to change, i.e., the menu bar, you need to do it for each single page. With the method described here, you only update one page and the entire site is updated.

My pages are of different length, can the footer be floating?

I figured out!!!! no more problems it works!!

Use it for footers too. They don't float as such, but as you are building each page, just adjust your page length in the " page properties" and reposition (drag) the HTML box containing the footer, to the bottom of the page.
Tip: When you design your base page using this method, make sure you size the footer' html box to fit hard against left side of page. That way it's only a matter of sliding the box down the left edge when constructing a new page. Also, make sure after you have moved any elements (should only need to move footer), recheck your page width iin the properties. You could have slipped over a little and width will stay at the max width element caused during the move.
Rick

I used this to design my menubar for every page and it worked great, however, my background is now white instead of green like it originally was on my index page. Do you know what would cause this? Am I supposed to make the background on the menu.php transparent, and how do I do that?

Simply do NOT set any background in your menu.php page

I've received the following error message when opening my site
http://www.futurosobmedida.com/

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '}' in /home/eynbvrar/public_html/myheader.php on line 18

I've been working with BV for a month now - had all pages published as html with no problem but decided to change them to php to enable single menu as per Naval instructions. Used the same process for the header and text menu. Now only the error message and the title of the article are visible - no sign of menu bar, text menu or the content of the page. I've been learning BV as I build the site - easier to see what works (or doesn't!). Watched the tutorials endless times and spent hours going through the forums looking for answers but without luck. Time to cry for help, I guess.

Thanks,

Rosa

It is obvious tha there is a mistake in the myheader page code.
Please post here the code in your "myheader" start of page

The code I used for header in all pages was: <? function myheader() { ?>

I've deleted the menu/header/textmenu codes from the index page. ( That's what I got from your reply to WSBlue : "In your index page the menu doesn't show because it retrieves the html page (you need to delete it) and not the php. However, you also have made some other mistake because you have inserted the menu code in that page too"). Now the index page shows up but the problem continues in the others. Should I include the codes in the index.php page as well?

Thanks,

I reviewed all codes - they were correct. So I went radical: deleted everything and copied and pasted all over again. It works beautifully now. Thanks a lot.

Rosa

Hi, I believe Naval posted a thread quite a wile back showing a way to link to the other php files in another folder/directory that would make the total page up. This was to save you having to place a (for argument sake) a php menu file in each of the sites folders/directory's.
Or am I imagining this.?????????????? "Naval!"

Hi Chris,

no, you have not imagined it.

Here is the code:

<?
$file_to_include = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']."/include_path/menu.php";
include($file_to_include);
menu();
?>

This is the same code, but two additions:

1. $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] is ONE OF THE VALUES OF THE $_SERVER superglobal, that corresponds to /home/username/public_html/file_folder where file_folder is the folder that is calling the menu.php . Instead, include_path would be, the folder where you have published your file that needs to be included (menu.php)

If you have (as most of us) published the menu.php in your public_html (or, in case of addon, in the domain root directory), the voice "include_path" should be left out, and the command would become:

<?
$file_to_include = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']."/menu.php";
include($file_to_include);
menu();
?>

What i would like to point out here is that the code i have presented here, requires the menu (or other) to be defined as a function. The code in the pages calls the script, then it uses the command

menu();

to "display" the menu itself.

The reason i did so is that, with a minimum of php experience, the user can pass over to the included file, some parametrs and then call the function with

menu($par1, $par2, $par3, .....) . This way you can have a menu that behaves (read: displays) differently depending on the parametres passed over.

If you don't need this type of performance, the menu, header, etc, CAN BE SIMPLE BLUEVODA HTML PAGES, WITHOUT ANY CODE ADDED IN THE START OF PAGE AND END OF PAGE and ONLY THE CALLING PAGE NEEDS TO BE PHP.

In that case, the command could be simply


<?
include('menu.html');
?>



<?
$file_to_include = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT']."/include_path/menu.html";
include($file_to_include);
?>

Please note that if your menu has buttons (images) you MUST set the relative path to these images or they will not display,

This is the reason i suggest that if you have this method for pages in different folders, it would be wise to publish the included page in all folders

Hi, i maybe doing something daft here? But it wont bring any images across from the root directory. This page is the only one in the new directory & links on the page will go back to the public_html area to show the working pages. So don't be confused as this works fine. Any ideas?

PS, i may also have this part wrong? But if you use the BV logo tool, it seems to be missing something, as when i tried this on the header, it seemed to be distorted in the new/remote directory, as if a file was missing that load the image.

No, you are correct. If the images used in the menu page are (as the menu page itself) in different folder, the images MUST be provided in the BV page, as absolute URLs. So, when you want to insert in your BV page an image, let's call it "logo.jpg", you should provide also the absolute URL for it instead of simply showing the pah in your local computer.

Usually, pages built by pros, have all images uploaded in a folder of their own, and retrieved from there. So in the BV page, you should provide the image source as http://www.yourdomain.com/images/logo.jpg The same problem (even greater in fact) exists also for the classic BV menus, where buttons are images.

As you see, that might be a bit complicated, and that is why i have suggested that the easier way, at least for the average user, is to publish the menu in those two or three folders that he might have.

Originally Posted by navaldesign

No, you are correct. If the images used in the menu page are (as the menu page itself) in different folder, the images MUST be provided in the BV page, as absolute URLs. So, when you want to insert in your BV page an image, let's call it "logo.jpg", you should provide also the absolute URL for it instead of simply showing the pah in your local computer.

Usually, pages built by pros, have all images uploaded in a folder of their own, and retrieved from there. So in the BV page, you should provide the image source as http://www.yourdomain.com/images/logo.jpg The same problem (even greater in fact) exists also for the classic BV menus, where buttons are images.

As you see, that might be a bit complicated, and that is why i have suggested that the easier way, at least for the average user, is to publish the menu in those two or three folders that he might have.

I thought it might be this. But also thought i might be missing something. Dont feel so daft now. lol

Cheers George.

A question about the meta tags using this system.
is it ok if I have meta tags on the page where the menu.php HTML code is pasted (not on the menu.php file itslef) ?
or do I need to have no meta tags whatsoever on pages that include the menu.php html code ?

Yes, it is ok to have all the necessary tags in the main page

I think the easiest way is to copy and paste the menu from your main page in every page you make if you want to use the same menu....i tried it and works fine. Just lock the menu so when you paste it to other pages it will reside exactly at the same place in the new page and locked as well.

And, after you have published a 200 pages site, and you want to change a link ? what will you do ? Copy / paste / save / publish 200 pages ?

This is what this thread is about: how to avoid doing this, and only edit / save / publish ONE page, automatically updating all the site pages.

But than if you need to change something in the menu you need to access each page on your site and change it instead of changing just one file that will later upload it self into every page on your site.

I have used naval's php menu idea and have also used text links.

Just remember that ANY page that will include the php menu MUST be saved as php and not html...............thanks naval..........

Originally Posted by ofirbeigel

But than if you need to change something in the menu you need to access each page on your site and change it instead of changing just one file that will later upload it self into every page on your site.

If you want to make a change you just change your menu (don't need to access each page) upload it in all your folders and automaticaly changes the menu in all your pages.
So you just have to change one page (your menu) and publish one page (your menu) and all the pages in your site will have the new menu, Just like that!!
It works beautiful
Thanks for the tip Naval

yes I know I was answering the post before me :) but thanks.

Thanks soooo much, I just did it with my 20 or so pages. Publishing them is a pain!

This is like the longest thread ever. I have another question - tried to find the answer in this thread but with no success.

I am using a template which is save as menu.php on each and every page.
On some groups of pages I want to add a sub menu that will be used for navigation within that sub group - of course that menu should not show up on all of the pages.

What I did is create a new file and called it sub-menu.php
inside the HTML of the sub-menu.php I put in the code:
<? function menu() { ?> in the beginning
and the code <?
}
?>

at the end.

Than inside a page of my subcategory I put an HTML box with the code:
<?php
include ("sub-menu.php");
menu();
?>

I published them all. For some reason I still didn't get the sub-menu on my page and I am wondering what did I do wrong ?

I remind you that there is already a PHP menu on this page - maybe that's the problem ?

Please advise.

Thanks.
Ofir.

Hi, is it possible you need to bring the html box on your main page to the front?????.
You would be better posting the url for the main page.

Try this:

<? function submenu() { ?>

------------------------------------------

<?php
include ("sub-menu.php");
submenu();
?>

--------------------------------------------

as you can see, I have just changed names to avoid a conflict with the existing function.

remove the menu function from the pages where its not required.

As naval has pointed out, you can have as many different functions on a page as you wish......just change some names.

ok.
I changed the names and it did work - but now take a look at how it messes up the menus graphics. here is the link.
You will see the the menu on the top left changes colors once the sub menu comes inside.