Single Menu Page with Bv and PHP

[navaldesign]

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

Well, menubars have always been a “weak” point for all of us, BV users, and I believe for many other, non BV users. Imagine a 100 or 200 page site, perfectly functioning and on the air. Then, one day, you need to add or delete some button, or simply change a link. You need to change the menubar in ALL 200 pages, and then re-publish them all. Quite a work, ah ?

In Menubar in I-frame I have displayed a method of using a single menu page, then recalling it in the rest of your pages, through an Iframe. Everything nice, but I have Beth(ers) that hates Iframes ! (LOL! This trick has come out after lot of research thanks to your insisting!).

Ok, so what can we do? FrontPage allows for includes, that is recalling other pages in yours. But BV doesn’t. Doesn’t it ?

No, indeed it doesn’t, at least not directly. But, with a little help from my friend, (PHP, I LOVE you!) I found the way of including ANY element in my pages. This method can be used for menubars, dropdown menus, CSS text menubars, headers, and everything else. And, it is all done within BV! No need for editors, Notepad, or anything else. Only one requirement: your pages need to be published as php. Please note that this quite alright with SE, if not even better. We are talking about static PHP pages, so no problem at all. Ok, let’s see how you can do it!

Step 1. Create the menubar

Open a blank page. Create your menubar as you would do normally. Take care to place it in the upper left corner of the page (later we will see how you actually place it in your pages).

Important: do NOT use any metatags, page title, page description, author etc in this page. It could confuse Search Engines, as this code will be implemented to the code of each and every one of your pages.



Step 2. Publish your page.

Save the page as “menu” and publish it. You can publish your page as php OR as html. it is not really important. In this example I have used a HTML page.

Ok, at this point, your menubar page is published on your site, and ready to be used in the rest of your pages. Let’s see how you do this:

Step 3. Insert the menubar in your pages.

Let’s suppose you have already a page. We will use a HTML box to place our menubar in the page. Since you already know what dimensions your menubar is, and where you want to place it, I suggest that you make this html box the same dimensions as the menubar. To help you out with this, you can copy / paste temporarily the menubar in your page, insert the html box, make it same size as the menubar, and then place it behind the menubar, exactly in the same position. Now, delete the menubar, and you will only have the html box, which is still empty.

Visually, if you have followed the above instructions, this html box is occupying exactly the space where your menubar should be.

Ok, double click the html box, and paste in it the following code:

<?php
include 'menu.html';
?>

Step 4. Define and publish your page as PHP page

Clicl on View, Page Properties, Page HTML. Set the page extension to be php when published. Save the page and publish it.

Ok, you are done. I’ll just take a minute to explain what you have done: You have created a menu bar. You have then saved this page as "menu" and you have published it. Then, in the main page, you are calling this page, and you are displaying it (in this case only a menubar) as part of the page.

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

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.

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.

Please note that you can use this trick not only for menubars, but also for headers, footers, ads, practically ANYTHING that can be in some way inserted in a BV page (BV Rocks!). Just make sure, when using this trick for more than one elements (external pages) to save each page, with each own name, f.e. "myheader" , "footer" etc., and also in the html box, change the words "menu" with "myheader", "footer", etc.
You can have as many external elements called in your page as you like.

That’s all. Have fun and save yourself lots of work by using this trick.

[Bethers]

Naval, I love you!

I don't have time right now with Christmas sales, etc to change anything now - but I will be looking at making quite a few changes when things slow back down.

This is what I knew could be done, but didn't know how to do - I'm glad I was some influence on your figuring it out - cuz it will be MUCH better for se's!!

Now, one question - which of the menu bars on the page is the one you inserted that way? Or did you put both in - just showing different possibilities?

[navaldesign]

Excactly, both, just to show that it can be done LOL!

[Bethers]

Naval,
I'll use that on my next site, but can't afford to rename any pages from .html now on current sites - as se's are sending them traffic and I don't want to go backwards.

Now, I know that it can also be done with css - which I could then use on existing sites with html - and some day I'll find someone who can tell me how that one works :)

[Collectors-info]

Well done Naval. This will save loads of time.

One small thing I am not sure on? You say the menu page will have to be placed in all folders. Will this mean manually updating the menu pages that are placed in other folders? Or can the code below be modified to go & get the menu page from, let’s say the public_html area & load it onto the new page?

IE: the code below to go in a html box
<?php
include ("menu.php");
menu();
?>

Don’t laugh! Just my way to explain. IE:

<?php
include ("Go & find main menu in public_html/menu.php");
menu();
?>

Well done again this will go into a new site I am working on.

[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.

[Collectors-info]

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.

Thanks Naval,
this will also be a big bonus on some of the browsers that are not so keen on loading iframes.

[navaldesign]

Naval,
I'll use that on my next site, but can't afford to rename any pages from .html now on current sites - as se's are sending them traffic and I don't want to go backwards.

Now, I know that it can also be done with css - which I could then use on existing sites with html - and some day I'll find someone who can tell me how that one works :)

Beth, from what i know, you can use CSS to STYLE your menubar. Indeed, the best menubar, is a text based one, like the ones you are using. Well, with CSS you can style your menu text, and make it appear as button. But, till now, i have NOT been able to find any way to recall a menubar in a page, if not with somekind of "include" method: Iframe, php or the FP includes. I will keep searching though if you are sure about this.

[Bethers]

Naval - I'm lost in css - but here's where I found the info that makes me believe I should be able to do it:

http://webdesign.about.com/od/freeme...bllistvert.htm

http://webdesign.about.com/od/cssmen...s=css+template

And - this one is where I wanted to dissect:
http://webdesign.about.com/od/css/a/aa082304.htm

I appreciate it if you can figure this out for me (and the many others out here!)

[navaldesign]

Naval - I'm lost in css - but here's where I found the info that makes me believe I should be able to do it:

http://webdesign.about.com/od/freeme...bllistvert.htm

http://webdesign.about.com/od/cssmen...s=css+template

And - this one is where I wanted to dissect:
http://webdesign.about.com/od/css/a/aa082304.htm

I appreciate it if you can figure this out for me (and the many others out here!)

Hi Beth,

as i was afraid, that is not a way of including a single menu in your pages.

Explain: all the links you posted, are tutorials on how to create a menubar, using CSS. BUT, the menu has to be inside each and every page. Only the stylesheet document can be unique for all pages, so if you want to change the look of your menu, then you only need to edit this one css file.

But when it comes to editing the menu itself, in the meaning of adding, deleting, or changing links, etc, you still need to edit page per page. You will need to manually edit the menu in one page, eventually copy paste in the rest of the the pages, then republish ALL the pages.

The only way, as i posted above, i know of, to have a SINGLE menu, is to in someway, include this unique menubar, in your pages, calling it from whithin the page. And, as long as you don't have the includes (that FP allows for), the only way i could come up with, is the one i posted, making use of php.

Please note that, as i posted above, this include, can be practcally ANYTHING that can be included in a php/html page: menubars, headers, footers, ANYTHING. So, you can use this trick to implement a CSS menu as well.

Now, i do understand that a CSS menu, like the ones described in your posts, are the best, as long as SE are concerned. And, those tutorials, explain how to create them. However, there is a simpler way to accomplish the same result (creating a CSS menu), by making use of the CSS menu generators you can find in the web. Here is an easy one:
http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/css...enerator.shtml . It will allow you to create your CSS menu and then download the code, ready to place in your page.

[Bethers]

Thanks, Naval. I'll see what I can do with the generator - and just keep having to change all my pages when I have changes.

And I'll try the php script above on my next site (in the works).

[navaldesign]

You're welcome. I am by no means an expert of CSS, so maybe FPRob can give us both an advise on this issue. Maybe we should post in the CSS forum.

[navaldesign]

Beth! Download this CSS menu generator: i find it excellent! http://www.4yougratis.it/software_we..._generator.htm

[Bethers]

Downloaded - will look at it later,
THANK YOU.

[Andy128]

Naval- You are a life saver!!!!!! Thanks very much for your tutorial! I have a site (www.123gpp.com) that I currently have over 130 pages and it is expected to grow to over 300+. This method will be fantastic to create a site that can be eaisly managed. I very much wanted to be able to adapt the site content for Hoildays and celebrations and such but could not having to change so many pages. I can't wait to get started. I have been researching Beths hatred for I-Frames (which is well founded I have found out) as far SE's was concerned. This seems like a perfect solution.

Again- Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!

Your Friend- Andy

[McBuff]

Thank Naval,

I found this just in time! It works great. .. just what I needed!

[Winntec]

Naval
Thanks, that's great and it worked perfectly.
Can you give me some clarification on the discussion above with regard to SE's .
What I understood from the discussion is that the php route is not SE friendly and therefore not the best way to go if that is important to me and using text buttons and CSS is preferable?

[Andy128]

Winn-
Quite the opposite is true. The php method shown is very se friendly and is far better than the I-Frame method. Use it with confidence.

Andy

[yangman]

Great tip naval!!! Thanks.

[Bethers]

Naval,

Just so you know how much I trust you.

I have now saved a header, footer and menu using this system - for a site I'm moving to Voda (hopefully this weekend) and I can't test anythinig, cuz it has to all go live when I direct the nameservers here!

Now, to remember to save all the pages as php - am going through them now making that change!

[navaldesign]

Naval,

Just so you know how much I trust you.

I have now saved a header, footer and menu using this system - for a site I'm moving to Voda (hopefully this weekend) and I can't test anythinig, cuz it has to all go live when I direct the nameservers here!

Now, to remember to save all the pages as php - am going through them now making that change!

Your trust is a Great Honour for me Beth! Thankyou!

[Bethers]

Naval - one question

I'm going to lose all the links and page rank etc on all my internal pages anyway with the move - wouldn't be able to do this if that wasn't happening anyway - but I don't want to lose it.

So, I'm thinking I need to keep the home page html. And do all the others as php to use that. Do you see any problems here I might run into?

[navaldesign]

No problem at all. Furtermore, i suggest that you use a CSS text based menu both in the home page as well as for the php menu include page. This way, all your internal links will be available to SE spiders imediately.

[Bethers]

I am doing text links. I like anything that helps with the se's - specially cuz as I move my sites, I take quite a few backwards steps initially.

One more to move after this one - but not starting on it until Christmas sales are over. Then I have a couple more builds in the works - but those are new ones - :)

[navaldesign]

Css text based menu, is in fact a text menu. CSS only helps in styling it, so you can use it with no problem at all. The text menu generator download posted above creates such text menus.

[Winntec]

Naval, I have a basic question.
Using your method I've generated a top menu, a side menu and also a footer. I'm having trouble with placing the footer where I want it because when it is generated it is generated with an absolute vertical position.
I've tried getting it to be relative but it's not working for me - I've removed the top position (it then generates right at the top - when I add a relative position it generates relative to the top of the page - I'm probably placing it in the wrong place in the code.
I use Link Assistant so I'm wrapping the template code generated from BlueVoda around the LinkAssistant code.
Can you tell me how I get it to be sensitive to the page length and be placed at the foot of the page?

Thanks again

[navaldesign]

You can't do anything about that. In fact, you are including the whole page, as you create it. Create three different pages for the top menu, the side memu and the footer and place each one in a separate html box. Ofcourse, the code has to be changed . Suppose you use the original code for the top menu. The code for the others should be:

<? function sidemenu() { ?>

and


<? function footer() { ?>

for the side menu and the footer pages,

and

<?php
include ("sidemenu.php");
sidemenu();
?>


<?php
include ("footer.php");
footer();
?>


for the page that has to be included, and for the html box respectively. In each of the three pages the elements (top menu, side menu, footer) have to be placed in the very top left corner of their rispective pages.
This way you can manage each of the three elements on it's own with absolute precision in the placamen.

[Winntec]

Yup - that's what I've done but in dealing with the way LinkAssistant works I only have one set of "wrapping" html that I can put round the LinkAssistant code. It then goes off and generates the actual pages and uses the wrapping html exactly as given to it.
If the footer is specified to be 800px from the top that is where it will be on all pages and some pages that LA generates (I put my links in categories - some will have 2 links, other 40 which I then specify should be split so that no more than 15 appear on a page) the page length could be say 400px long and others 1200px so what I'm trying to do is have the footer float to a place just after the body code.
I'm thinking I may be trying to do something that can't be done and I'll have to go back to an inline menu bar for the footer and live with having to edit each link page manually if I change it.

[Bethers]

Hi Naval,

I had created my text menu in BV but thought I'd try out the CSS - and have one I like and would use - but whenever I input the css and html portions into the BV builder, it doesn't turn out to be the same. I've tried inserting the CSS into the Start of Page, Body, Inside Body, Between Head.

What am I doing wrong with that? The html shows up - and are links - but are not in the format selected - so it's not pulling from that. Do I need to do something else with the CSS?

[Bethers]

Winntec - LA is a whole different ball game - I suggest you put the footer on the LA template and not have those pages call it up - which is how LA is supposed to work - those pages are generated OFF your site. You need to follow the LA directions on those pages.

[navaldesign]

Usually the css style sheet goes either in the between head tag, or as an external file. Can you please publish the page so i can have a look ?

[Bethers]

Naval - I couldn't get it to work in the head tag - but did an external file before reading what you just posted and got it.

Can't post the page I'm testing on - will find your emal address and send it that way - don't want se's finding this test page LOL

[navaldesign]

Hi Beth,

well done. You have mail

[Bethers]

Naval,

I input that withOUT using the php - did it entirely in CSS - which means it CAN be done in CSS without having to change page extensions. Oh my - now I have my work cut out for me. I know I can do the navigation and footer this way - am not sure if I could do my header without pulling my hair out - but that won't change often.

I have to stop for awhile - but this is AWESOME - how one thing spirals into another. This could mean redoing all my navigation and footers on my other sites to css - and keeping the .html extensions as is.

I haven't found how to call the pictures up in css - but I will :)

[navaldesign]

Beth, what you have done, is to use a text based menu in your page, and style it with the css. This is quite acheivable in html.

But, the menu itself, has been placed in the page. Which means that if you have a 100 page site, you need to edit evrysingle page, if you want to edit the menu. If you only want to style the menu, you can still edit a single file, but adding or deleting or editing links in your menu would require editing and re-publishing every single page.

[Bethers]

You are right!

But I'm learning a new language still and it feels good - and I use it with your php method on this site - and I'm way ahead of the game.

[navaldesign]

Yes, this is what i suggested also: using this method in conjunction to a text based CSS styled menu. Top!

[Bethers]

I'm thinking about calling up my footer with css also - take more code off the page - but the juries out on that.

[navaldesign]

Well, you DO get code off the page. But this doesn't affect loading time: the footer (as wll as the header or menu) are also loaded through the include function, so the loading time is the same (to be honest some msec higher)

[Winntec]

Exactly what I've done.
I created my template in BV using Naval's neat php tricks for the header, side-menu and footer as above and then using the generated html which I ftp'ed back wrapped it round my LA code when I setup the link page.
The header and side menu to be placed before the link code and the generated footer code in the LA footer area.
This "footer area" is just a convenience provided by LA as all it is, is the html placed just ahead of the </body> tag and so it's not a "real" positioning thing.
BV, when it generates the html, uses "position absolute" to position the footer to the exact position it was when the template was created so it needs to be changed.
If the link pages were a fixed length - no problem, but they are variable therefore I need to be able to say in the html "place it here" after this text. I need some absolute positioning so it lines up horizontally on the page but not a fixed "top" position.
It has to be a placement issue for the footer code within the various DIV tags to ensure it can be placed relative to the link code element.
I'll keep playing

[Andy128]

Winntec,
Then could you place the code in the PAGE HTML under the End of Body tab? That way- no matter how the page changed in length, that bit of code would still be placed at the end of the body content?

Just thinking out loud,

Andy

[Bethers]

Winntec - as I stated before - this page is not hosted on your site - and therefore will NOT be pulling up the code you're putting on it - you need to put the actual code on the LA page. You don't have access to the pages to put the footer where it needs to be on the changing page size - because it's NOT your page. If you get it to work, it may work once, but not the next time - as that's not how it's set up to work.

However, if you want to be sure about this - contact Viktar at LA - he'll be happy to help you.

[Winntec]

Beth, thanks
I got it fixed to 90% satisfaction - have a small amount of fixing for short link pages.
Yup absolutely the page you see in LA is not on the site - it's like BV it's a generator but you can see the surrounding html and therefore play - and once generated you get to see all the generated pages.
The issue turned out to be caused by absolute positioning within the footer function which is in every element that BV generates so when I did Naval's header/footer etc they had positioning code within each function - once that was fixed (removed the "top:99px;" type code with Dreamweaver) worked fine.
I'll get it fixed 100% when my son genius tech support arrives for Christmas!
I'll also see if he has any bright ideas for a method of doing the footer/header/side-menu thing other than php as, like you, I'd prefer to keep my .html extensions on my existing sites once i switch over from SOL and not lose my rankings, they're not fantastic by any means but don't want to start from P1.
Thx again.

[Bethers]

You can't keep the exact names as your SOL site - as they are numbers, etc and a part of the SOL system - you don't have true html extensions - the only page you won't lose rank on is your home page. All the others will be changed - and will not be possible to redirect. That's why I'm fine with the php for the 2 others sites I'm still moving over.

Glad you have figured out the LA part.

[Collectors-info]

Hi, found this & hope it will help.
It’s a free css menu generator. Got some nice looking menus & real easy to use. Naturally there is a link to their site in the code,
(But! what the hell)
The site has a lot of other good freebees as well. Especially on the icons.

Main site.
http://www.adesblog.com/2006/12/02/s...enerator-free/

Download page.
http://www.highdots.com/css-tab-designer/

Hope it helps?

[navaldesign]

Veeeery good! Thanks Chris!

[Robert]

Ok, I believe I am ready for Bethers and Naval's heads to come together for this one:

I have been tearing code apart for like weeks working on some various types of login scripts and methods. At the same time, I'm getting lost in all the slices, templates, diagrams, pdf's, notes, and images, and scripts, OH MY!!!

oOh. sorry. Anyway, this login script does everything on the same page, so to speak, well here is the login.php file:

<?php

include($DOCUMENT_ROOT.'/include/database.php');
include($DOCUMENT_ROOT.'/include/pre.php');
include($DOCUMENT_ROOT.'/include/user.php');

if (user_isloggedin()) {
user_logout();
$user_name='';
}

if ($submit) {
user_login($user_name,$password);
}

site_header('Login to GraphXntrix.com');

if ($feedback) {
echo '<FONT COLOR="RED"><H2>'.$feedback.'</H2></FONT>';
}

echo '<H3>Login To GraphXntrix.com</H3>
<P>
Enter your user name and password and we\'ll set a cookie so we know you\'re logged in.
<P>
<FORM ACTION="'. $PHP_SELF .'" METHOD="POST">
<B>User Name:</B><BR>
<INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="user_name" VALUE="" SIZE="10" MAXLENGTH="15">
<P>
<B>Password:</B><BR>
<INPUT TYPE="password" NAME="password" VALUE="" SIZE="10" MAXLENGTH="15">
<P>
<INPUT TYPE="SUBMIT" NAME="submit" VALUE="Login To GrapXntrix.com">
</FORM>
<P>
<A HREF="register.php">[ Register A New Account ]</A>
<P>
<A HREF="changepass.php">[ Change Your Password ]</A>
<P>
<A HREF="changeemail.php">[ Change Your Email Address ]</A>';

site_footer();

?>

I have made a 5 piece "template" that I will be using(not published yet, still in .bvp format):

header
site_left
site_content
site_right
footer
***these together are exactly 800x600, and the site_content is the center
I wanted to use the base image I used to make my "header", coincidentally called "site_header", but the script displays text as the site_header. What would I need to do to easily meld with this script and its flow. When it comes to code, H1, H2,etc and forms....well booga booga.

echo' -->help me out on this please. I so badly want to say that I grasp this, yet I honestly fall short.

If you need to know more let me know, I could use a little guidance.

Anyone, feel free to shed some thoughts on how I can use bluevoda forms and this script to make it work.

[Andy128]

Robert,
While waiting for Naval the php god- perhaps take a walk over to -
http://programmingtalk.com/ I find the people there very friendly and always ready to assist. Simply join with a user name and set password and then click on php and post your question.

I have gotten lost of help there too. Make sure to use the php quote thing to make it eaiser for them to read the code. It works like the quote thing on this thread.

Just a thought.

Andy

[navaldesign]

Robert, you need a login script based on a database ? If yes, please let me also know if the username and password are going to be retreived from a database table that also contains other information, or if this is going to be a standalone.

[Dream Lady]

Thank you Naval for this GREAT tip! I have changed all my pages to use the php for my nav bar except for my index page. I'm not sure what to do there. Can I just save my index page as index.php or does it need to be index.html? Right now, I am still using my old nav bar on my index page and just updated it to point to the other php pages. But all of my other pages have the updated php nav bar. Do I need to save my index as another page, i.e. home.php and then use my index.html for where my url points. Ok...I probably don't know what in the world I'm talking about here, but I'm confused at this point. Any help would be appreciated.

[navaldesign]

Today i have had a very important confirmation: Google has indexed my example page, and the page in the cache is in http://72.14.221.104/search?q=cache:...&ct=clnk&cd=50


The text only version of the cache is in http://72.14.221.104/search?q=cache:...it&lr=&strip=1

As you can see, in the text only version of the cache, Google HAS INCLUDED THE LINKS of the example menu. What does this mean ?

It means that a menubar, either made in BV (as the one i have used in my exaple) or through a text based CSS styled enu, even if included in the page from an external source (as in the example), can be spidered by SE. So, ALL of your links will be found and spidered.

So, if your menubar is text based CSS or BV's menu bar, it is perfectly ok for SE. ATTENTION: This is not valid for dropdown menus: they CANNOT be spidered. If you need to use a dropdown for functional reasons, i advise to include in your pages also a text based footer menu (like the one VH has in it's own pages, at the bottom.

As for the index page: if your ranking is low, so you have nothing to loose changing it to php in order to take advantage of this trick, then i reccomend doing so. If, instead you have a high rank, with the existing page, you'd better leave it as it is, because changing it could affect your ranking, though i have doubts. You see, when SE rank your homepage, they DO NOT rank your "index" page as "index.html", but they rank WHICHEVER page they find to be by default coming up when they visit www.yourdomain.com . So, changing from html to php should NOT affect your ranking. However, i have no evidence of this, so i cannot take the responsibility to suggest one rather the other

[Dream Lady]

Great confirmation above Naval!! Thank you.

Since my website is new and low ranking, I am going to change it to index.php. I don't have the same issue as Beth does, however, I am going to also change my nav bars to CSS. I figure I might as well try and do it all GREAT the 1st time! Thanks again!

[Bethers]

I don't mind changing two pages - the php and the index page - and I'm constantly making changed on my index pages anyway- what with different holidays, specials, etc. So, I'll keep that html

Now, if only I had enough hours in a day to get this site finished and moved!

[navaldesign]

Ok, I believe I am ready for Bethers and Naval's heads to come together for this one:

I have been tearing code apart for like weeks working on some various types of login scripts and methods. At the same time, I'm getting lost in all the slices, templates, diagrams, pdf's, notes, and images, and scripts, OH MY!!!

oOh. sorry. Anyway, this login script does everything on the same page, so to speak, well here is the login.php file:

<?php

include($DOCUMENT_ROOT.'/include/database.php');
include($DOCUMENT_ROOT.'/include/pre.php');
include($DOCUMENT_ROOT.'/include/user.php');

if (user_isloggedin()) {
user_logout();
$user_name='';
}

if ($submit) {
user_login($user_name,$password);
}

site_header('Login to GraphXntrix.com');

if ($feedback) {
echo '<FONT COLOR="RED"><H2>'.$feedback.'</H2></FONT>';
}

echo '<H3>Login To GraphXntrix.com</H3>
<P>
Enter your user name and password and we\'ll set a cookie so we know you\'re logged in.
<P>
<FORM ACTION="'. $PHP_SELF .'" METHOD="POST">
<B>User Name:</B><BR>
<INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="user_name" VALUE="" SIZE="10" MAXLENGTH="15">
<P>
<B>Password:</B><BR>
<INPUT TYPE="password" NAME="password" VALUE="" SIZE="10" MAXLENGTH="15">
<P>
<INPUT TYPE="SUBMIT" NAME="submit" VALUE="Login To GrapXntrix.com">
</FORM>
<P>
<A HREF="register.php">[ Register A New Account ]</A>
<P>
<A HREF="changepass.php">[ Change Your Password ]</A>
<P>
<A HREF="changeemail.php">[ Change Your Email Address ]</A>';

site_footer();

?>

I have made a 5 piece "template" that I will be using(not published yet, still in .bvp format):

header
site_left
site_content
site_right
footer
***these together are exactly 800x600, and the site_content is the center
I wanted to use the base image I used to make my "header", coincidentally called "site_header", but the script displays text as the site_header. What would I need to do to easily meld with this script and its flow. When it comes to code, H1, H2,etc and forms....well booga booga.

echo' -->help me out on this please. I so badly want to say that I grasp this, yet I honestly fall short.

If you need to know more let me know, I could use a little guidance.

Anyone, feel free to shed some thoughts on how I can use bluevoda forms and this script to make it work.

Sorry but i don't understand. site_header() is a function, to include your header on the page. It simply tells the script, to retreive and place in the page, whatever code there is in the function definition (which is not here, you should look for it (in other words, place it) in one of the include pages.

So i don't see how it can interfere with your header (image). Also, i don't understand why you have placed the value site_header('Login to GraphXntrix.com') unless the site_header() function can only include some text as site header .

Usually the site_header() function (or header() or whatever else you want to call it) is intended for includin not a simple text header, but a piece of html code which could be your actual header.

[Robert]

Oh, ok. the fact that it was a function threw me off, now I understand.

The includes define most of the functions, yes. here is where the site header is .. from the include/pre.php

<?php

function site_header($title) {
echo '<HEAD><TITLE>'.$title.'</TITLE></HEAD><BODY>';
}

function site_footer() {

}

?>

Alot of this script makes use of "echo" and the function "$feedback" to display various error messages. I guess what I was asking was...

how would i make my custom header and footer, which are images, fit correctly into this script?

I am thinking that I could use an html box sized and positioned on my site_header image and put in it the "$title" and give the image the "function site_header". But I am not sure what else may need to be done.

thanks naval

[Robert]

also, using BlueVoda, if I wanted to control the layout of the output more of this script, would pasting the script into html boxes positioned where I want them work? Of course, I am thinking that I would have to do this with all the php pages used in the entire process, correct?

[navaldesign]

Robert,

you sould
1. define your own "site_header" function and also, if you like, "site_footer" function.

to do this, create in BV a page with only the header image. In the page html, include in the start of page, "<?" and in the "End of page "?>". Set the page extension to be php. Publish the page in the include folder of your script (Attention: needs to be there, or it will not work) as "header.php". That's all. Now, change the definition of the site_header function, in the appropriate file, to be:

<?php

function site_header() {
include ("header.php");
}

function site_footer() {
include (("footer.php");
}

?>

That's all.

This very thread explains how you do it. It is a bit different though, beacuse here i have also defined the function within the html page, because i am including in a html page, instead of a php page like yours.

[Robert]

hmm. I think I understand what I would need to do to have the header included as well as creating the functions. I just noticed that I missed one of your posts, naval, and the answer is yes, the username and password are being checked against a database. it uses a lot of "echo" when validating alot of information against the db to either display error or success messages.

I changed my site's header. right now it's not actually a header, but you can get the idea. here is the image i wanted to use. I also want to use an identical of this image to use with the menu,

http://www.graphxntrix.com/usethis_for_header.jpg

[Collectors-info]

Hi,
is there a way of making the html 2nd part transparent?
I have tried the way the we did the iframe lesson, but no joy.
This is the page I am practising on http://www.collectors-info.com/index3.php
There is a blue stamp in front & a bear behind. (No that wasn’t a joke)
Wasn’t sure if it could be done?

Thanks

[Bethers]

For everyone's information - something about my header isn't liked in this method for a store I'm moving over - and because of it - NONE of my pages could be seen. I kept being told to wait for it to "propagate". Well, I said, it could be seen ONCE and never again. I finally went into my logs and discovered their was a "fatal error" in the header. Was using this method for my header, nav bar and footer. Turns out when I deleted the header and put it in on the page, everything cleared. Now, I'm having to go through all my pages and do this.

No idea what it doesn't like about my header - but obviously it didn't like something. LOL

[navaldesign]

Hi Beth, can i have an URL of the pages with the Header and the rest ?= just curious to have a look.

[Bethers]

Emailing you - as I don't have the cart up and all pages up.

[Robert]

after uploading the necessary php files and publishing the header.php and footer.php files i can't get anything to show. However, I am attempting to call the login page by typing the url directly into the address bar. Is this wrong? I think I should be calling from a form button initially. Also, when I created the header/footer files and inserted the php codes at Start and End of Page..It kept giving me errors referrencing line 1 in the file specified. So I would delete that one character and try again. Then it's on line 15, so...delete. Now it's line 14, which is nothing, so at this point I have made a mess of myself.

Next question, the php pages are in a ...hmmm gonna try something. What is the proper file permission settings for the login script I've been working with. when I FTP's them all, they keep getting set to 644.

[navaldesign]

Robert
you either need to redefine the functions yourself, or use completely new functions. If you use new functions, you need to edit the script files accordingly.

[Bethers]

Robert, I discovered the hard way - you cannot name a file header - as you already have a header file - that will cause a fatal error. If you have named a file header.php - change all references to it to header1.php or a completely different word.

I was stuck on this for 3-4 days and with Naval's help last night/this morning - we finally realized I couldn't name a file header!!!

[Robert]

Robert
you either need to redefine the functions yourself, or use completely new functions. If you use new functions, you need to edit the script files accordingly.

Thanks for helping me along with this. Below is the current files involved and the error I am recieving. the file structure and some notes are as follows:

public_html/account/

• • signin.html
• I made this page normally and simply recreated the form by using the same ACTION,METHOD and the same fields and labels using the name/value pairs as it is used in the login.php file

public_html/account/

• • login.php
• there are other .php files in this directory as well

public_html/include/

• • database.php
  • pre.php --- this is defines the functions for the header and footer
  • user.php
  • header.php --- made in bluevoda
  • footer.php --- bluevoda created as well and their source images are below
  • header.jpg
  • footer.jpg.

the signin.html page is here: http://www.graphxntrix.com/signin.html

pre.php looks like this:

<?php
function header() {
 include ($DOCUMENT_ROOT.'/include/header.php');
}
//the syntax of this function may be wrong because I somehow managed to delete the original .php file so I had to try to write it from memory
function site_header("$title") {
 echo'<HEAD><TITLE>'.$title.'</TITLE><HEAD><BODY>';
}
function site_footer() {
 include ($DOCUMENT_ROOT.'/include/footer.php');
}
?>

login. php file looks like this:

<?php
{
include($DOCUMENT_ROOT.'/include/database.php');
include($DOCUMENT_ROOT.'/include/pre.php');
include($DOCUMENT_ROOT.'/include/user.php');
if (user_isloggedin()) {
        user_logout();
        $user_name='';
}
if ($submit) {
 user_login($user_name,$password);
}
site_header('.Login To GraphXntrix.com.');
if ($feedback) {
 echo '<FONT COLOR="RED"><H2>'.$feedback.'</H2></FONT>';
}
echo '<H3>Login To GraphXntrix.com</H3>
 <P>
 Enter your user name and password.
 <P>
 <FORM ACTION="'. $PHP_SELF .'" METHOD="POST">
 <B>User Name:</B><BR>
 <INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="user_name" VALUE="" SIZE="10" MAXLENGTH="15">
 <P>
 <B>Password:</B><BR>
 <INPUT TYPE="password" NAME="password" VALUE="" SIZE="10" MAXLENGTH="15">
 <P>
 <INPUT TYPE="SUBMIT" NAME="submit" VALUE="Login To GrapXntrix.com">
 </FORM>
 <P>
 <A HREF="register.php">[ Register A New Account ]</A>
 <P>
 <A HREF="changepass.php">[ Change Your Password ]</A>
 <P>
 <A HREF="changeemail.php">[ Change Your Email Address ]</A>';
site_footer();
?>

header.php

<?php
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<META http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
<TITLE></TITLE>
<META name="GENERATOR" content="Created by BlueVoda">
</HEAD>
<BODY bgcolor="#000000" text="#FFFFFF" link="#00FFFF" vlink="#FF00FF" alink="#00FF00">
<IMG src="header.jpg" alt="" align="top" border="0" width="800" height="80" style="position:absolute;left:0px;top:0px;z-index:0">
</BODY>
</HTML>?>

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '<' in /home2/grapxcom/public_html/include/header.php on line 2

i just now changed the image names used for the header and footer but get now:

Fatal error: Cannot redeclare header() in /home2/grapxcom/public_html/include/pre.php on line 3

do you mean change the actual file name: header.php ----> to something else?

[navaldesign]

Robert,


part of the problem is that you have changed the function to "header" instead of site_header, and this causes problems with html's "header" definition.

Please follow these instructions:

pre.php looks like this:
Forget all about this, unless there is more code in here which you have not posted here. If there is no other code, you can even delete the pre.php file. In other case, i need the full code.




login. php file looks like this:

<?php
{
include($DOCUMENT_ROOT.'/include/site_header.php'); Add this line
include($DOCUMENT_ROOT.'/include/site_footer.php'); Add this line
include($DOCUMENT_ROOT.'/include/database.php');
include($DOCUMENT_ROOT.'/include/pre.php'); Delete this line, unless there was more code, as said above.
include($DOCUMENT_ROOT.'/include/user.php');
if (user_isloggedin()) {
user_logout();
$user_name='';
}
if ($submit) {
user_login($user_name,$password);
}
site_header(); //convert this line to what you see.
if ($feedback) {
echo '<FONT COLOR="RED"><H2>'.$feedback.'</H2></FONT>';
}
echo '<H3>Login To GraphXntrix.com</H3>
<P>
Enter your user name and password.
<P>
<FORM ACTION="'. $PHP_SELF .'" METHOD="POST">
<B>User Name:</B><BR>
<INPUT TYPE="TEXT" NAME="user_name" VALUE="" SIZE="10" MAXLENGTH="15">
<P>
<B>Password:</B><BR>
<INPUT TYPE="password" NAME="password" VALUE="" SIZE="10" MAXLENGTH="15">
<P>
<INPUT TYPE="SUBMIT" NAME="submit" VALUE="Login To GrapXntrix.com">
</FORM>
<P>
<A HREF="register.php">[ Register A New Account ]</A>
<P>
<A HREF="changepass.php">[ Change Your Password ]</A>
<P>
<A HREF="changeemail.php">[ Change Your Email Address ]</A>';
site_footer();
?>



site_header.php
You have mistaken here. Please follow these simple steps:
You have created the header in BV. Ok, open the page in BV, now click on Page html, Start of page, and paste this code:

<? function site_header() { ?>

Now click on the End of page, and paste this other code:


<?
}
?>

These steps are described in post nr 1 of this very thread.
Save the page as "site_header" and publish it in the same folder where the pre.php was. ($DOCUMENT_ROOT/include). Attention: before publishing set the extension to php.

site_footer.php


Follow excactly the same steps with "site_footer.php:
In Page html, Start of Page, paste the code:

<? function site_footer() { ?>

and in the End of Page tag,

<?
}
?>

Save the page as "site_footer" and publish as php.

Ok, you are done.

[Robert]

okay...

now that all is set, before I toss out the pre.php there is one more concern.

site_header(); //convert this line to what you see.

huh?

okay...maybe this will help me: If I removed the HEAD tags from the script below...

<?php
function site_header($title) {
 echo'<HEAD><TITLE>'.$title.'</TITLE></HEAD><BODY>';
}
?>

What will would an instance of the following do:

site_header('.Login To GraphXntrix.com.');

WOW, I sincerely hope that I am not making an easy task difficult, and I thank everyone who has contributed to this thread.

[navaldesign]

Robert, you are really confusing me. The site_header function, as it was before, simply presented the phrase "Login to GraphXntrix.com" as a header. Now we have rebuilt it, making use of the BV page that you have built. We have done the same for the footer. And, we include the two functions separately, instedd of having them both in the pre.php page. So everything should work just fine. I don't understand what you mean by

What will would an instance of the following do:


Code:

site_header('.Login To GraphXntrix.com.');

Thsi code doesn't exist anymore, we have converted it . It used the old site_header function, using "Login To GraphXntrix.com" as argument, to place this frase on top of your login page. Now, you don't have it anymore, because you have created a totally new header in BV. If you need such a frase, just add it in your BV header.

[Robert]

SWEEEET!!! that's what I wanted to know.

Sorry if I was confusing, but you said..

It used the old site_header function, using "Login To GraphXntrix.com" as argument, to place this frase on top of your login page. Now, you don't have it anymore, because you have created a totally new header in BV. If you need such a frase, just add it in your BV header.

The trouble I have been having is that I wasn't sure what modifications to these two pieces of code below that would allow for me to use my own header and footer without eliminating this function. Otherwise I need a suggestion on how I am supposed to write this in to my bv made site_header

<?php
function site_header($title) {
echo'<HEAD><TITLE>'.$title.'</TITLE></HEAD><BODY>';
}
?>
 
//----------------------------//
 

site_header('.Login To GraphXntrix.com.');

I was asking what would would occur if the two <HEAD> tags were removed where its says

echo'<HEAD><TITLE>'.$title.'</TITLE></HEAD><BODY>';

from the that original function. what would happen..i'd try it out myself but I would make a mess. =)

which html properties would i pull up the image html properties used for site_header or the page html BEFORE HEAD tab

Either way, right now it isn't anywhere on my pages and you can try to pull up login.php or the page I want to start from preferrably:

http://www.graphxtrix.com/account/signin.html

http://www.graphxntrix.com/account/login.php

hope this helps right now I get

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '>' in /home2/grapxcom/public_html/include/site_header.php on line 1

[navaldesign]

Robert, you DON'T need that any more. Just add this phrase (Login To GraphXntrix.com) in your site_header page, as you would do in any normal BV page. When the login script calls the site_header function, as you have created it in BV, it will place BOTH the image and the "Login to ...." above the form.

Unless you use the same site_header for other pages too. In that case, you would need to create a new function, let's call it "site_header1" just for your loggin script.

And, i have not been able to find your signin page. It gives me a "page not found "error.
Correction: i have found it. You had simply mistaken the link, missing the "n" in your domain name.

If you have trouble finishing it, i do take cusomized jobs as a freelance. If you are interested, contact me.

[Robert]

oops, sorry about that naval. I will be sure to double check things next time.

Correct. The way we have everything setup now, that script is not included on the login page, but ('.Login to GraphXntrix.com.') will change on like 5 different pages or so.

Also where it used to say

site_header('.Login to GraphXntrix.com.');
//now says...
site_header();

Should I remove or should it stay seeing as how the include is merely the function site_header?

Thanks, I have to run errands but will be back later. I really appreciate this naval, you have my gratitude.

[navaldesign]

Yes, if this loggin script consists of more pages, wherever it says

site_header('.Login to GraphXntrix.com.');
replace with
site_header();

MAke also sure to add, in those pages too, the two lines:

include($DOCUMENT_ROOT.'/include/site_header.php');
include($DOCUMENT_ROOT.'/include/site_footer.php');

[Robert]

Thank you kindly. I have had this exactly as it needs to be according to our troubleshooting instructions. all is added and deleted and saved where they should be, but I still need to know why I am recieving the error I I mentioned earlier now that everything is sorted. The error, and the line of code it refers to below:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '>' in /home2/grapxcom/public_html/include/site_header.php on line 1

here is line one of my site_header:

<? function site_header() {><!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">

[navaldesign]

<? function site_header() {?> correct this

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">

etc. ......

Look at post #67

[Robert]

awesome! well, it works, the images arent coming up....this brings up a question...why suddenly are the permissions of my files being set to 6 4 4

[navaldesign]

The permissions are correct if they are 644. I can see your footer image perfectly.

Now, your script works ok, but you have mistaken this: look at the source code when you go in the next page after loggin. If you look at the code, you will see that bothe the header and the footer images are there, BUT, the footer one covers the header one, because you have used BV's absolute coordinate system, and both images are placed in top 0 left o position, (that's the upper left corner)

If your script page is standard height, the solution is easy: go back in BV, and move the footer image downwards, as much as needed to place it under the script's echoes. republish the site_footer page and you are going to be ok.

[Robert]

Awesome, thanks naval! Now I can start working on putting the menu in it, LOL.

[Bethers]

Hey Naval - I was just searching for some info and came across this:

Switching from .html to .php:

Tell Apache to parse all .html files a .php file. Using this method you do not have to change any files extensions or worry about any redirects. To do this, place this code in your httpd.conf file:

Code

AddType application/x-httpd-php .php .html

okies - if this is the case - and you know where we would put this - then anyone can use this new method without it hurting page rank.

[navaldesign]

This file is not accessible in shared hosting (as the one we have here). If someone changed it, it would be changed for all customers hosted on that server. It is the configuration file of the Apache server system

[Bethers]

I was afraid that would be the answer. Okies, back to the drawing board :)

[navaldesign]

Life road is always upwards.....

[Collectors-info]

Hi, any suggestions what I might be doing wrong?
I have only made 1 .php test page & all was working ok with 1 menu (left side) But now I have added an extra top menu things have changed with the side menu.
The top menu works fine, but the side menu seems to have lost the link on every other link as you go down the menu. (Strange) This is the link to the .php page.
http://www.collectors-info.com/index_clone.php

Thanks.
PS. If you do click on any of the links that work. You will go to the html side of the site & all is working fine here .

[Bethers]

Naval,
Just a question - why can't I do what I asked above as they are talking about in this thread?
http://www.vodahost.com/vodatalk/wor...cess-file.html

[navaldesign]

Hi beth,

the htaccess file, that they are talking about in the thread you posted, is a file within YOUR OWN SITE (you may have or create one even for subdomains and addon domains).

The httpd.conf file instaed is a SYSTEM file, which defined how the APACHE server should behave. If you have a dedicated server, which of course you control, there is no problem having your webmaster set it as you like. But, in shared hosting, the settings of this file will affect all the sites hosted on that server, so acceess is not allowed to users.

[navaldesign]

Hi, any suggestions what I might be doing wrong?
I have only made 1 .php test page & all was working ok with 1 menu (left side) But now I have added an extra top menu things have changed with the side menu.
The top menu works fine, but the side menu seems to have lost the link on every other link as you go down the menu. (Strange) This is the link to the .php page.
http://www.collectors-info.com/index_clone.php

Thanks.
PS. If you do click on any of the links that work. You will go to the html side of the site & all is working fine here .

Hi Chris,

i have just tried it and both side bar links and topbar links work ok. ???

[Collectors-info]

Hi Naval, thanks for having a look.
Still have the same problem using 3 different machines?
The ones that won’t work are!
How it works
Club / Business
Joining
Calendar & so on with every other one down the left side.
This is only on the one php page http://www.collectors-info.com/index_clone.php & not
on the pages after this. (.html) The links all work fine on these.

Thanks.

[Collectors-info]

Hi Naval, thanks for having a look.
Still have the same problem using 3 different machines?
The ones that won’t work are!
How it works
Club / Business
Joining
Calendar & so on with every other one down the left side.
This is only on the one php page http://www.collectors-info.com/index_clone.php & not
on the pages after this. (.html) The links all work fine on these.

Thanks.

Hi Naval, Skip the last posting I have worked out it can all be done with one template & 1 html insert for all pages. Not sure why the last one wouldn’t work. Oh well.

Thanks anyway.

[CarbonTerry]

Hi Naval,
Thanks for the great tut. I am using some pages as .php with the menu but have decided to keep my index page and one other page as an .html file. After 5 years I have gotten a top 10 ranking on Google with the appropriate search terms and don't want to jeopardize that.
When previewing my .php pages my html box containing the menu does not show. Is that usual? It works fine, however when viewing on the "Net.
Thanks again

[navaldesign]

Yes, it is normal that it doesn't appear. You see, it has to be retreived from the server using php. When in preview, you are on computer level, where php doesn't work (unless one has Apache server / php environment installed on his computer, something that usually only programmers have)

[CarbonTerry]

Thank you

[asirimarco]

I have my jewelry site set up with the nav buttons (2 sets one on either side of page) and title in middle set up in an i-frame - would it be worth my while to change from iframe to this method? each page with nav buttons on it will have to be redone correct?

[navaldesign]

I don't know if it worth it, that's your decision. For sure it is SE friendly, . Yes, every page that you want to use this method with, must be redone.

[asirimarco]

if i decide to do it - can i ....just delete the iframes - make up a templete page with the 2 nav buttons and title on it then copy and paste using the icons to my old pages? or will that cause problems also need to remember to resave and publish all pages to php - i'll also have to change the links to ... necklaces.php from necklaces.html right? dont want to start this until i'm sure i understand it

[Bethers]

Yes, you could make the php page have the 2 nav buttons and title all on one page. So, if those are the items in the iframes, yes, you'd delete them - the rest of the page would stay the same.

Yes, you'd have to change all the pages then to .php.

I really recommend you look at doing it this way - while you are still new - as it is so much more se friendly.

[asirimarco]

thanks Beth - little by little I am going to work on it - at the same time trying not to mess up the site too much
the pages that don't have nav buttons on them like the pages with the enlarged photos of the jewelry don't need to be changed do they?

[Bethers]

no- those pages are pop-ups, right? You don't have do anything with them.

[asirimarco]

Beth - thanks again - I think I have them all done - just have to remember when i make a new page - i still am working on the content on the pages but am about out of ideas
now maybe I'll work on my movingon site - especially the newest part - i am getting a lot of people writting to me about that site

[beebrothers]

tried several times..didn't work..

[Bethers]

You need to give more details for us to help. If you go back and follow each step - I promise it will work - did you go into page properties and change the page to php before republishing?