importing a menu?

vigneron · #1 (**permalink**) 01-26-2004, 10:24 PM

I want to be able to create a navigation menu (ie, hyperlinks), complete with whatever tags, javascript, or css (hover, eg) behaviors I might choose to use, and create/update it one place, rather than having to change it on every single page of a site.

Is there a simple cross-browser compliant way to import an html fragment (or whatever you want to call it) onto several pages like this, without requiring any plug-ins or supported database functions? My understanding is that an external javascript source file can't contain any html tags, so all I can import there is text without any kind of markup.

Thanks for any feedback :)

cyanide · #2 (**permalink**) 01-27-2004, 12:32 PM

HI vigneron,

Welcome to WebProWorld !

Yes, you can do that. It's called SSI (server side includes) Do a search on google and you'll find lots of tutorials. Make sure your host supports it. most do

I would avoid javascript, though. Could run into trouble with search engines not being able to fully crawl your site

disciple · #3 (**permalink**) 01-27-2004, 01:06 PM

You could use php. I am no expert but I believe this would work. Your divs and all other formatting elements should be made up in css.

File called: site_menu.php // for an include file

Code:

<div>
<a href=>item one</a>
<a href=>item two</a>
<a href=>item three</a>
</div>

Then in the pages where you want the menu to show you would do the following.

Code:

<html>
<body>
<? include "{put your path to file here/site_menu.php"; ?>
</body>
</html>