Adding a menubar to my site?

[Garibaldi]

Hello Everyone,
I have a new website that I am working on: http://www.madtownservices.com . I am going to keep updating this as I add more and more services to it. This presents a major problem for me because everytime I add a new link to the menubar on the left I have to update that for each page, a very time consuming process. I am wondering if there is a type of script (maybe javascript) that would allow me to display my menubar (with images and rollovers) from an external doc, so when I want to update it I could just update one page rather than all of them? This would be similar to CSS. I do not want to use frames on the site, I know that would be an easy solution.

Thanks.

[jimmalenko]

All you need is your menu in a separate file, and then just put an include statement in each file. THen when you update the menu file, the changes are "replicated" across all pages.

[stiltman]

If you site uses Frontpage extensions, use the "include" command. Setup a seperate html page for your menu, then "include" that page in all your other pages. From frontpage create a seperate menu html doc and save it. Then in all the other pages use CCS or tables. Then from frontpage got to insert/web componate/include content/page. select the menu html for the cell you want it in

If your site does not support frontpage extensions, then you can use "shtml" to include content from another html page. http://httpd.apache.org/docs/howto/ssi.html

[Supreme2k]

You could put your menu in a file, say menu.js, then reference it in every page like so

<SCRIPT language=JavaScript src="menu.js" type=text/javascript></SCRIPT>

That's what I do for clients with bare-bones servers (simple HTML only). Of course you could do MUCH more with asp, php, and others (like checking if the user is logged in, preferences, etc.)

[stiltman]

You could put your menu in a file, say menu.js, then reference it in every page like so

<SCRIPT language=JavaScript src="menu.js" type=text/javascript></SCRIPT>

That's what I do for clients with bare-bones servers (simple HTML only). Of course you could do MUCH more with asp, php, and others (like checking if the user is logged in, preferences, etc.)

Yeah or you could use that coffee substitute


Judging by his code....I think he has enough caffine for everyone

[Garibaldi]

Ok thanks for all the info guys! I have a couple questions. If I were to use the include with php script how would I format my external menu file? Would I just make a normal webpage with my image links and rollovers? Or do I need to use any special coding with php?

As far as using:

<SCRIPT language=JavaScript src="menu.js" type=text/javascript></SCRIPT>

I tried using this script:
http://javascript.internet.com/navigation/easy-multi-page-navigation.html
but I could only get it to work with text links, the image links with rollover that I want to use wouldn't work. Is there a way to make them work? Here's my page source:

<td rowspan="3" colspan="1" style="vertical-align: top;">[img]images/home.jpg[/img]

[img]images/citywide.jpg[/img]

<a href="http://www.madtownservices.com/additions.html"
onmouseout="MM_swapImgRestore()"
onmouseover="MM_swapImage('Additions','','images/additions_high.jpg',1)">
</a>[img]images/additions.jpg[/img]

[img]images/radiotradio.jpg[/img]

[img]images/westside.jpg[/img]

[img]images/yardwork.jpg[/img]


[img]images/computerrepair.jpg[/img]

[img]images/repair.jpg[/img]

[img]images/virus.jpg[/img]

[img]images/video.jpg[/img]

[img]images/webpage.jpg[/img]

[img]images/other.jpg[/img]

[img]images/contact.jpg[/img]

[img]images/links.jpg[/img]






</td>

[Supreme2k]

since you have php, it's as simple as

<?include("menu.htm");?>

If you want to do it in javascript, you have to start each line with
document.write("

then put a back-slask before every quotation mark (except the first and last):

document.write("<a href=\"www.videohelp.com\">");

Alternately, you can use single quotes:
document.write("<a href='www.videohelp.com'>");

then end each line with ");

[thecoalman]

As far as using:
<SCRIPT language=JavaScript src="menu.js" type=text/javascript></SCRIPT>

I tried using this script:
http://javascript.internet.com/navigation/easy-multi-page-navigation.html
but I could only get it to work with text links, the image links with rollover that I want to use wouldn't work. Is there a way to make them work? Here's my page source:

<td rowspan="3" colspan="1" style="vertical-align: top;">[img]images/home.jpg[/img]

[img]images/citywide.jpg[/img]

<a href="http://www.madtownservices.com/additions.html"
onmouseout="MM_swapImgRestore()"
onmouseover="MM_swapImage('Additions','','images/additions_high.jpg',1)">
</a>[img]images/additions.jpg[/img]

[img]images/radiotradio.jpg[/img]

[img]images/westside.jpg[/img]

[img]images/yardwork.jpg[/img]


[img]images/computerrepair.jpg[/img]

[img]images/repair.jpg[/img]

[img]images/virus.jpg[/img]

[img]images/video.jpg[/img]

[img]images/webpage.jpg[/img]

[img]images/other.jpg[/img]

[img]images/contact.jpg[/img]

[img]images/links.jpg[/img]






</td>

You need to also include the script that in the <head> tag to use that.

[Garibaldi]

since you have php, it's as simple as

<?include("menu.htm");?>

If you want to do it in javascript, you have to start each line with
document.write("

then put a back-slask before every quotation mark (except the first and last):

document.write("<a href=\"www.videohelp.com\">");

Alternately, you can use single quotes:
document.write("<a href='www.videohelp.com'>");

then end each line with ");

Thanks alot I used the php script and got it to work: www.madtownservices.com , what do you think?
Thanks alot! 8)

[stiltman]

JMHO
800x600 is the standard.
I would scale to that....looks a too wide

[Garibaldi]

JMHO
800x600 is the standard.
I would scale to that....looks a too wide

Yeah it is a little wide, but the page should all display fine, I've set the value to width=100% so no matter your browser size it should resize. The reason it is so big is there is a column for the menu, one for the pics, and one for text. Unfortunately its hard to make this smaller without compromising one of those. Why, does it not all fit in your browser?

[stiltman]

JMHO
800x600 is the standard.
I would scale to that....looks a too wide

Yeah it is a little wide, but the page should all display fine, I've set the value to width=100% so no matter your browser size it should resize. The reason it is so big is there is a column for the menu, one for the pics, and one for text. Unfortunately its hard to make this smaller without compromising one of those. Why, does it not all fit in your browser?

No it all fits, just I like to see pages sized to 8x6 thats all...My preference

[thecoalman]

JMHO
800x600 is the standard.
I would scale to that....looks a too wide

Yeah it is a little wide, but the page should all display fine, I've set the value to width=100% so no matter your browser size it should resize. The reason it is so big is there is a column for the menu, one for the pics, and one for text. Unfortunately its hard to make this smaller without compromising one of those. Why, does it not all fit in your browser?

The table width attribute is 917px. Set it to 780px (you gotta leave space for scroll bars etc.) or 100%. I didn't look at what the TR or TD widths were but if they are larger than what the table width is they will supersede the table width. It's been a while but I think you can set the menu TD width as a static size then set the content TD size to 99%