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auto-navigation via directory structure

Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 12:38 am
by oxdot
Hello every one ...

English is not my language, so please apologies grammatical or syntax ...

I'm starting to learn php, i do not have any real experience in publishing, security nor even about basic design concepts.

For short i would like to know if the idea of some auto-navigation via directory structure would be a good idea for a little personal page or if the 'concept' is totally wrong.
(Navigation routines that generate a 'main-link-array' around some (root-dir)/pup directory where each sub-dir(used as the name of the page) contain an index.php witch itself contain a 'pseudo-header'(as php-comment) with tags like description, name, id ...)

Being more 'familiar' with emacs than joomla and and co., i came across the idea of some auto-generating navigation using only the directory structure.
After some 'googleling' i could not find something that was really what i wanted (some phpbrowsers who could be 'adapted', but nothing really with 'navigational-purpose' in mind.
I think i would probably have missed the right search-therms, so if any one had some link or info ...

Anyway, being interested in php, i written some few functions that do basically the job, but after searching a little more on this and while not founding more about, i am asking my self if the idea is 'worth the work'.

I'm not a programmer so don't look too deep in the code ... but i would really like to know why this method seems so hard to be found, since even with my 'bad-work', once in place, adding new content appears (to me) to be quiet easily : adding a new dir (witch is then the name of the page) and then simply adding a new index.php (from a template), adjusting the 'pseudo-tags' and then it's done.

Finally, i surely see that this wouldn't be a good idea for bigger project, but would the idea be really bad for some little/personal blog ?

/Edit : CSS works with firefox and opera, but i have no idea what's about internet explorer
Here is a sample page who use the principle
Here the main function set (geshi ...)

The /pub -dir structure is exactly the same as the nav-bar, witch are build from it. (dir-stuct)

And this is how index.php, here the apropos (about) pages looks like :

Code: Select all

<?php/*
A propos/About,
Notes et/and documentation,
_PH_id_,
_PH_lang_,
_PH_label_,
_PH_link_,
_PH_name_,
_PH_prm_,
_PH_modif_,
_PH_pub_,
_PH_unpub_,
_PH_cat_,
_PH_metas_,
1,
1,
1,
0,
0,
0,
0,
1
*/?>
 
<?php $block_id = openBlock_('Credits', $block_id); ?>
                <div class="tip"><div class="png"></div>
                    <p>
                        some txt
                    </p>
                </div><!--tip-->
                <ul>
                     <li class="puce_bleu">
                        some txt
                     </li>
                     <li class="puce_bleu">
                        some txt
                     </li>
                     <li class="puce_bleu">
                        some txt
                     </li>
                </ul>
<?php closeBlock_(); ?>
 
Of curse any page is included in the main one ...

I hope the question is not too long, anyway thanks for reading and maybe answering ...

ox.

Re: auto-navigation via directory structure

Posted: Wed Sep 17, 2008 1:34 am
by Popcorn
hi,

i figure you could totally do as you are thinking.

but like you say, i'd figure you'd run into shortcomings when you want something bigger; when you want to administer remotely or do permissions, the extra config is often easier done thru an interface to db data. then you'd have 2 places with some kind of meta which most likely you'd want to consolidate.

i think the reason you can't find as much is that while it is fun and definitely a learning experience to do stuff 'manually', for every other site you do, you'll think about 'more', and that almost always entails more config. and like i say, i reckon that is easier via an admin page to a db.

happy coding.