Site design

Matt Larkin (author) · December 10, 2006, 09:41:41 PM

I cleaned up the code a little, and removed the "@" from the php code so I could see the error:

Quote from: '.:/usr/local/php5/lib/php') in /home/.tallyho/shadowfell/thecbg.org/settings/137/index.php on line 18[/quote<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">
<?php /* Created on: 12/10/2006 */ ?>
<html>
<head>
   <title>Kishar</title>
   <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="styles.css">
</head>

<body>

<div class="content">
   <?php require_once ("$page.html"); ?>
</div>

<div class="menu">
    <a href="index.php?page=home">Home</a>
    <a href="index.php?page=trial">Trial</a>
</div>

</body>
</html>[/spoiler]
Mainly I just changed the DIV id's to DIV classes, and of course the CSS.

limetom · December 10, 2006, 09:58:25 PM

Well... from what I can tell we're running a *nix server, and the server cannot find "index.php?page=home" in the directory location "/home/.tallyho/shadowfell/thecbg.org/settings/137/index.php".

The error, I think, says that it cannot find ".html" in the link. Try adding it on to the end of "page=home" and "page=trial" in the links (thus "page=home.html" and "page=trial.html") and see what happens. No clue if it will work, but that's what I'd do...

brainface · December 10, 2006, 11:23:27 PM

Code Select

<?php @ require ("$page.html"); ?>
$page is a variable, and undefined. so it loads
$page + ".html", which is just ".html"

try adding

Code Select


if (!page) {
$page = 'home';
}

somewhere ABOVE

Code Select

<?php @ require ("$page.html"); ?>

shadowfell is the name of our account. ignore that.

Matt Larkin (author) · December 11, 2006, 04:04:38 PM

Thank you both, unfortunately, I still have not been able to get things working.

The if coding does not seem to work. Is the intent to make say "if not page (if page is not defined) then set it to 'home'"?

Is this the implementation you used for the Shadowfell site, or am I missing further code? Do you still have access to the original code before PHP is applied so I could see if I've lost something small?

If I assign the variable non-conditionally, e.g.

Code Select

$page = 'home';

then I don't get an error message, but the menu does not allow me to switch between content.

I've spent the afternoon filtering through the PHP Manual and Codewalkers trying to figure out what is going wrong, but I have to admit this is over my head, a bit.

Oh, and I switched the order of the content/menu DIVs to more closely resemble the Shadowfell page:

[spoiler=index.php]<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">
<?php /* Created on: 12/10/2006 */ ?>
<html>
<head>
   <title>Kishar</title>
   <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="styles.css">
</head>

<body>


<div class="menu">
    <a href="index.php?page=home">Home</a>
    <a href="index.php?page=trial">Trial</a>
</div>

<div class="content">
<?php if (!page) {
$page = 'home';
}
require_once ("$page.html"); ?>
</div>

</body>
</html>
[/spoiler]

Oh, I did at first try the "if" clause as a seperate <?php ?> statement, but that didn't work, which is when I tried moving it into the same one. I assume that makes no difference.

brainface · December 11, 2006, 05:54:09 PM

QuoteOh, I did at first try the "if" clause as a seperate <?php ?> statement, but that didn't work, which is when I tried moving it into the same one. I assume that makes no difference.

it doesn't.
i'll look at your code in a bit. I can probably pull yours off the server. i'll also try to get you a copy of shadowfell (probably cleaned of brandon's actual content.)

Matt Larkin (author) · December 11, 2006, 05:57:43 PM

Thanks, I very much appreciate it, brainface.

brainface · December 11, 2006, 08:54:18 PM

This is pretty barebones, but hey, it's got the php code.

Also, here's your index.php, fixed.

Code Select

!page should have been

Code Select

!$page (that's possibly my fault.)

Also, you need the code

Code Select

$page = $_GET['page'];, or

Code Select

$page is always null. (this isn't necessary in older php versions, or different servers, etc. it's a security thing.) It's in the fixed index file, you can see it.
File: 1165888326_4_FT16209_shadowclean.zip
File: 1165888326_4_FT16209_index.php.zip

Matt Larkin (author) · December 12, 2006, 11:49:09 AM

Thanks very much, brainface. I really appreciate all the help.

Matt Larkin (author) · December 24, 2006, 01:04:16 PM

Brainface (or anyone that can answer), is it possible to link to a specific location on another page when I'm using php to call the page?

The normal method:

page url#id name

doesn't seem to work (which I guess makes sense, given that its subing the entry).

I see you to specific location links on Shadowfell within the same page, but what I'm looking to do is have a glossary page, which I can link to specific terms in from other content pages.

brainface · December 24, 2006, 01:37:59 PM

like this:

Code Select

http://www.shadowfell.org/jaggerfell/index.php?page=classes#knightErrant
variables first, #location second.

Matt Larkin (author) · December 24, 2006, 01:53:13 PM

Thanks. I don't know why that didn't work the first time, since that's what I tried. I must have mistyped something, 'cause it worked this time.

brainface · December 24, 2006, 02:43:06 PM

yeah, that happens ;)

Lmns Crn · January 07, 2007, 03:40:28 PM

I've been working through some CSS tutorials, and while I think I understand the basics, I can't seem to find a way to use this with actual content.

What I'd like to be able to do is, for example, have an identical navigation bar on each page, with links to various parts of the site, but not have to code the nav bar seperately on each page. Essentially, I'd like to have a nav bar I could change once if I add a new section to the site, rather than changing it some 75 times.

Matt Larkin (author) · January 07, 2007, 03:48:48 PM

You need some kind of server side include to do that. Most of this thread was about my trying to use php to do so (after brainface explained that was how to do so). It's what I use for my Kishar site.

Our hosting section supports php, but many web servers don't. If you plan to host here, it works great. Otherwise, check first. Most of what you need, you can find in this thread. But I'll show you my code for it.

In my main file (index.php)

Code Select



	<div id="menu">	  
		 <a href="index.php?page=home">Home</a>
		 <a href="index.php?page=FAQ">FAQ</a>
		 <a href="index.php?page=glossary">Glossary</a>
		 <a href="index.php?page=map">Map</a>
		 <a href="index.php?page=cosmology/cosmology">Cosmology</a>
		 <div class="submenu">
		 	<a href="index.php?page=cosmology/cosmogony">Cosmogony</a>
		 	<a href="index.php?page=cosmology/animas">Animas</a>
			<a href="index.php?page=cosmology/outer">Outer Realm</a>
		 </div>
		 <a href="index.php?page=overview">The World</a>
		 <a href="index.php?page=cast">Cast</a>
		 <a href="index.php?page=fiction">Fiction</a>		 
	</div>
	
	<div id="content-wrapper">
		<div id="content">
			<?php
			$page = $_GET['page'];
			 if (!$page) {$page = 'home'; }
			require_once ("$page.html"); ?>
		</div>
		<div id="copyright">
			Copyright 2005-2007 Matt A. Larkin
		</div>
	</div>

[spoiler=relevant CSS]

Code Select


#menu
  {  
  margin-top: 1em;
  width: 125px;  
  background-color: #546454;  
  padding-bottom: 5em;
  float: left;
  }

#content a,
#menu a
  {  
  color: #003300;
  }
  
#content a:hover
  {
  color: #007700;
  }
  
#menu a,
#menu .submenu a
  {
  display:block;
  background-color: #D3D3D3;
  font-weight: bold;
  font-size: 0.9em;
  margin: 1px;
  font-variant: small-caps;
  text-decoration: none;
  padding: 1px;
  padding-left: 5px;
  border-right: solid 5px #005000;
  }

#menu a:hover
  {
  background-color:#78A378;
  }

#menu .submenu a
  {  
  background-color: #eeeeee;
  padding-left: 1.5em;
  font-size: .75em;
  border-right: solid 5px #333333;
  }
  
#menu .submenu a:hover
  {
  background-color: #ffffff;
  }

[/spoiler]

The site brainface links to earlier explains the basics, but left out a small bit of code (which brainface fixed for me (see a few posts up).

The "code" tag I used here seems to have inserted bunches of ";" in my index.php code after each "<". Those obviously shouldn't be there.

Lmns Crn · January 07, 2007, 03:53:25 PM

Oh... goodness. I guess I'm learning PHP in addition to CSS, then! I do plan on hosting it here, so that shouldn't be a problem. At any rate, it looks like I have some reading to do. Thanks for the nudge in the right direction!

Edit: So in function, PHP is to content what CSS is to styles? Allowing you to predefine chunks of it that you can later call forth at will?

Edit again: Okay, I am beginning to understand the premise. This is radically cool.

The Campaign Builder's Guild

News:

Site design

Matt Larkin (author)

limetom

brainface

Matt Larkin (author)

brainface

Matt Larkin (author)

brainface

Matt Larkin (author)

Matt Larkin (author)

brainface

Matt Larkin (author)

brainface

Lmns Crn

Matt Larkin (author)

Lmns Crn