Multilevel menu from database records - php

Question

I need some help with PHP. I have a multilevel css menu that works fine, but now I want to generate according to the records from a database.
The menu Code:
<div id="page-wrap">
<ul class="dropdown">
<li>Link 1 </li>
<li>Link 2 </li>
<li>Link 3 </li>
<li>Link 4
<ul class="sub_menu">
<li>Link 4 - 1</li>
<li>Link 4 - 2</li>
<li>Link 4 - 3</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Link 5</li>
<li>Link 6 </li>
</ul>
</div>
In the database every record has a field called main_manu which makes it a main link if the value of this field is Yes, and if the value is No then it has another field (sub_menu) which says the parent menu in which this link should be placed.! See the screenshot.
DB Fields
SO, now I don't know how to do the php piece that will get the records and if the value of the main_menu is yes, it will create a top level menu, and if the value of main_menu is no, it will create a sub level menu according to the value of sub_menu field.
Thanks a lot
UPDATE
This is the code I have so far and it works. It would be nice if I could use a single query instead of multiple nested queries.
<div id='page-wrap'>
<ul class='dropdown'>
<?
$sql_menu = "SELECT * FROM content WHERE visible = '1' and main_menu='yes' ";
$result_menu = mysql_query($sql_menu);
while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result_menu))
{
$id=$row['id'];
$menu_top=$row['menu_name'];
$menu_url=$row['menu_url'];
print "<li><a href='$menu_url'>$menu_top</a>";
$sql_sub = "SELECT * FROM content WHERE sub_menu = '$menu_url' ";
$result_sub = mysql_query($sql_sub);
$num_rows = mysql_num_rows($result_sub);
while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result_sub))
{
$id=$row['id'];
$menu_sub=$row['menu_name'];
$sub_url=$row['menu_url'];
If ($num_rows != 0)
{
print "<ul class='sub_menu'>
<li><a href='$sub_url'>$menu_sub</a></li>
</ul>";
}
}
print "</li>";
}
?>
</ul>
</div>

Answer 1

The code for this would be something like the following (This will need to be changed for whatever way you interact with the database etc.):
// Here we do a query to get all the rows from the table
$db_result = db_execute_query('SELECT * FROM `menu_table` ORDER BY `order_no`');
// Here we take the rows and put it into a structured array
$items = array();
$hierarchy = array('' => array());
while ($row = db_fetch_row($db_result)) {
$items[$row['menu_name']] = $row['menu_name_en'];
if ($row['main_menu'] == 'yes') {
$hierarchy[''][] = $row['menu_name'];
} else {
if (!isset($hierarchy[$row['sub_menu']]) {
$hierarchy[$row['sub_menu']] = array();
}
$hierarchy[$row['sub_menu']][] = $row['menu_name'];
}
}
// Here we define a recursive function to run through our $hierarchy array;
function show_menu($name = '') {
if (isset($hierarchy[$name])) {
if ($name == '') {
echo '<ul class="dropdown">';
} else {
echo '<ul class="sub_menu">';
}
foreach ($hierarchy[$name] as $sub) {
echo '<li>' . $items[$sub] . '';
show_menu($sub);
echo '</li>';
}
echo '</ul>';
}
}
// Here we execute the recursive function on the main menu
show_menu('');
Try to understand what I'm doing here instead of just implementing it verbatim. Once you get to know recursive functions, a whole new world can open for you.
Also note that your db table could be changed to make this code simpler

Answer 2

I think these link will help you out. if not please let me know i will give you the code
http://board.phpbuilder.com/showthread.php?10337808-how-to-create-menu-submenu-subsubmenu-using-php-mysql
http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?718237-how-to-create-dynamic-menu-and-submenu-using-php-and-mysql