Adding a Class to PHP Menus - php

Question

I have a small php website that has a menu that is included via include_once. I need an HTML class added to the current menu item for each page.
So if a user clicks on a link and goes to that page the new page will load with the new menu item with class="current". How can I go about doing this?

Answer 1

Let's say you write your menu like this:
<ul>
<li> Link1 </li>
<li> Link2 </li>
<li> Link3 </li>
</ul>
Here is a good old php4 style solution :-p
<?php
//you get which link was clicked
if(isset($_GET['menu']) $menu = $_GET['menu'];
else $menu = 1;
$1 = $2 = $3 = ""; //you create 3 empty strings
switch($menu){ //you assign the correct string with your css class name
case "1": $1 = 'class="current"';break;
case "2": $2 = 'class="current"';break;
case "3": $3 = 'class="current"';break;
}
?>
//echo the variables into the menu anchors ( <?=$1?> is equivalent to <? echo $1; ?> )
<ul>
<li><a href="link1.com?menu=1" <?=$1?> >Link1</a></li>
<li><a href="link2.com?menu=2" <?=$2?> >Link2</a></li>
<li><a href="link3.com?menu=3" <?=$3?> >Link3</a></li>
</ul>
You can also place the <?=$1?> into the <li> or anywhere else wanted...
If you're using javascript in your project, you could also give an id to your anchors (like Link1), get the menu value like above with $_GET, and then use javascript to add the class to the desired link.
I gave you this answer because from what you're writing I guess you're not using any PHP framework but coding you app the old way... there's plenty of nice PHP framework around here that will have pre-made solution for this... might be hard at the beginning but it's worth it...
Good luck!