PHP 5/MySQL Programming- P62:computer programming has often been seen as a difficult and arcane skill. Programming languages are difficult and complicated, out of the typical person’s reach. However, the advent of the World Wide Web has changed that to some extent. It’s reasonably easy to build and post a Web page for the entire world to see. The language of the Web is reasonably simple, and numerous applications are available to assist in the preparation of static pages | Of course the menu can be much more sophisticated but it s good to start slowly. In the next section you look at the sneaky but not difficult way the menu HTML is coded. I kept the code very simple but of course you can and should improve it however you wish. Add background graphics borders or improved text. Put the menu across the right or top. It s important that I used percentage measurements in this element because I don t know the user s screen resolution. By indicating position and width in percentages I have a style that works well regardless of the browser size. In the Real World What about browsers that don t support CSS Some would argue that a tablebased approach to layout as PHP-Nuke and many other CMS tools use would work across more browsers than this CSS-centric approach. While it s true some older browsers support tables but not CSS tables have their own problems as page layout tools. Tables were never really designed for that purpose so to get a layout exactly like you want you often have to build a Byzantine complex of tables nested within tables with all sorts of odd colspan tricks and invisible borders. The positionable CSS elements were invented partially to provide a simpler more uniform solution to page layout headaches. The browsers that don t support CSS still display everything encoded in a CSS-augmented page. The CSS won t take effect but all the other HTML code will work and the user can use the page. Chapter 8 XmL and Content Management Systems The item class is the other important CSS element in this code sample. It s another specialized span dedicated to placing the Web page s main content. The item class works well with the menuPanel class. It is placed a little to the right of the menu panel and takes up most of the remaining screen space. Once again the actual style is quite simplistic and you probably want to spruce it up. Inspecting the Menu System The real key to the simpleCMS is the way it s used. Each page that the user sees .
