Requirements: Php and a web site

Installation: Unzip the file you downloaded. Choose a directory on your site and upload all files into the same directory. You are installed :0) Go to your browser and call the test.php file. It should bring up a page that has a little info on phpezmenu and the links to the support forum and online manual.

Customizing for a new site:

1 - Bookmark the support site and online manual from the test page.

2 - Save a copy of test.php to index.php. Open index.php and delete all my content between the Begin content and the End content comment tags. You can use the exact design that comes with phpezmenu and just place your content where mine was or you can customize it. You can customize the design by changing the html written in phpezmenu.php for each command. If you look at the code on phpezmenu.php, you will see it is only 5 php functions that write the html into test.php. Replace the html for each command with your html. Be sure and leave all quotes, commas, brackets...anything that is part of the php command needs to be left alone. ONLY change the html.

If at any time you really mess up, go to test.php and download the page again by right clicking on the page, viewing the code and then saving it. Or if you need a new phpezmenu.php file, go to our forums and down load it. We have the files individually listed and available for download.

Customizing for an existing site:

1 - Bookmark the support site and online manual from the test page.

2 - Phpezmenu.php has 5 commands. Take each command one at a time and edit it to show your html. For topheader, replace with the html that generates your menu. No comment lines please. It causes parse errors. To call the command, just place the call wherever you want it on your existing page. Here is the code to write menu:



Wherever you place it, it will return the html code you have written for it in phpezmenu.php.

The other thing you must do is put an include on everypage for phpezmenu.php. Here is the syntax:



That is the include if the page and phpezmenu.php reside in the same directory. See further instructions below for using phpezmenu across directories. In summary: To modify an existing site,

1 - Replace html in the phpezmenu.php file.
2 - Place include in the head area of your web page.
3 - Place the command where you want the html written on the web page.
4 - Save all pages with the .php extension and upload to your site along with the phpezmenu.php file.

Using Phpezmenu.php across directories:

To use phpezmenu across different directories, you need to edit the include statement on each webpage to show the relative path. Here is what an include across directories might look like:



If you are getting a parse error that says a file can't be found, you more than likely have the path incorrect. Read the error very carefully since it usually gives the relative paths of the directories and can be an important clue in working this error out with the correct paths.

Troubleshooting:

There aren't too many errors that you can have with phpezmenu. The two I have seen are parse errors due to the wrong relative path and the other is a parse error because commented lines are being used on the phpezmenu.php page.

Single Quotes - If you are getting parse errors, check to see if you have single quotes in your html. To fix this, just put a backslash \ in front of the single quote and your code should work. Some affiliate ads have single quotes that need to be fixed to work right.

Coffeecup Software:

I use Coffeecup HTML editor for all my web site design work. It works seamlessly with phpezmenu and makes a site no matter how large, extremely manageable. Save the test.php as a template in coffeecup and you have a clean page to plop some content into and upload. Coffeecup is very affordable and comes with lots of perks such as a css atribute wizard and snipets. Snipets allow you to save pieces of code you use over and over. I can't say enough about the benefits of this program! Click the link below to download a free trial copy or to buy it.