link on my table bound navagational menu

[viclewis]

My menu is displaying but I need someone to tell me what I am doing wrong trying to establish a page link from my menu.
First of all my index page is:
http://fbclongwood.org/httpdocs/Revised ... index.html
I am just starting to link my first page. It is under the "Sunday School Dept' , "Adults," "coed65+II.htm".I have tried all sorts of combinations in my menu_data.js file.
The root directry/folder on my server is "httpdocs" and I have established a folder as you can see in the url of Revised Church Website.
This is where I have all my files necessary for my menu to display.
My tree for my link is as follows:
httpdocs/Revised Church Website/ss_dept/adults/coed65+II.htm
I guess I don't quite get it when it comes to providing the necessary text and url for the link to work.
Any help would be appreciated. I'm still trying to learn.

[John]

It's basically the same as if you were doing a link within your HTML (<a href=... etc.). Just use the URL parameter in the menu aI statements...

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aI("text=Coed 65+ II (Agape Lighthouse)____________Rm. 105;url=coed65+II.htm;");

etc.

Note that the 'howtobuild' file included in the menu download explains this, and many other items.

[viclewis]

I did as you stated and in my menu_data.js file I corrected it to [url=coed65+II.htm] and uploaded it to my server.

When I click on the top first link in -Sunday School Dept, Adult Dept, Coed65+II (Agape Lighthouse).........Rm.105 nothing happens.

On my local computer's browser's window I get "The page cannot be displayed."

[Ruth]

Nothing happens because you have no link in the menu data file. I just download the page and the file. So, either the file you uploaded didn't get uploaded to the same place and thereby overwrite the existing file or you changed the file name and didn't change it on the page itself?

Also, you must upgrade the menu. We won't be able to help with support because you're using version 5.17 which is way down and there have been a number of repairs and additions to the menu since that version. When an upgrade is done sometimes there is a change on how certain things are 'handled' by the menu, so when we give directions it's based on the existing version and those may not be valid for the old version. [John's information is correct on the link]


Ruth

[John]

The URL you originally gave up for your site was http://fbclongwood.org/httpdocs/Revised ... index.html. Even though the page appears to work, that URL is incorrect. The /httpdocs/ part is not needed, as it is handled by the server.

Remove that and go to...
http://fbclongwood.org/Revised%20Church ... index.html

You'll find your page there, and also a working link (well, at least a link that shows up in the status bar, which it does not with the /httpdocs/ in there).

[viclewis]

I have upgraded to the latest version 5.33.
After reading on upgrading I understand I only have to replace the three files, mmenudom.js, milonic_src.js and mmdnuns4.js not my menu_data.js file which I have modified to my menu.

I have in my menu_data.js file the folowing link:

with(milonic=new menuname("Adult Classes")){
style=menuStyle;
aI("text=Coed 65+ II (Agape Lighthouse)____________Rm. 105;url=coed65+II.htm");

I have uploaded my menu_data.js file and the page in question that I'm trying to link to. Namely, coed65+II.htm
I have corrected my url to http://fbclongwood.org/Revised%20Church ... index.html
My link is still not working.

[Maz]

What is the full link to that page?

or it might be easier to put the full link in url=

maz

[Ruth]

According to the url in your menu_data.js file that coed65+II.htm should be in the Revised Church Website folder, the url would be http://fbclongwood.org//Revised%20Churc ... d65+II.htm the same place as the index.htm page, not in the adults folder inside the ss_dept folder which was the url you had in the menu_data.js file on your main site. I tried a lot of combinations of urls and couldn't find that page anyplace.

Ruth

[viclewis]

For organizing my folder tree and for my sanity. I have to have folders so everything is not in my root folder.
On my server I have the page in question "coed65+II.htm" as follows:

http://fbclongwood.org/Revised%20Church ... d65+II.htm

However, when I state that address in the address bar I get the page cannot be found.
This is weird to me.

I even went as far as editing my menu_data.js file stating the full url as above and it does not work.
Could this be an issue with my server?


[/url]

[Maz]

It doesn't come up. Could it be chmod permissions?

maz

[John]

Is the coed65 page in the exact same folder as your index page?

[Ruth]

Well, just to be sure, I tried various combinations of that url and didnt' get anything, but then tried changing the page name, capitalizing it, and so on just in case, now I don't know that this is the page that was uploaded but it's the only one I found in that ss_dept/adults/ coed65+I.htm that gives you a page at least. Just plain white, nothing on it. So did you perhaps misname the page?

Ruth

[kevin3442]

Hi Vic,

I get the same thing as Ruth.... there is a file called coed65+I.htm in /Revised Church Website/ss_dept/adults/, but there is not a file named coed65+II.htm.

As for the url property in the aI() menu item definition, I would think that

Code: Select all

aI("...;url=/Revised Church Website/ss_dept/adults/coed65+II.htm;");

should work (assuming that the file exists). One point to mention, however. If you are using the Revised Church Website as a staging area, with the intent of later moving everything over to the main portion of your site, then you will have to go through and change all of those paths later, unless you take steps now to avoid that.

Just to reiterate what John mentioned... don't think of httpdocs as part of your html world. The httpdocs folder that branches off of the main forlder of your account with you ISP is most likely for internal use only. Your ISP's servers are configured to look in that folder, treating it as the root location of your website whenever someone tries to reach http://www.fbclongwood.org/. When you write your html and js code, http://www.fbclongwood.org/ is equivalent from the web server's point of view to an internal location of your_isp_account/httpdocs/. So a file named index.htm in your httpsdocs folder would have a local address (through ftp or telnet) of your_isp_account/httpdocs/index.htm. From a web coding point of view, this same file would be accessed as http://www.fbclongwood.org/index.htm. Hope that helps to clarify.

Cheers,

Kevin

[viclewis]

Kevin:
What would be your suggestion for composing my tree for my Revised Church Website? I didn't want to co-mingle my new folders and file pages with the existing site files. I would rather not have to re-write my file paths once I have everything working.

I am still not able to write my sub-menu file pages and have the menu displayed.
When I add the first page url my menu does not display. Here is what I did:
The menu shows Sunday School Dept/Adults/coed65+II.htm top 1st one.
I then add to my menu_data.js under Adults menu, Coed65+II.htm the url of url="http://fbclongwood.org/Revised Church Website/ss_dept/adults/coed65+II.htm;");

[viclewis]

Kevin:
I now have my submenu links working properly.
My code was supposed to start as: url=ss_dept/adults/or/children/or youth

I was imputing Revised Church Website in error.

I would still like your comments on the hierarchy of my new website on my server.

[kevin3442]

Hi Vic,

Regarding the link. I just had a look, and it seems that the link now works. I'm guessing you figured that one out, Right?

Regarding the organization of your new site, it's hard to know where to begin. I understand why you're developing the revised site the way you are. The only problem is that everything branches off of your "Revised Church Website" folder. I assume that at some point, when you're done revising, you'll want to move everything up one level, so that it all branches off of your domain's root.

It would probably be best if you could run a web server on your local machine, and use that to develop your site. Then you'd completely remove the old site and publish the new to the "real" location when you're ready.

Barring that, I suppose you could specify a "base location" in your menu_data.js file, in a js variable, and include that base location in all of the menu items' url settings. The base location would be the location of your index.htm file. In other words, the current base location for your new site is http://www.http://fbclongwood.org/Revised Church Website/. You could put the following the very top of your menu_data.js page:

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var baseLocation = "http://www.http://fbclongwood.org/Revised Church Website/";

Then, to use that in a menu item's url, you'd do this:

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aI("text=Coed 65+ II (Agape Lighthouse)____________Rm. 105;url="+baseLocation+"ss_dept/adults/coed65+11.htm;");

(all on one line; no wrapping)

The url of that menu item would end up being

Code: Select all

http://www.http://fbclongwood.org/Revised Church Website/ss_dept/adults/coed65+11.htm

Then, when your new site is ready, and you move everything up, your new base location -- the location of your index.htm file -- would be in http://www.http://fbclongwood.org/. All you'd have to do is change the baseLocation variable at the top of menu_data.js to be

Code: Select all

var baseLocation = "http://www.http://fbclongwood.org/";

and all of the menu item urls would automatically reflect the change, with no further editing, so that

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aI("text=Coed 65+ II (Agape Lighthouse)____________Rm. 105;url="+baseLocation+"ss_dept/adults/coed65+11.htm;");

(all on one line; no wrapping)

would now point to

Code: Select all

http://www.http://fbclongwood.org/ss_dept/adults/coed65+11.htm

This approach would solve another problem I think you're setting yourself up for. I'm assuming that, at some point, you'll want to include the menu on all of the site's pages... right? The problem right now is that the urls in your menu items are relative (relative to the currently displayed file's location). For example, the link you mentioned earlier is currently coded as:

Code: Select all

aI("text=Coed 65+ II (Agape Lighthouse)____________Rm. 105;url=ss_dept/adults/coed65+11.htm;");

That'll work fine from your index.htm file, in the http://www.http://fbclongwood.org/Revised Church Website/ folder, because the ss_dept folder branches off of the Revised Church Website folder. But once you're looking at the coed65+II.htm page, suppose you want to go to the coed65+I.htm page? Your current menu item for that page links to

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aI("text=Coed 65+ I (Sonshine)____________________Rm. 119;url=ss_dept/adults/coed65+I.htm;");

The way you have the path, the web server will look for ss_dept/adults/coed65+I.htm starting from where it currently is. It'd end up looking for
http://www.http://fbclongwood.org/Revised Church Website/ss_dept/adults/ss_dept/adults/coed65+I.htm
which of course would not exist.

I hope that made sense... just trying to warn you of a problem to avoid down the road. I think that, given your current situation, it might be best to use the baseLocation approach described above.

A lot to take in, I know. We're here to help if needed.

Cheers,

Kevin

[viclewis]

Hi Kevin:

I have small business server 2003 operating system from Microsoft that I could install as a dual boot on my computer. I have cable modem which is always on. Would that work?

There are several files that are currently on the present website that I need to keep and utilize with the new revised website. The former webmaster set up an admin for uploading and downloading a weekly newsletter using php, [include-php, include div, etc] I know nothing about "PHP scripting language".

[kevin3442]

Hi Vic,

I have small business server 2003 operating system from Microsoft that I could install as a dual boot on my computer.

It's more to do with the web server software than the operating system. Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS), for example, is a web server. Thinking about it, if you don't have experience setting up a web server, and you'd rather avoid more headaches, then maybe it'd be better not to bother. I think if you use the baseLocation idea, that'll work for you.

Cheers,

Kevin

[viclewis]

O.K. I'll go along with baselocator idea in menu_data.js file.