How to Generate Yahoo-Style Directory Headings

[Ray Woodcock]

I have webpages arranged in a tree, or hierarchy, in my website. For
example, under "Oceans," I might have separate pages for "Pacific,"
"Atlantic," etc.

Yahoo! (and many other websites) give the user some sense of where
they are by providing, at the top of each page, a descending list of
superior pages. In this example, the heading at the top of my webpage
would look like this:

Oceans > Pacific

where the user could click on "Oceans" to go to the parent page above
Pacific.

Because I keep moving pages around, and have many webpages, I cannot
keep up with the current status of my website by manually creating and
revising those kinds of directory headings at the tops of each of my
webpages.

My question: is there a way to generate those headings automatically?
I have some HTML skill but am otherwise not a programmer.

 

[chris leeds]

there is a good example here:
http://dynamicdrive.com
and a nice one in .net here:
http://www.aurigma.com/Support/Help/DeepTree/DeepTree.htm
HTH

 

[MD WebsUnlimited.com]

Hi Ray,

That is called a bread crumb navigation. It is normally produced using
JavaScript code of the URL path. See the JavaScript resource at
http://www.websunlimited.com/resources.asp or you may wish to take a look at
J-Bots Bread Crumb component.
http://www.websunlimited.com/order/Product/navigation/dirtree.htm

 

[Mike Mueller]

Tose are called breadcrumbs. Do a search of this NG as I recall that being
discussed earlier this month.

Mike

 

[Kathleen Anderson [MVP - FrontPage]]

MVP Stephen Travis has a macro that will create a breadcrumb trail from the
FrontPage navigation structure:
http://home.att.net/~codelibrary/FrontPage/macro.htm

--

~ Kathleen Anderson
Microsoft FrontPage MVP
Spider Web Woman Designs
http://www.spiderwebwoman.com/resources/

 

[Ray Woodcock]

Trying to get a grip here. I seem to have multiple ways of organizing
files and folders (and references to files) within a web (see
discussion below):

1. FrontPage shows a navigation structure. To my knowledge, I have
to create this manually, by creating and dragging page icons around.

2. FrontPage can show a breadcrumb trail. If I knew more about
macros, I could probably use the one listed below to create this trail
from the navigation structure.

3. There is the basic hierarchy of Windows folders and subfolders.

BUT:

Can I arrange my files and folders in Windows Explorer, and then
automate the production of the FrontPage navigation structure and
breadcrumb trail from that?

I recently bought an old copy of Visual Basic. I was fantasizing that
I would learn how to do this with that. Doing things in proper
(reverse) sequence, I should ask, now: is that the way to proceed?
Will Visual Basic do this for me? Easily?

 

[chris leeds]

something you may find useful:
http://xhawk.net/projects/jsnav/demo/index.php

Trying to get a grip here. I seem to have multiple ways of organizing
files and folders (and references to files) within a web (see
discussion below):

1. FrontPage shows a navigation structure. To my knowledge, I have
to create this manually, by creating and dragging page icons around.

2. FrontPage can show a breadcrumb trail. If I knew more about
macros, I could probably use the one listed below to create this trail
from the navigation structure.

3. There is the basic hierarchy of Windows folders and subfolders.

BUT:

Can I arrange my files and folders in Windows Explorer, and then
automate the production of the FrontPage navigation structure and
breadcrumb trail from that?

I recently bought an old copy of Visual Basic. I was fantasizing that
I would learn how to do this with that. Doing things in proper
(reverse) sequence, I should ask, now: is that the way to proceed?
Will Visual Basic do this for me? Easily?



"Kathleen Anderson [MVP - FrontPage]" <[email protected]> wrote in

MVP Stephen Travis has a macro that will create a breadcrumb trail from the
FrontPage navigation structure:
http://home.att.net/~codelibrary/FrontPage/macro.htm

--

~ Kathleen Anderson
Microsoft FrontPage MVP
Spider Web Woman Designs
http://www.spiderwebwoman.com/resources/

 

[Randy Birch]

: Can I arrange my files and folders in Windows Explorer, and then
: automate the production of the FrontPage navigation structure and
: breadcrumb trail from that?

The golden rule is to use FrontPage to create and manipulate files and
folders. This was FP will update references as required when a page location
changes. Making those additions/changes in explorer will not be tracked by
FrontPage.

: I recently bought an old copy of Visual Basic. I was fantasizing that
: I would learn how to do this with that. Doing things in proper
: (reverse) sequence, I should ask, now: is that the way to proceed?
: Will Visual Basic do this for me? Easily?

FP exposes an object model, so web sites can be manipulated using visual
basic. I suspect the FrontPage.programming newsgroup should be able to
provide assistance on how to do this. But I have to say, I've used VB for
years and never once had to use it to manipulate the actual files and
folders. I have written my own routines to generate include files for my
site (the api section is all generated via VB), but this just comprises a
series of simple file enumeration and content parsing routines.

--

Randy Birch
MVP Visual Basic
http://vbnet.mvps.org/
Please respond only to the newsgroups so all can benefit.