Dynamic sub-nav

  • Hi All,
    I am building a site using WordPress as a CMS (it only has pages, no posts). I’ve got a few questions:

    1) I’m going to have a left-hand column that will be populated with sub-nav links which will change depending what area of the site you’re looking at. I know one way to do this would be to make several different page templates and hard-code the appropriate sub-nav items into the left column of each one; however, is there a way to do this dynamically, such that if I add a page to a section or change a page’s title, the sub-nav will automatically update to reflect this? Is there a specific plug-in that might do this?

    2) How do I change the URL strings for pages, so that instead of, for instance, having “page_id=2” or something like that, I can use customized page name rather than an ID number?

    3) What is the code to call a specific page to a particular place on your site’s Index template page? On my site’s homepage (Index template), I want to have 2-3 sections that can be updated automatically, but how do I get the template to call those pages to the right spots?

    Thanks!
    Nate

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

  • Most of what you are wanting is explained in the documentation for WordPress — pretty permalinks and child pages, for example.

    Re: changing the sidebar based on where you are in your site is controlled with if/else/elseif type php code — though there are plugins that purport to do this. Depending upon if you are using categories or pages for your content, you can use the wp_list_pages() function (or the category version), passing parameters in the function to control what pages are listed (or categories) and how.

    Using something like 

    <?php if (is_front_page()) {
wp_list_pages('title_li=&depth=2&include=3,14,16');
}
elseif {
//whatever you want to do here
}
else {
//what should happen (maybe nothing) if not any of the above
} ?>

    is what I mean. Use the Docs section here and search for wp_list_pages() to see what I mean.

    The third item you listed isn’t clear… you don’t “call a page” into the index.php template. You can query for specific posts based on category or all categories… but typically, if you are using WordPress “Pages” you use the page.php file.

    Based on what you want to do, you can create customized category templates and page templates. Again, this is in the Documentation for WordPress, which you can get to by clicking the Docs link at the top of this page.

    Getting content into specific locations as viewed from a browser requires xhtml and css knowledge or using someone else’s theme.

    HTH
    Casey

    Thread Starter nateeanes

    (@nateeanes)

    Thanks Casey! I think the wp_list_pages() is exactly what I need, and I probably need to pair it up with the “child_of” function so it lists the page’s children.

    As for my third question which wasn’t clear, I guess I’m messed up by having edited a theme made by someone who chose to use pages (not posts) on their homepage. They used some kind of include statement to do it, which I can’t reproduce successfully on my WP site.

    Thanks,
    Nate

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
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