I am working with an array of tokens for an HTML template. Two of them ('{SYS_MENU}' and '{SUB_MENU}') are used to generate control buttons for the web application. Right now the buttons show up on the login page before the user's credential's are validated, and I need to change the code so that the buttons are hidden until after users login and reach the main menu. When someone types the http: address into their browser and arrives at the login page the system starts a session for them in the MySQL sessions table with USER_ID = 0. After they login the USER_ID changes to whatever number was assigned to them at initial registration (Example: USER_ID = 54), and after they logout at the end of the session back to 0. Tying this constant to the buttons seems like the best solution and I have found it to work in the past under similar circumstances.
Here is the original array:
$template_vars = array(
'{LANG_DIR}' => $lang_text_dir,
'{TITLE}' => theme_page_title($section),
'{CHARSET}' => $charset,
'{META}' => $meta,
'{GAL_NAME}' => $CONFIG['gallery_name'],
'{GAL_DESCRIPTION}' => $CONFIG['gallery_description'],
'{SYS_MENU}' => theme_main_menu('sys_menu'),
'{SUB_MENU}' => theme_main_menu('sub_menu'),
'{ADMIN_MENU}' => theme_admin_mode_menu(),
'{CUSTOM_HEADER}' => $custom_header,
'{JAVASCRIPT}' => theme_javascript_head(),
'{MESSAGE_BLOCK}' => theme_display_message_block(),
);
The first thing I did was to work with the references directly in the HTML template. I saw an example on w3schools that made it look like you could just type a PHP script into HTML and have it resolve. That didn't do anything except echo a bunch of text randomly into the page. I then found another citation that said you had to activate the PHP with an .HTACCESS entry before it would work directly in HTML. But that didn't close the deal either.
I know that changing '{SYS_MENU}' and '{SUB_MENU}' values in the array to => "", produces the results that I want (I.E. make the menu buttons disappear). So my next thought was I'll create an IF statement that returns two versions of the array based on circumstances, something like:
if(USER_ID != 0)
{
return $template_vars = //FIRST VERSION OF ARRAY WITH FULL VALUES//
}
else
{
return $template_vars = //SECOND VERSION OF ARRAY WITH ONLY => ""//
}
But all that did was cause the application load to terminate at a white screen with no error feedback.
My most recent attempt came from something I read here on Stack Overflow. I know that you cannot put IF statements into an array. But the article at this link described a workaround:
If statement within an array declaration ...is that possible?
So I rewrote the array as follows:
template_vars = array(
'{LANG_DIR}' => $lang_text_dir,
'{TITLE}' => theme_page_title($section),
'{CHARSET}' => $charset,
'{META}' => $meta,
'{GAL_NAME}' => $CONFIG['gallery_name'],
'{GAL_DESCRIPTION}' => $CONFIG['gallery_description'],
'{SYS_MENU}' => ('USER_ID != 0' ? theme_main_menu('sys_menu') : ""),
'{SUB_MENU}' => ('USER_ID != 0' ? theme_main_menu('sub_menu') : ""),
'{ADMIN_MENU}' => theme_admin_mode_menu(),
'{CUSTOM_HEADER}' => $custom_header,
'{JAVASCRIPT}' => theme_javascript_head(),
'{MESSAGE_BLOCK}' => theme_display_message_block(),
);
But that seems to have no effect at all. The application doesn't crash but the buttons are static whether you are logged in or logged out.
My question is: What am I missing? I can see that this is possible. But I've been trying things for a day and a half and just seem to be dancing around the solution. Your thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
