Recursion is definitely the way to go with this problem, I've coded up this solution:
<?php
function nestElements($elements, $depth=0)
{
foreach($elements as $elementName=>$element)
{
echo str_repeat("\t", $depth).'<ul class="niveau'.($depth+1).'">'."
";
if(is_array($element))
{
echo str_repeat("\t", $depth+1)."<li class=\"sousmenu\"><a href=\"${elementName}\">${elementName}</a>
";
nestElements($element, $depth+2);
echo str_repeat("\t", $depth+1)."</li>
";
}
else
{
echo str_repeat("\t", $depth+1)."<li class=\"sousmenu\"><a href=\"${element}\">${elementName}</a></li>
";
}
echo str_repeat("\t", $depth)."</ul>
";
}
}
nestElements(array("Food"=>array("Meat"=>array("Poultry"=>array("Chicken"=>"Meat/Poultry/Chicken"), "Beef"=>array("Hamburgers"=>"Meat/Beef/Hamburgers", "Steak"=>"Meat/Beef/Steak")), "Dairy"=>array("Cow"=>"Dairy/Cow", "Sheep"=>"Dairy/Sheep")), "name"=>"url"));
?>
Testing with this:
<?php
nestElements(array("Food"=>array("Meat"=>array("Poultry"=>array("Chicken"=>"Meat/Poultry/Chicken"), "Beef"=>array("Hamburgers"=>"Meat/Beef/Hamburgers", "Steak"=>"Meat/Beef/Steak")), "Dairy"=>array("Cow"=>"Dairy/Cow", "Sheep"=>"Dairy/Sheep")), "name"=>"url"));
?>
Results in:
<ul class="niveau1">
<li class="sousmenu"><a href="Food">Food</a></li>
<ul class="niveau2">
<li class="sousmenu"><a href="Meat">Meat</a></li>
<ul class="niveau3">
<li class="sousmenu"><a href="Poultry">Poultry</a></li>
<ul class="niveau4">
<li class="sousmenu"><a href="Meat/Poultry/Chicken">Chicken</a></li>
</ul>
</ul>
<ul class="niveau3">
<li class="sousmenu"><a href="Beef">Beef</a></li>
<ul class="niveau4">
<li class="sousmenu"><a href="Meat/Beef/Hamburgers">Hamburgers</a></li>
</ul>
<ul class="niveau4">
<li class="sousmenu"><a href="Meat/Beef/Steak">Steak</a></li>
</ul>
</ul>
</ul>
<ul class="niveau2">
<li class="sousmenu"><a href="Dairy">Dairy</a></li>
<ul class="niveau3">
<li class="sousmenu"><a href="Dairy/Cow">Cow</a></li>
</ul>
<ul class="niveau3">
<li class="sousmenu"><a href="Dairy/Sheep">Sheep</a></li>
</ul>
</ul>
</ul>
<ul class="niveau1">
<li class="sousmenu"><a href="url">name</a></li>
</ul>
To parse it you'd have to make a mod_rewrite which redirects to index.php?r=TheURL and from their, explode the r parameter using "/" as the delimeter, then you have a list of menus and submenus that the clicked link was from. By adding another parameter the url coul be automatically generated.
Edit: Fixed problem with original code output seen below
<li class="sousmenu"><a href="Sheep">Sheep</a></li>
<li class="sousmenu"><a href="Dairy/Sheep">Sheep</a></li>
To generate the array:
<?php
function genArray(&$targetArray, $parentID=null){
$res=(is_null($parentID))?mysql_query("SELECT * FROM categorie WHERE id_cat NOT IN (SELECT id_low_cat FROM hislowcat) ORDER BY id_cat DESC;"):mysql_query("SELECT *, (SELECT name_cat FROM categorie WHERE id_cat= '".$parentID ."') AS name_cat FROM hislowcat WHERE id_cat= '" .$parentID ."'");
if(!is_null($parentID) && !mysql_num_rows($res))
{
$res3=mysql_query("SELECT name_cat FROM categorie WHERE id_cat='${parentID}';");
$row3=mysql_fetch_array($res3);
$targetArray[$row3['name_cat']]=$row3['name_cat'];
return;
}
while(($row=mysql_fetch_array($res)))
{
//echo $row->name_cat;
if(is_null($parentID))
{
if(!isset($targetArray[$row['name_cat']]))
{
$targetArray[$row['name_cat']]=array();
}
genArray($targetArray[$row['name_cat']], $row['id_cat']);
}
else
{
genArray($targetArray[$row['name_cat']], $row['id_low_cat']);
}
}
}
$array=array();
genArray($array);
print_r($array);
?>
Notice how $targetArray is set up as a reference, this way we can treat it one-dimensionally.