How to make a list that displays the top level subpages, and any subpages or siblings off of the current page

Question

Lets say we are displaying a few family trees. We are currently on the family tree top-page,and we need our list to look like this:

Family Trees

• The Smiths
• The Joneses
• The Does

When the user clicks the Smiths, we want the list to look like this:

The Smiths

• The Smiths
  • Dave
  • Steve
  • Dolly
• The Joneses
• The Does

And when a user clicks on Steve, we want the list to also look like this:

Dave Smith

• The Smiths
  • Dave
  • Steve
  • Dolly
• The Joneses
• The Does

So, we need to display a list of all subpages and siblings of the current page, as well as all siblings of every step in the hierarchy.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

I remember I read something about this in one of the blogs I follow. Take a look at 456bereastreet.

Answer 2

You need to add a lot more information:

• Is this information coming out of a database or are they static pages?
• How is the navigation currently being generated?
• What programming language?
• Is there a content management system involved?
• Do you need this to change without page reloads, or are you OK with page reloads?