PHP get path and all subpaths (Drupal)

Question

I have a hard-coded menu in Drupal (as it's too complex for the standard Menu system in Drupal).

I would like to be able to say: If this page is contained within the /about/ directory, apply the class "active", so that all new pages created within this directory automatically highlight the current section.

Currently I have:

$current_page = $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];

<ul class="main">
  <li class="home"><a href="<?php echo $base_path?>">Home</a></li>
  <li class="about 
  <?php if ($current_page == "/xxxxxxx.com/dev/about/") 
  {
      echo "active";
  }
  ?>"><a href="javascript:void(0)">About</a></li>
  <li class="services"><a href="javascript:void(0)">Services</a></li>
  <li class="work"><a href="javascript:void(0)">Work</a></li>
  <li class="awards"><a href="javascript:void(0)">Awards</a></li>
  <li class="environment"><a href="javascript:void(0)">Environment</a></li>
  <li class="contact"><a href="javascript:void(0)">Contact</a></li>
</ul>

I have tried a few variations of strpos and explode to get the right variable, but with no luck so far.

Thanks :)

Answer 1

I don't know anything about Drupal or your URL scheme, but the task of checking whether $current_page contains "/about/" you can do with:

if (strpos($current_page, '/about') !== false) echo "active";

You should probably listen to googletorp though.

Answer 2

Try this function. It's like arg function, but parse real path.

function real_arg($index = NULL) {
  $ofset = strlen(base_path());
  $q = explode('?', substr($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], $ofset));
  $q = explode('/',  trim($q[0], '/'));

  return isset($index) ? $q[$index] : $q;
}

In your case:

if(real_arg(0) == 'about') echo 'active';

Answer 3

Use the menu api then theme your links to match what you want. You won't need to duplicate functionality that already exists. You'll acquire a skill you can reuse.

See:
http://api.drupal.org/api/function/theme_menu_item/6
http://api.drupal.org/api/function/theme_menu_item_link/6

It shouldn't take long and you'll remove a layer of workarounds.