Authoring/Development - jumpbox

Modifications Required:

none

Optional Modifications:

See below.

jumpbox is a script which implements drop-down text menu boxes. It is designed to work in two implementations -- a simple method in which you simply include the URLs of the other pages in your form, and a more advanced in which you define "keywords" to point to URLs and use those in your form.

The HTML code below show an example of the simple format:

<form method=post action="/cgi-sys/jumpbox">
Select:
<select name="goto">
<option value="http://www.pair.com/">pair Networks Home Page
<option value="http://support.pair.com/">Support Forum Index
<option value="http://reseller.pair.com/">Reseller Website
</select>
<input type=submit value="Go!"> </form>

In this method, the form's method should be "POST" and its action "/cgi-sys/jumpbox". You then need to have a select box named "goto" -- each option should have as its value the URL to redirect to.

In the second method, you create a "map file" that defines keywords for each URL, and use the keywords in your form code. This is useful if you have long URLs that you don't want to type over and over again.

To set up your map file, you must create a file named .jumpbox in your account's home directory (/usr/home/username) either by SSH or by creating it locally and uploading it in ASCII mode through FTP. Each line in this file will define one keyword, and should use the format:

keyword=http://www.example.com/yourpage.html
secondkey=http://www.example.org/

Each line starts with the intended keyword, followed by an = sign, followed by the URL.

Here is an example .jumpbox file:

pair=http://www.pair.com/
support=http://support.pair.com/
reseller=http://reseller.pair.com/

And here is sample form code utilizing this .jumpbox file:

<form method=post action="/cgi-sys/jumpbox">
<input type=hidden name="method" value="map">
Select:
<select name="goto">
<option value="pair">pair Networks Home Page
<option value="support">Support Forum Index
<option value="reseller">Reseller Website
</select>
<input type=submit value="Go!"> </form>

Two changes are made from the simple usage. First, instead of using URLs as the values in the select options, the keywords you have defined are substituted. Second, and very important, a hidden form variable named "method" is defined, and set equal to "map".

This second example creates a menu box that is functionally equivalent to the first, but which doesn't require the URLs in the HTML code -- useful perhaps if you'll be including that URL in multiple menus.

HINT: If you will be using the same menu all over your site, you might consider making it a separate file and including it on your other pages with server side includes.