Output pages module 'nested pages' for navigation?

Question

I have a number of sites using the plain vanilla native 'Pages' module in EE where I would like to output a simple 'child pages' list for pages with children (based on the page_uri).

In the Pages module itself pages are displayed with nesting so I'm guessing the data is there somewhere - but how to get at it?

I'm not adverse to writing a plug-in but could do with some guidance on ow the pages module knows what's a child of what?

Update: I think what I'm looking for is an EE2 version of Mark Huots plag-in for the original pages module - http://devot-ee.com/add-ons/pages-nested-menu

Update: Using the EE1.x > EE2.x upgrade instructions I've managed to get a version of this plug-in working for EE2.x. It's still a little rough around the edges but it's better than nothing!

https://github.com/ninefour/pages_nested_menu.pi.ee_addon

Answer 1

A plugin is definitely required here. Unfortunately, the Pages module doesn't store data in a hierarchical format, and the logic used in the module control panel is not ideal for use as a plugin (as you need a properly nested array for that). So you're starting from scracth.

But here's something to get you started: all pages are stored in $this->EE->config->item('site_pages'), as an array with site_ids as keys, and then further arrays with entry_ids as keys and page URIs as values. So you'll need to query the titles for each.

Here's some quick starter code:

$pages = $this->EE->config->item('site_pages');
if ($pages === FALSE OR count($pages[$this->EE->config->item('site_id')]['uris']) == 0)
{
    return false;
}

$pages = $pages[$this->EE->config->item('site_id')]['uris'];
natcasesort($pages);

$titles = array();
$entry_ids = array_keys($pages);
$entry_ids = implode(',', $entry_ids);

$titles_q = $this->EE->db->query("SELECT entry_id, title FROM exp_channel_titles WHERE entry_id IN($entry_ids)");
if($titles_q->num_rows() > 0)
{
    foreach($titles_q->result_array() as $entry)
    {
        extract($entry);
        $titles[$entry_id] = $title;
    }
}

print_r($pages);
print_r($titles);

So this gives you two arrays, both with the entry_id as a key, and one with the URI as the value, and another with the Title as the value. From here you'll need to do some sorting, explode the URI values using a forward slash as a delimiter, and build a new array, etc. Lots of array juggling to build this with a proper hierarchy, and in the order you want it.

In the end, you want to end up with something like this (to pass to $this->EE->TMPL->parse_variables):

$pages = array(
    [0] => array(
        'entry_id' => XX,
        'title' => 'About Us',
        'uri' => '/about',
        'children' => array(
            [0] => array(
                'entry_id' => XX,
                'title' => 'Staff',
                'uri' => '/about/staff'
            ),
            [1] => array(
                'entry_id' => XX,
                'title' => 'History',
                'uri' => '/about/history'
            ),
        )
    ),
    [1] => array(
        'entry_id' => XX,
        'title' => 'Location',
        'uri' => '/location',
        'children' => ''
    )
    [2] => array(
        'entry_id' => XX,
        'title' => 'Contact Us',
        'uri' => '/contact',
        'children' => ''    
    )
);