Menu's

Here's what I did. I am learning php and drupal on a "need to know" basis as I go along, so this may not be as fancy or clean as it should be. I think that it needs to be bolstered to deal with null sets -- I've seen a few errors when there are no links to fill a box. Should be an easy fix.

Vocab 1 is Authors, 2 is story type, 3 is topic which not all nodes have, and 4 is project within my organization which created the content. There could be more than one author for a story -- code is set up to create a block for each. If a node has a topic, the code will create a block for the topic, then one for each author. If no topic, the authors come first, then project-related links.

I can try to help you apply it to your own sites if you can't navigate the challenges.

(Oh, it is meant to be pasted into custom block set to display only in /node/view.)

// this was the only way I found to get the current page node id
$mynid = arg(2);

$story_type = taxonomy_node_get_terms_by_vocabulary($mynid, 2);
$topic = taxonomy_node_get_terms_by_vocabulary($mynid, 3);

//define types of content valid to appear in block
$display_types = array ("IPS in the News","Media","Commentary","Report","Publication");

//establish precedence of menus -- if a topic, topic then author
//if no topic, authors then project

if ($topic) {
$menu_seq = array (3, 4);
} else {
$menu_seq = array (4, 1);
}

$story_limit = 5; //max links for each -- could be variable based on $menu_seq

foreach ($menu_seq as $current_voc) {

	$terms = taxonomy_node_get_terms_by_vocabulary($mynid, $current_voc);
	$output= "";
				
	
	foreach ($terms as $term) {
		$tax = array ("str_tids" => "$term->tid,$term->tid", "tids" => array($term->tid,$term->tid), "operator" => "or");
		
		switch ($current_voc) {
			case 1:
   				$subject = "Project: ";
   				break;
			case 3:
   				$subject = "Topic: ";
   				break;
			case 4:
   				$subject = "Author: ";
   				break;
			}

		$subject = $subject." $term->name";

		$result = taxonomy_select_nodes(array2object($tax), 0);

		$temp_index = 1; 
		
		while ($node2 = db_fetch_object($result)) {
  			
			$term2 = array_pop(taxonomy_node_get_terms_by_vocabulary($node2->nid, 2));

			if (in_array($term2->name,$display_types) && !($node2->nid == $mynid) && $temp_index<=$story_limit){
				$output[] = l($node2->title, "node/view/". $node2->nid);
				$temp_index ++;
			}
		}

	//toss in description	
		
	$desc = "<p>$term->description</p>";
		
	//create link to taxonomy page
	
	switch ($current_voc) {
			case 1:
   				$more = "More from ";
   				break;
			case 3:
   				$more = "More on ";
   				break;
			case 4:
   				$more = "More by ";
   				break;
			}

	$more = "<p><a href=\"?q=taxonomy/page/or/$term->tid\">$more ".$term->name."</a></p>";
	
	global $theme;
	$theme->block($subject, $desc.theme_item_list($output).$more);
}
}