Show active navigation for current page with php

Question

I\'m trying to use use $current_url = basename($_SERVER[\'PHP_SELF\']); to determine which page I am on, considering my navigation (html) is stored in a php fil

Answer 1

You are using <?php } ?> at wrong place.
It should be after
<a href="search.php?Agent=<?php echo $Agent?>">Add new client</a></li>

Updated code is as follows:

   <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/style.css">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="css/no-background.css">

<ul>
<?php
    $current_url = basename($_SERVER['PHP_SELF']);
    echo $current_url;
    $active = "class=\"active\"";
?>
<?php if ($current_url == "globaluser.php") { ?>
    <li <?php echo $active;?> > <?php } ?> <a href="globaluser.php?Agent=<?php echo $Agent;?>">Overview</a></li>
<?php if ($current_url == "search.php") { ?>
    <li <?php echo $active;?> > <a href="search.php?Agent=<?php echo $Agent?>">Add new client</a></li> <?php } ?> 
<?php if ($current_url == "viewadmins.php") { ?>
    <li <?php echo $active;?> >  <a href="viewadmins.php?Agent=<?php echo $Agent?>">View admins</a></li><?php } ?>
    <li class="border-right"><a href="emails.php?Agent=<?php echo $Agent?>">E-mails</a></li>
    <li class="right border-right"><a href="logout.php"><?php echo $Agent?></a>
        <ul class="drop1">

            <li><a href="earnings.php?Agent=<?php echo $Agent?>">Earnings</a></li>

            <li id="hover-trigger"><a href="#">Change Password</a>

                <ul class="drop2">
                    <li>
                        <form action="changepass.php?Agent=<?php echo $Agent?>" method="POST">
                            <input type="password" name="1" placeholder="Enter new password">
                            <input type="password" name="2" placeholder="Repeat new password">
                    </li>
                    <li>

                            <input type="submit" name="changepw" class="button" value="Change">
                        </form>
                    </li>
                </ul>
            </li>
            <li>
                <form action="logout.php">
                <input type="submit" class="button" value="Log out">
                </form>
            </li>
        </ul>
    </li>

Answer 2

You should do it like this:

<li <?php echo ($current_url == "globaluser.php") ? $active : ''?> ><a href="globaluser.php?Agent=<?php echo $Agent;?>">Overview</a></li>

because right now you're conditioning the presence of the opening <li> tag

Answer 3

You could also use preg_replace() to add class="active"

ob_start();
echo '<ul>
  <li><a href="page1.php">Page 1</a></li>
  <li><a href="page2.php">Page 2</a></li>
  </ul>';
$output = ob_get_clean();
$pattern = '~<li><a href="'.$url.'">~';
$replacement = '<li class="active"><a href="'.$url.'">';
echo preg_replace($pattern, $replacement, $output);