Keeping the nav bar

Does anyone know how to keep the nav bar from reloading all the time, I am not using frames and have designed my site using css and php, but i am not sure if it is possible to have just the new body page load when a link on the navigation menu is pressed. Also have seen many sites that have for example gallery.php?content=1, is this just a switch statement in gallery.php which point to different .php, or .html files, or a link to a database table, or is there something more elegant going on here.

Thanks in advance for any help or advice.

Well, your problem with your nav bar is a bit strange...
Is the nav bar created with JavaScript?

By the way, those "URL-parameters" no switch statements. Those parameters are variables...

I.E

link: example.php?name=CodeWalkers

Code for example.php

I see three ways:

* using frames
no commnets, everything is clear

* make nav bar in JavaScript and place all its code in a separate js-file. It will be cached by browser.

* make page content upload in JavaScript. I.e. you open first page and it uploads in JS all other pages on demand. But url will never be changed (I assume it as disadvantage).

As for "gallery.php?content=1". I think you are right - usually this is switch which uploads another phphtml page.

============
Mike Tsapenko
Chief of Web-development Dept.
AlarIT
http://www.AlarIT.com

there are alos <iframe>s