Can anyone point me to some examples or tutorials of implementing
navigation in PHP such that once it is implemented effort to maintain it
is minimal?
I think the best method is to make one page just the way you want it in regular HTML, with the navigation there.
Then, just cut-snip that bit of HTML out of your page, put it in a separate file called "navigation.html", and wherever you want it to appear, just write:
<?php
include ("navigation.html");
?>
... which will include the file right there where it was.
It's a wonderful way to make web pages, especialyl when you realize that MOST of your HTML is repetitive, you can start to make entire sites like this:
<?php
include ("pageopen.html");
include ("leftnavigation.html");
include ("logotable.html");
?>
blah blah blah content here in a table cell or something if you need
<?php
include ("page_footer.html");
?>