Extended Menu

de · Post by de » Tue Jan 03, 2006 3:53 am

conejero wrote: I have installed and setup extended menu on a site we are working on, and it seems to integrate quite nicely. However, I have one small issue which have been unable to resolve.

SITUATION.
Top menu for level 0, Left menu split from level 1 onward.

When I go into an article listed in the level-1 menu, the article shows up and the left menu dissapears. What I am doing wrong? I would want the left menu to remain on my left-bar and the level1 item as class active when I select any article within that section. I have tried the "Source Type" parameter, but to no avail.
Thank you.

The correct Itemid is important for this to be working correctly... you could for example try to set the parameter ""Resolve Itemid By Content Item" to "No"... that way content item links will not automatically get the Itemid of another menu item to the same content item (if any). If your menu items are actually of the type Link-URL this would cause problems as well. The "Source Type" should be "Menu" in your case... the other will not really work (yet) with splitting.

htsolutions · Post by **htsolutions** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 3:56 am

de,

I would like to know where I can insert a inside your module so that the I can use CSS to enhance my menus so that the HTML output for the menus is
Menui

This would allow me to put a background on the tag and background on the tag. Allowing a right and left image. Something similar to the menus at this URL

http://exploding-boy.com/images/cssmenus/menus.html#

If I am going about this the wrong way let me know.....

Thanks

ht-solutions

de · Post by de » Tue Jan 03, 2006 4:44 am

htsolutions wrote: I would like to know where I can insert a inside your module so that the I can use CSS to enhance my menus so that the HTML output for the menus is
Menui

Please have a look at the mountaintop-corner menu template: http://de.siteof.de/extended-menu-templates.html - it also adds spans to allow the desired effect.

htsolutions · Post by **htsolutions** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 11:20 pm

Thanks daniel... The extended meus are working out great! :P

htsolutions · Post by **htsolutions** » Thu Jan 05, 2006 11:25 pm

Daniel I looked over the Mountian-Top menus and after a thorough examination I am not exactly sure I want to use a template. I was looking for a place to update your extended menus so that I can get inside the tags for my menus. This way the module will output the tags where need be.

Maybe you can convince me otherwise though due to a lack of understanding how your template works. However, wouldn't it be a feature in your module to have tags auctomatically generated without template file?

Thanks for all your help

htsolutions

de · Post by de » Fri Jan 06, 2006 12:18 am

htsolutions wrote: Daniel I looked over the Mountian-Top menus and after a thorough examination I am not exactly sure I want to use a template. I was looking for a place to update your extended menus so that I can get inside the tags for my menus. This way the module will output the tags where need be.

Maybe you can convince me otherwise though due to a lack of understanding how your template works. However, wouldn't it be a feature in your module to have tags auctomatically generated without template file?

Hmm you could of course hack a php file of the menu module but I would not advise this. Yes, an option would be possible and it would not be too much of work... I was actually thinking of this (I guess when I created that menu template) but decided against it. For example you could request your spans to be inside the a element... or outside... or you also want elements around the ul element. There are already quite a few parameters and many users may already be confused by them (so I try to avoid adding many more). And in this case I think that a menu template makes somehow sense...
Convincing starting...
The request for the spans are due to your styling request which is actually depending on the site template and may not make sense to other site templates. The CSS is there... so why not also the special markup required for this CSS. It is just a simple patTemplate file (menu.html) by default... if you place it inside your site template folder there is nothing else to do (assuming the default parameters). I am not sure what it is that you don't like about this approach? (Btw. even this way the span elements are where they need to be.)

I hope that makes sense.

htsolutions · Post by **htsolutions** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 2:18 pm

I see your point in that your parameters could be so large for the menu module that it would be confusing. Well I will give the template another shot. Well maybe you can give me a hint or two on how your Template works. It is a bit new to me than the standard CSS HTML code. At this moment all i would need from the template file would be to put in extra tags in and not to override anything else.

Something

So far you module has become more to configure but is the best for allow for such configurations.

tomcat8118 · Post by **tomcat8118** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 3:33 pm

I am running into an odd error with the extended menu. as viewed here.

http://books.contractor-licensing.com/m ... &Itemid=26

the extended menu is published as a select list in user 1 (near the top). however it duplicates itself!! if you were to click on one of the menu items though, it goes to how it should be. an insight on this??

htsolutions · Post by **htsolutions** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 4:01 pm

tomcat8118 wrote: I am running into an odd error with the extended menu. as viewed here.

http://books.contractor-licensing.com/m ... &Itemid=26

the extended menu is published as a select list in user 1 (near the top). however it duplicates itself!! if you were to click on one of the menu items though, it goes to how it should be. an insight on this??

Looks like your "Our Shop Online" is the culprit. Check the code and make sure you have not duplicated this somehow in your content or the shop component.

de · Post by de » Fri Jan 06, 2006 9:08 pm

htsolutions wrote: I see your point in that your parameters could be so large for the menu module that it would be confusing. Well I will give the template another shot. Well maybe you can give me a hint or two on how your Template works. It is a bit new to me than the standard CSS HTML code. At this moment all i would need from the template file would be to put in extra tags in and not to override anything else.

Something

So far you module has become more to configure but is the best for allow for such configurations.

The following code for a menu.html should kind of produce the same HTML plus the span:

Code: Select all

<patTemplate:tmpl name="menu" whitespace="trim">
{MENU_LIST}
</patTemplate:tmpl>

<patTemplate:tmpl name="menu_list" whitespace="trim">
<ul
<patTemplate:tmpl name="condition_LEVEL" type="condition" conditionvar="LEVEL" varscope="menu_list" whitespace="trim">
<patTemplate:sub condition="0">
  class="mainlevel{CLASS_SUFFIX}"
</patTemplate:sub>
</patTemplate:tmpl>
>{MENU_ITEMS}</ul>
</patTemplate:tmpl>

<patTemplate:tmpl name="menu_item" whitespace="trim">
<li>{LINK_OPEN}<span>{CAPTION}</span>{LINK_CLOSE}{SUB_MENU_ITEMS}</li>
</patTemplate:tmpl>

I am not sure what quick words I should tell you about how the template works... the template engine is patTemplate (so the conditions are processed by it)... unfortunatelly I did not yet document the various patTemplate variables available. And well, menu, menu_list and menu_item is separated in that way mainly to allow to use it recursively. (The LINK_OPEN already contains the complete link or placeholder including the classes... just without the caption and closing element... there is also LINK which contains all but then you would not be able to add the span inside the link.)

de · Post by de » Fri Jan 06, 2006 9:13 pm

tomcat8118 wrote: I am running into an odd error with the extended menu. as viewed here.

http://books.contractor-licensing.com/m ... &Itemid=26

the extended menu is published as a select list in user 1 (near the top). however it duplicates itself!! if you were to click on one of the menu items though, it goes to how it should be. an insight on this??

Is there still a problem? Else I am not sure I can see it. Just that the menu below the top menu seems kind of confusing (hiding somehow as a line).
And I wonder why you gave the URL http://books.contractor-licensing.com/m ... &Itemid=26 instead of http://books.contractor-licensing.com/i ... &Itemid=26

de · Post by de » Fri Jan 06, 2006 9:20 pm

Ohh I just recognized... now making my 1001th post... time to celebrate!
(Seems I contributed about 0.6% of the posts so far if my math was not too bad... will relax now)

tomcat8118 · Post by **tomcat8118** » Sat Jan 07, 2006 7:27 am

de,

its working fine now... i unpublished my virtuemart shop module and moved the menu's to the right side (nice work on the select list!!! thanks for helpign me with that)...

as far as confusion, i'm a newb to this stuff including website design so i havent decided how i'm going to utilize the categories in the middle. and suggestions would be graciously accepted.

as far as the url i have no clue why it is showing up with the word "module" in it....when i go to the main page....books.contractor-licensing.com, and click on the shop link, the URL that shows up has "module" in it.... no clue why, i'm still learning.

htsolutions · Post by **htsolutions** » Mon Jan 09, 2006 3:12 am

de wrote:
htsolutions wrote: I see your point in that your parameters could be so large for the menu module that it would be confusing. Well I will give the template another shot. Well maybe you can give me a hint or two on how your Template works. It is a bit new to me than the standard CSS HTML code. At this moment all i would need from the template file would be to put in extra tags in and not to override anything else.

Something

So far you module has become more to configure but is the best for allow for such configurations.
The following code for a menu.html should kind of produce the same HTML plus the span:
Code: Select all
<patTemplate:tmpl name="menu" whitespace="trim">
{MENU_LIST}
</patTemplate:tmpl>

<patTemplate:tmpl name="menu_list" whitespace="trim">
<ul
<patTemplate:tmpl name="condition_LEVEL" type="condition" conditionvar="LEVEL" varscope="menu_list" whitespace="trim">
<patTemplate:sub condition="0">
  class="mainlevel{CLASS_SUFFIX}"
</patTemplate:sub>
</patTemplate:tmpl>
>{MENU_ITEMS}</ul>
</patTemplate:tmpl>

<patTemplate:tmpl name="menu_item" whitespace="trim">
<li>{LINK_OPEN}<span>{CAPTION}</span>{LINK_CLOSE}{SUB_MENU_ITEMS}</li>
</patTemplate:tmpl>
I am not sure what quick words I should tell you about how the template works... the template engine is patTemplate (so the conditions are processed by it)... unfortunately I did not yet document the various patTemplate variables available. And well, menu, menu_list and menu_item is separated in that way mainly to allow to use it recursively. (The LINK_OPEN already contains the complete link or placeholder including the classes... just without the caption and closing element... there is also LINK which contains all but then you would not be able to add the span inside the link.)

Thanks for the simple template. I took me sometime to figure somethings out but I think I got it. Anyhow I removed the .ini , .css, .js and images from the template zip file. I then took the menu.thml template file and added what you mentioned above. Then I needed to change the file as

{MENU_LIST}

id="mainlevel{CLASS_SUFFIX}"

>{MENU_ITEMS}

{LINK_OPEN}{CAPTION}{LINK_CLOSE}{SUB_MENU_ITEMS}

Again thanks for the info....

de · Post by de » Tue Jan 10, 2006 1:17 am

htsolutions wrote: Thanks for the simple template. I took me sometime to figure somethings out but I think I got it. Anyhow I removed the .ini , .css, .js and images from the template zip file. I then took the menu.thml template file and added what you mentioned above. Then I needed to change the file as

{MENU_LIST}

id="mainlevel{CLASS_SUFFIX}"

>{MENU_ITEMS}

{LINK_OPEN}{CAPTION}{LINK_CLOSE}{SUB_MENU_ITEMS}

I think the mainlevel class to the li element is not always correct (would be for the first level only) and if I were you I'd rather change the CSS to be happy with less markup classes... you could for example use:
ul.mainlevel li { ... }
instead of:
li.mainlevel { ... }

Just a thought.

htsolutions · Post by **htsolutions** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 2:10 am

Thanks daniel for the advice in your last post. I am still not quite understanding it all though. Are you saying that I should modify the template code so that it would make writing less markup classes?

I'm all in favor of simpler css code.

If I can make this whole CSS, template, JS code easier to use I'd like to publish my info here so that others can take adavantage of it. I think it would make fo some great uses around the web. Or at least it has for me!

htsolutoins

de · Post by de » Tue Jan 10, 2006 2:32 am

Yes, less marup will make at least the HTML simpler and less code is sent to the browser...
see a discussion anou menu markup: http://forum.joomla.org/index.php/topic,24920.0.html
(using the menu.html you have almost full control over the markup)

The CSS may or may not be easier... the example I gave you does not make it a lot easier... on the other hand you could have only one class which is important, e.g. "mainlevel" at an "ul" element and for all other you could rely on a standard nested list structure (except for the cases where you want special highlighting like the active menu item) - that means less things to remember (no ul.mainlevel, li.mainlevel, ul.sublevel, li.sublevel anymore)...
the mark up the menu style "Tree List" produces should mainly be compatible with the default mainmenu but is not necessarily the markup I'd choose when ignoring compatibility... some things I am not certain about (which I wrote in the other thread).

Just an example... in my menu templates available for download I used a div with the class "menu" (plus suffix) for all of them... which would make a CSS declaration like the following possible:
.menu ul li { ... }

If you use this CSS you could probably not easily use it without that markup but with it seems easier to me.

quiquedcode · Post by **quiquedcode** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 1:32 am

Hi Daniel
I'm wondering about how to make 2 templates work toghether...

Look at following image

I installed extendedmenu module, I downloaded mountaintop-corners-horizontal-0.3.2.zip ... then set some parameters in module, changed suffixs, and got it working. You can see the topright menu, which is working great (I know, I gotta remove some menuitems ... )

Now, my problem appeared when I decided to make my left main menu rounded too..
I got mountaintop-corners-vertical-0.3.2.zip, then made a copy of the extended module, changed parameters (menu and module class suffix), but well, it has the same behaviour as my rightop menu...

Both CSS codes are in my template_css.css file.

I tried changing

Code: Select all

active_menu_class=1
class_sfx=-mountaintop-corners-horizontal

in menu.ini file, but well, if I change the class_sfx ... it works for both menues !!

What have I to do so my left menu works as mountaintop-corners-vertical and my topright menu works as mountaintop-corners-horizontal ?

Thanks a lot in advance.
Thanks for making this great awesome menu module free...

C ya

de · Post by de » Wed Jan 11, 2006 10:38 am

Hi quiquedcode,

quiquedcode wrote: ...
Now, my problem appeared when I decided to make my left main menu rounded too..
I got mountaintop-corners-vertical-0.3.2.zip, then made a copy of the extended module, changed parameters (menu and module class suffix), but well, it has the same behaviour as my rightop menu...
...

You could either duplicate the menu template (rename it or have a copy in a sub directory of your site template) and then use "Template Name" to make the other module instance refer to another menu template (you could also pick the vertical menu template for your left menu)... or (which is probably easier in your case) just remove that class suffix line from the menu.ini (or remove the menu.ini completely).
The optional menu.ini I added to make it easier to integrate it because it overrides for example the class suffix to the one used in the also provided CSS so to use it one would not need to modify any module parameters.
(On my site I have menu templates in a separate directory... but it may just be my personal preference)

Btw. thanks for the nice words... I think some more control over the menu should be available for free (just as mentioned earlier I try to give more control without confusing people... not always easy).

Best wishes,
Daniel

quiquedcode · Post by **quiquedcode** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:28 pm

thanks de for the tip!
I will try removing the class suffix line from the menu.ini file and then will tell you what happenned...

See ya !

quiquedcode · Post by **quiquedcode** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 2:22 pm

de
You're da man !!
I erased the menu.ini file and then I had the 2 templates available and showing in my site !
This menu ROCKS !

IT SHOULD BE INTEGRATED INTO NEXT OFFICIAL JOOMLA RELEASE !! NO DOUBT !!

htsolutions · Post by **htsolutions** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 9:33 pm

quiquedcode wrote: de
You're da man !!
I erased the menu.ini file and then I had the 2 templates available and showing in my site !
This menu ROCKS !

IT SHOULD BE INTEGRATED INTO NEXT OFFICIAL JOOMLA RELEASE !! NO DOUBT !!

I 2nd that. There is really so many options that you can do with this menu module. One thing that stands out is that it is not javascript but somewhat acts like it.

Cheers!

mikedfunk · Post by **mikedfunk** » Thu Jan 12, 2006 10:25 pm

I have been struggling with this for a while. I am trying to have a top-level main menu with each link having a separate ID or class and another extended menu in a left sidebar down my page a bit. The unique menu item IDs or classes are used as hooks for image replacement. Since I can't do this with the default menu system, I installed extended menu. After hours of reading up on this in the documentation and on this site, I still have absolutely no idea how to split the the menu into multiple menus.

So what I did was duplicate the extension, added a 2 onto all the file names and all the file descriptions in the templateDetails.xml file, renamed the zip archive, and installed it as a new module. This worked, and I was even able to link it to the same menu that the other copy of extended menu was linked to. So now I have two menus that I'm able to modify their behavior separately.

All I'm trying to do now is make one of them just display the top-level navigation only from that menu as a flat list. I tried to do this by setting the begin with level parameter to 1 and the type of list to flat list, but this output nothing at every level of navigation. There are so many nebulous settings for this module. How do I set it to consistenly just show the top-level navigation for a given menu as a list with each link given a unique ID? Any help would be much appreciated; I'm tearing my hair out here!

de · Post by de » Thu Jan 12, 2006 11:58 pm

htsolutions wrote: One thing that stands out is that it is not javascript but somewhat acts like it.

But this is really the suckerfish idea by Patrick Griffiths and Dan Webb :-)

de · Post by de » Fri Jan 13, 2006 12:03 am

mikedfunk wrote: So what I did was duplicate the extension, added a 2 onto all the file names and all the file descriptions in the templateDetails.xml file, renamed the zip archive, and installed it as a new module. This worked, and I was even able to link it to the same menu that the other copy of extended menu was linked to. So now I have two menus that I'm able to modify their behavior separately.

I guess using the "Copy" toolbar button was just to easy for you? ;-)

mikedfunk wrote: All I'm trying to do now is make one of them just display the top-level navigation only from that menu as a flat list. I tried to do this by setting the begin with level parameter to 1 and the type of list to flat list, but this output nothing at every level of navigation. There are so many nebulous settings for this module. How do I set it to consistenly just show the top-level navigation for a given menu as a list with each link given a unique ID? Any help would be much appreciated; I'm tearing my hair out here!

The "Begin With Level" is maybe useful when you want your 2nd menu module instance not display the first level menu items again... but to limit the output to the first level just use the menu style "Flat List" (instead of "Tree List") or set "Max Depth" to "0". (And reset the "Begin With Level" to the default empty or "0")

camos · Post by **camos** » Sun Jan 15, 2006 6:33 pm

Having a few problems using the XTended menu with the suckerfish-horizontal template.

The biggest problem is it is not working well with the latest IE 6 on Windows. The dropdown often disappears while traversing down the menu. If moving very quickly the dropdown stays visible for a few menu items and then disappears. I cannot see any logic to this behaviour although it is consistent and repeatable so there must be something. The menu works perfectly in FF 1.5.

Another problem is getting the menu to centre in both IE and FF. I have tried text-align: center in almost everything and still no success. Must have missed something, it should not be that difficult.

Another problem that I have not spent any time yet trying to correct is the submenu dropdown horizontal alignment in FF is to the right while in IE is flush left. I prefer flush and probably adjusting the margin with !important will fix this.

Another thing I would like is icons on the left in the dropdown and the right arrow designating a sub-submenu.

Still sorting out what all the parameters can do and most of my time has been spent on the first 2 issues with only an eye open for a solution to the second 2. Any helpful thoughts or pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

de · Post by de » Sun Jan 15, 2006 7:06 pm

camos wrote: The biggest problem is it is not working well with the latest IE 6 on Windows. The dropdown often disappears while traversing down the menu. If moving very quickly the dropdown stays visible for a few menu items and then disappears. I cannot see any logic to this behaviour although it is consistent and repeatable so there must be something. The menu works perfectly in FF 1.5.

The next version will be more IE friendly (it is already prepared but I will release it with the next module version which should be available very soon).

camos wrote: Another problem is getting the menu to centre in both IE and FF. I have tried text-align: center in almost everything and still no success. Must have missed something, it should not be that difficult.

There are several ways to center horizontal something... but to center something using text-align the container need to be larger (e.g. full width)... you could also use margin: auto. (a search for "css center horizontal" may bring up some useful resources).
The menu template uses a div with the class "menu" around the ul element which may be of help.

camos wrote: Another problem that I have not spent any time yet trying to correct is the submenu dropdown horizontal alignment in FF is to the right while in IE is flush left. I prefer flush and probably adjusting the margin with !important will fix this.

Not sure I understand you but I am sure you will find the solution. (There are more CSS skilled people around)

camos wrote: Another thing I would like is icons on the left in the dropdown and the right arrow designating a sub-submenu.

Also part of the new version (for simplicy only for sub menu items with a right arrow... but the down arrow could be added in a similar way).

camos · Post by **camos** » Sun Jan 15, 2006 7:23 pm

Thanks for the reply Daniel, I look forward to the new release.
On centering, the container is full width and did try margin:auto etc. Like I said, it is something just haven't found exactly what.
Using !important in CSS applies to FF while IE ignores it. A way to get different settings for each browser.
On icons, adding an image to the with ID should work, just haven't got there yet.

Right now I am in shock, after applying the 1.0.6 patch my menu seems to have disappeared. It is there in source but is not displayed. Nothing like fun and games huh?

Cheers

htsolutions · Post by **htsolutions** » Sun Jan 15, 2006 10:06 pm

Joomla 1.0.7 upgrade has completely removed my extended menus from the site. So no navigation what-so-ever. Anybody have any ideas let us all know.

Thanks

htsolutions

bugman · Post by **bugman** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 12:14 am

i just upgraded as well and noticed this. I just send De an PM right now and post his response. De, if you are reading this, you can just reply here if you want.

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