Use flyoutmenu.xml on menubar.php?

[William Grimsley]

Hi Ken,

Is it possible to use the flyoutmenu.xml file as the menubar.php file? I want both menu bars to look the same. I know you can use the menubar.php file on the the flyoutmenu.xml file, but you can't use drop down menus on the menubar.php file. Because I have a lot of drop down menus, that wouldn't work for me at all!

Thanks

William

[saratogaWX]

I am having unusual difficulty understanding what you really want here.

Is it possible to use the flyoutmenu.xml file as the menubar.php file?

Short answer .. No. An XML file cannot be used (by itself) to display HTML such as in the Navigation area without a program to parse it and convert it to HTML -- for the flyout-menu.xml file, that program is flyout-menu.php and is used by the menubar.php to create the flyout menu in the main navigation area on your website.

I want both menu bars to look the same. I know you can use the menubar.php file on the the flyoutmenu.xml file, but you can't use drop down menus on the menubar.php file.

Actually the menubar.php includes the flyout-menu.php to generate the HTML in the Navigation area. There are no 'drop down' menus in the basic template setup.

Because I have a lot of drop down menus, that wouldn't work for me at all!

You have no 'drop down' menus on your site as far as I can tell. You have a large list of external links (coded in the menubar.php itself) that appear below the Navigation menu, but none are 'drop down' in nature -- just a single-level linear list of links.

So, what exactly did you want to do that your site does not already do?

[William Grimsley]

Hi Ken,

Ok, I've read what you've said.

What I mean is, is that can I have the same style of menu bar all the way through?

For example, change the flyoutmenu.xml file to the menubar.php file and still use the same links as I have currently, but not the external ones.

Also, what I mean by 'Drop down' menus are the ones "Records" "Charts" "Forecasts & Advisories" and "Almanac"

Hope this helps...

William

[saratogaWX]

Have you consulted http://saratoga-weather.org/wxtemplates ... config.php ?

The template set offers two menu options:
1) use the flyout-menu in the navigation area (controlled by the menu definition in flyout-menu.xml) OR
2) use the simple linear menu design with links contained in menubar.php itself.
and the option is controlled by Settings.php $SITE['flyoutmenu'] value.

The 'External Links' area is only controlled by HTML code that you insert inside menubar.php

What you called 'Drop Down' menus for "Records" "Charts" "Forecasts & Advisories" and "Almanac" are in-fact, 'flyout' menus as they appear to fly out from the right side to produce a sub-menu of links. A 'drop down' menu would appear below a row of horizontally arranged main menu topics (such as seen on my main website).

Now that the terminology is straight, what is it you want to do?

[William Grimsley]

Ok, it looks like I can't do what I want to do.

But, what I want to do is use the flyoutmenu.xml file style as the menubar.php style.

For example, I want to make the external links bar look the same as the navigation bar.

Sorry, if I'm not making myself clear enough, I just don't know how to explain things like this, in great detail, sorry.

[saratogaWX]

Ok, it looks like I can't do what I want to do.

But, what I want to do is use the flyoutmenu.xml file style as the menubar.php style.

For example, I want to make the external links bar look the same as the navigation bar.

Sorry, if I'm not making myself clear enough, I just don't know how to explain things like this, in great detail, sorry.

Short answer is no.. you can't make the external links area look the same as the flyout-menu part of the menubar -- only one instance of flyout-menu is allowed.

I suggest you consider moving links from the External Links area in menubar.php into your flyout-menu.xml (converting the <li><a...></li> entries to XML <item ... /> entries of course) and thereby pruning back your external links list.

There is a certain Zen to good website design and having a well-organized and understandable menu system to navigate your site is key to having a good user experience with your site (that will keep them coming back for more).

[William Grimsley]

Ok, so if I move the links from the External Links area, can I add an External Links title in the flyout menu?

[saratogaWX]

No.

The title of 'External Links' exists as native HTML in menubar.php

Code: Select all

<!-- external links -->
<p class="sideBarTitle"><?php langtrans('External Links'); ?></p>
<ul>
   <li><a href="http://www.wunderground.com/" title="Weather Underground">Weather Underground</a></li>
   <li><a href="http://www.wxforum.net/" title="WXForum">WXforum.net</a></li>
</ul>
<!-- end external links -->

You could remove

Code: Select all

<p class="sideBarTitle"><?php langtrans('External Links'); ?></p>
<ul>
   <li><a href="http://www.wunderground.com/" title="Weather Underground">Weather Underground</a></li>
   <li><a href="http://www.wxforum.net/" title="WXForum">WXforum.net</a></li>
</ul>

and the heading (and links) will not appear.

To incorporate your 'External Links' in the flyout menu, you edit flyout-menu.xml and add

Code: Select all

<item caption="External Links" >
  <item caption="Weather Underground" link="http://www.wunderground.com/" target="_blank"/>
  <item caption="WXforum.net" link="http://www.wxforum.net/" target="_blank"/>
</item>

You can include the optional ' target="_blank" ' on the <item/> entries to have the external link launch a new browser tab or page as I did in the example above. The example will produce one "External Links" item in the Navigation area with a flyout-menu containing the other links (just like your "Reports" etc. menu items do).

[William Grimsley]

Hi Ken,

Ah. No, that's not what I thought. It's now got a flyout menu from the external links.

I think I'll keep it as it is, do you think that's a good idea?

I'm sorry to mess you around and then not go with the idea, it's just not what I was expecting to happen, sorry.

Thanks for your help,

William