Steven Levin
Menus within phpWebSite are used for site navigation. To begin using the Menu Manager module you must go to the Site Content tab of your Control Panel. The link says Menu Manager and may have an icon that looks like an open menu. Click on the textual link or the icon to continue.
When you first startup the Menu Manager you will find its admin menu followed by a list of menus (if there are any in the database). If there are no menus you should see a message that says: There are no menus in the database at this time (Figure 1).
The admin menu allows you to List Menus, Create a Menu, or go to the Image Manager. This menu might follow you around because it is available on some of the administrative screens. At any point you can click the List Menus link and get back to this page. Each menu in the list contains Edit, Delete, and Activate/Deactivate functions.
Clicking the Edit button on the row of the menu you wish to edit will take you to the Edit screen which will be discussed later.
Clicking the Delete button on the row of the menu you wish to delete will take you to a Yes/No confirmation. The confirmation is to make sure you want to delete the menu (make sure this is what you want to do and that you have selected the correct menu). Click Yes to remove the menu and all of its links from the database. Click No to cancel the deletion process.
Clicking the Activate/Deactivate button on the row of the menu you wish to change will toggle it between being viewable by the public or not.
The Create a New Menu page allows you to configure all of the settings for your new menu. The options you see here can be changed later via the menu settings when you are editing your menu. Settings for the most part can be left at their default values and the menu will function the way most expect. Most of the options are for those who would like to really configure their menu.
Click on the Create Menu link in the admin menu at the top of the page, this will take you to the Create a New Menu page.
Next begin to fill out the fields appropriately (Figure 2).
Menu Title: The text title that will show up at the top of the menu. You should always provide a title for your menu, although it is not a required field. A title will help you distinguish it from other menus.
Menu Spacer: This value is a numeric value which represents the number of extra spaces the menu will add automatically to each nested level of the menu. The menu will always start with 0 space at the first level of the menu. (ie. a value of 2 for the menu spacer will put 2 spaces on the first nest of the menu and 4 spaces for the second nest)
Template: The template for the menu is just there to give the ability for someone to highly configure their menu. For most this option will just stay at default unless you really know what you are doing.
If you would like more information on templating please see the TEMPLATE.txt doc in the docs directory for the Menu Manager. The image map checkbox is there for furthur templating configuration.
Allow View: The allow view option allows you to choose which modules must be active in order for the menu appear. You can select one module or multiple modules. The default is to select all of the modules so if none are selected then the menu will be viewable for all of the modules currently installed. If a module is installed after the menu is created, and you want the menu to show up for the module, you will have to come and select it under the menu settings.
Default Theme Variable (See Figure 3): This allows you to choose where the menu will show up on the page after it is created. This is the only time you can set this option within the menu manager. After it is set it can be changed via the layout modules box move option. The values for this option are pretty self-explanatory.
Menu Indent: The menu indent can be one of two things: a character or an image. If the radio button is selected for a character, then the menu manager will use the character selected from the dropdown box before every link in the menu. Also if an activity color is set for that character then the character will turn that color when the link it shows up before is the link that was just clicked. If the radio button is selected for an image then the images chosen will show up before each link (depending on the activity of the link). The images found in the dropbox here can be uploaded via the image manager.
The Image Manager just gives you a web-based interface to upload images you want to use as an indent item at that is all. If you do not plan on using an image for your indent item then you will not need to use the image manager. Current images can also be removed from the system via this page by just selecting the image and clicking delete.
To edit a menu you must list all of the current menus as described before and click the Edit button next to the menu you want to edit. Now you will see a list of all current links in the menu. If there are no links in the menu, you will get a message that says: No items for this menu.
A menu item may be added to the menu by clicking on the Add Menu Item button at the bottom of the window (Figure 4).
After you click this you will see a screen which will give you three options (Figure 5).
Title: The text representation of the link that will be placed in the menu. This field is required.
URL:The url of the link you want to add. If PageMaster pages are available they will show up here in a dropdown box. You can either fill out the url or pick a PageMaster page. When a PageMaster page is chosen, then the url field is populating accordingly so it does not need to be filled out (In this case the user submitted url will be ignored).
Display: This option allows you define how the link will act and display on your site.
Internal: The page is internal to the site and the menu will expand at that point where the menu is clicked.
External: The page is external which means it is not located within your site (ie. links to another site) this will not detect your position in the menu.
New Window: This option will cause the link to open in a new browser window.
Select where on the menu you would like the menu item to go. The very top radio button means you want the link to be a top level link (ie. not nested under another link). If any other radio button listed next to another menu item is selected, that means you want the link you are adding to be nested under the item selected. Finally, if this is the first link you are adding to the menu then it can only be a top-level link.
This is the first mode you will see when editing your menu. At any time you can switch to the advanced edit mode by clicking the Turn On Advanced Edit button. The basic edit allows you to edit the textual representation of the menu item, change the activity of the menu item, change the order of the menu item, and delete menu items. All of the edit and delete options can be done at once by checking more than one check box and then clicking the appropriate submit button. However, ordering of menu items can only be done one at a time by clicking the arrow in the direction you want it to go.
To update a menu item:
To update the text, change the value in the text field of the link you want to edit and check the box next to the link, now click the Update Menu Items button and you are done.
To toggle the activity of a menu item check the box next to the item you want to change and then click the Activate/Deactivate button.
To change the order of a menu item just click the up or down link next to the item you want to move. Only items that are on the same level (in the same nest) can be ordered. An item can not be moved to another nest at this point in time. This option is in the plan for future versions.
To delete an item check the box next to it and then click the Delete button. A confirmation will then appear making sure you are deleting the links you want. If you click Yes that link will be deleted along with ALL of the links nested under it.
The advanced edit mode will also allow you to edit the textual representation of a menu item and delete a menu item. It will also allow you to edit the url for the menu item, and the display method as described earlier. All of the edit and delete options can be done at once by checking more than one check box and then clicking the appropriate submit button.
To update the menu item:
Edit the textfield containing the information you want to change.
Then check the box next to the item and click the Update Menu Items button.
If you select a PageMaster page then you do not need to edit the url field, the menu will take care of that for you.
To update the display, select the display you want then check the box next to the item and click the Update Menu Items button.
To delete an item check the box next to it and then click the delete button. A confirmation will then appear making sure you are deleting the links you want. If you click Yes that link will be deleted along with ALL of the links nested under it.
The Settings button will take you to the settings for your menu. These are all the same options seen before when creating a menu. Click Save at the bottom to update any changes you may make on this page.
This allows you to add a link of a specific module's user view to the menu. After clicking this button, select the module you want to add a link to and then select the position you would like to see the link in the menu. Finally click Add Menu Item. Your are done.