Still looking for better list-based menu support

Poster: Speednet
Dated: Wednesday October 19 2005 - 16:52:59 BST

Way back in June of this year, Kevin had mentioned that list-based menus were a top priority for Milonic, due to the vastly increased search engine visibility afforded by list-base menus.

(Not to mention that menus, by and large in the industry, are being implemented using list-based elements, due to increased focus on XHTML compatibility.)

Here is the thread mentioning the list-based menus:

http://www.milonic.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6083

I am desparately hoping that the developers of Milonic will finally see list-based menus as a high priority item, and will implement better support, including:

- Ability to turn specific lists on a page into menus (identified by id attribute)
- Multiple list-based menus on a page
- Ability to specify hidden popup menus using lists, which can be activated using the normal popup() function

I see this as a really huge issue for web sites seeking better search engine support. To be honest, I'm surprised this issue doesn't get raised by more people. Are people just not aware of this issue, or am I the only one who cares about it??

Poster: Speednet
Dated: Saturday October 22 2005 - 3:01:56 BST

holy mackerel, no replies! bumpedy, bump.....

Poster: Andy
Dated: Monday October 24 2005 - 11:47:57 BST

Hi,

I'm on my own at the moment as the other guys are all busy. I'm now trying to be Superman by doing the official tech support, develop the menu, run the business and do the Forum stuff so no surprise that new development has slowed down a little.

Anyway, we've had this for some time now, http://www.milonic.com/listbased/ works quite well but does need some tweaking

Poster: Speednet
Dated: Monday October 24 2005 - 12:10:16 BST



Andy, I understand what that's like! I'm just hoping that upgrades to this functionality is on the radar -- specifically the three points I mentioned above. Once those things get implemented, I can upgrade all of my menus to list-based, and search engine optimization will really skyrocket!

Any comments on any immediate development plans for the list-based piece?

Poster: Andy
Dated: Tuesday October 25 2005 - 12:44:39 BST

I think we've now covered the 3 points.

http://www.milonic.com/listbased/

This is with version 2 of the listmenu.js - still in beta but looking good.

let me know if there is anything else we missed.

-- Andy

Poster: Speednet
Dated: Tuesday October 25 2005 - 14:32:55 BST




Excellent!! Thank you !!!!!!

Question: Will lists that are not specifically converted using the buildListMenu() function remain untouched?

(BTW, I just renewed both of my professional licenses to show my appreciation. I really appreciate the job you do.)

Poster: Andy
Dated: Tuesday October 25 2005 - 14:51:33 BST

Yes, as long as you create your lists and give the parent <UL> an id, anything inside that list will become a menu. Other lists within your HTML will be ignored by the system and should be treated as an HTML list and not appear in the menu.

Let me know if you have any trouble with this

Thanks very much for your support

Poster: Speednet
Dated: Tuesday October 25 2005 - 14:58:56 BST



Fantastic -- I just got it working on my local workstation -- very easy to use!

I also tested non-menu lists, and they appear normally, as they should.

You've now given me a good deal of work to do today, as I go about the process of changing all my menus!

This is a really valuable addition for Milonic. I hope others catch on to the importance of it.

Poster: Speednet
Dated: Tuesday October 25 2005 - 15:05:16 BST

Andy,

I've just thought of a really interesting use for the list-based menus, now that you have provided ID-based conversion of lists.

I haven't tried it yet, but this should provide a very nice way to do dynamic popup menus (built on the fly at runtime).

Through JavaScript DOM manipulation, one could change the innerHTML of a list, fire off the buildListMenu() function, and then popup the menu. I know there are other ways to do dynamic menus, but this method only relies on ONE Milonic function call, and does not rely too heavily on internal Milonic functions (easier for long-term maintenance).

I'm sure there are lots of other possibilities, but I just wanted to let you know that you have opened up the floodgates to interesting new concepts.

Poster: Speednet
Dated: Tuesday October 25 2005 - 15:18:06 BST

Hmmm... after looking at the code a little closer I don't think the dynamic menus will work after all, because it is outputting script elements, so it will only convert menus when the page is loaded.

No biggie .... just excited about the new capabilities!