DHTML Menu Builder offers two methods for
implementing multiple navigation menus on the same page:
- By creating multiple toolbars on the same project
- Pros: Easier to maintain and implement. Can control
which toolbars to display using the
Visibility Condition.
- Cons: The compiled javascript files may become quite
large. The use of the Visibility Condition requires a
considerable JavaScript knowledge.
- By creating multiple projects and loading them
simultaneously on the same page
- Pros: A separate JavaScript file is created for each
project so secondary JavaScript files will be quite small
(around ~4KB each) . Also, only the necessary JavaScript
files will be loaded when needed.
- Cons: Complex installation process. Complex maintenance.
Before you decide to use one method or the other you should
carefully consider the above mentioned pros and cons. The
results are usually the same with both approaches, so try to
determine which method will be more effective to meet your
needs.
Note that the possibilities with DHTML Menu Builder are
quite endless... and sharing multiple projects is one good
example since you could even create a navigation system that
uses both methods: sharing projects from multiple projects and
controlling the visibility of some toolbars using the Visibility
Condition.
Introduction
Merging projects is the process of installing
menus from several projects into the same HTML document or
documents.
The way DHTML Menu Builder handles the use of multiple projects
is by working with a master project and secondary projects
(explained below). All the tools related to the compilation and
implementation of the menus have been enhanced to be able to
handle the use of multiple projects.
In this small how-to you will learn the basics
for creating, preparing and implementing a navigation system
that uses two toolbars from two different projects:
Creating the projects
The first step is to create the projects that you want to merge
together. Each project can have
any number of toolbars and even completely different settings
for their styles and special effects. However there're several
important rules that you must follow:
- Frames are not supported when sharing projects. So none of
the project should have the Frames Support enabled.
- All projects must use the exact same type of configuration
and their default configuration must be identical; that is,
all the paths must point to the exact same location.
- Each project must have a completely different name for
their compiled files. To change the name of the compiled files
click File->Project Properties->Advanced and use a different
name for each one of the projects.
If you don't change the names of the compiled files, DHTML
Menu Builder will randomly select different file names when
your compile.
- If one or more secondary projects use toolbars, the master
project must have, at least, one toolbar. If your master
project does not require a toolbar then you can create an empty toolbar and then set its "Visibility
Condition" to false to keep it hidden. To do so, click
Menu->Add Toolbar to add the toolbar to the project,
then, right click the toolbar and select
Properties. Go to the Advanced
tab and type this on the
Visibility Condition textbox:
return false;
- Only projects created with version 4.1 (and above) can be used as
secondary projects.
Defining a master project
A master project is a project whose menus are always going to be
available. This project is the one that will always be included
into all the documents of your web site. This is the project
containing all the code to handle its own menus and the menus
from all the secondary projects.
Any project can be the master project, so always try to
select the project whose menus are going to be common to all
the sections of your web site.
Defining the secondary projects
The secondary projects are those projects that are going to be
combined with the master project.
To define the list of secondary projects click
Tools->Secondary Projects
Use the Add button to add projects and use the Delete button to
remove projects from the list.
Press the OK button when you're done defining the list of
secondary projects.
NOTE: Only projects created with DHTML Menu Builder 4.1 (or
above) can
be used as secondary projects.
Compiling the projects
To generate all the .js files for the master and secondary projects
simply click Tools->Compile
NOTE: DHTML Menu Builder will automatically save your master
project before starting the compilation process.
Installing the Menus
To install the menus click Tools->Install Menus
The Secondary Projects dialog will be displayed so you can
select which combination of projects you want to install.
When done click OK
Then you will see the usual "Install Menus" dialog.
Select the documents that should receive the master project plus
the selected secondary projects and click Install.
As you may have already guessed, you can repeat this process
as many times as you like and each time selecting different sets
of secondary projects. This will allow you to install different
combinations of projects into different documents in your web site.
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