Automated Navigation Menu

philwareham · 2009-12-04 16:55:06

Hi there,
I need to create a semi-automated navigation menu on my site and am confused as to the best way to create it (via native txp tags or using a plugin), I’d be very grateful for any advice. It is a pretty simple nav menu – sections are a fixed range (ie. the end user cannot add extra sections) so I just need to populate each section’s sublist with any articles that are children of that section (but with control over article order), along the following lines…

<ul id=“superfish”>
<li><a id=“nav01” class=“menu” href=”/”>Home</a></li>
<li><a id=“nav02” class=“menu” href=”#”>Section1</a>
<ul>
<li><a href=”#”>Section1 Article3</a></li>
<li><a href=”#”>Section1 Article1</a></li>
<li><a href=”#”>Section1 Article2</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a id=“nav02” class=“menu” href=”#”>Section2</a>
<ul>
<li><a href=”#”>Section2 Article1</a></li>
<li><a href=”#”>Section2 Article3</a></li>
<li><a href=”#”>Section2 Article2</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
…and so on…
</ul>

Also, not all sections of my site will appear in the menu.
Cheers,
Phil

MattD · 2009-12-04 17:12:01

Will all articles in the included sections be in the menu?

els · 2009-12-04 17:21:33

Basic code example:

<txp:section_list sections=",section1,section2,section5" include_default="1" default_title="Home" wraptag="ul" break="li">
   <txp:section title="1" />
   <txp:article_custom section='<txp:section />' sort="custom_n asc" wraptag="ul" break="li">
      <txp:permlink><txp:title /></txp:permlink>
   </txp:article_custom>
</txp:section_list>

Use a custom field to sort the articles (and replace ‘n’ in the above code with the number of the custom field).

philwareham · 2009-12-04 20:31:46

@MattD

Yes, all articles in a section would be included in the menu as a rule.

Thanks, I’ll give the above example a spin and see how I get on. But are custom fields the only way of sorting articles?

els · 2009-12-04 20:58:04

You can sort the articles by any column in the database table, have a look at the sort attribute here. If your manual sorting doesn’t match any of the existing criteria, a custom field is the way to go. You could also have a look at this plugin, I’m not familiar with it but it looks like it might also be helpful.

philwareham · 2009-12-09 12:21:58

Hi there, thanks for the help people. Using some of the techniques here I have created a functioning nav menu (slightly less scripted than your suggestions but I have reasons for that) along these lines …

<ul id="superfish">
  <li><a id="nav01" class="menu" href="/">Home</a></li>
  <li><a id="nav02" class="menu" href="#"><txp:section name="section1" title="1" /></a>
    <ul>
      <txp:article_custom sort="custom_11 asc" limit="11" break="li" section="section1">
        <txp:permlink><txp:title /></txp:permlink>
      </txp:article_custom>
      <li><a href="#"><strong>More articles on <txp:section name="section1" title="1" />...</strong></a></li>
    </ul>
  </li>
  <li><a id="nav03" class="menu" href="#"><txp:section name="section2" title="1" /></a>
    <ul>
      <txp:article_custom sort="custom_11 asc" limit="11" break="li" section="section2">
        <txp:permlink><txp:title /></txp:permlink>
      </txp:article_custom>
      <li><a href="#"><strong>More articles on <txp:section name="section2" title="1" />...</strong></a></li>
    </ul>
  </li>
...and so on..
</ul>

I just have one more question if I may, in the example above I have restricted displaying articles in each section to a limit of 11, and have a <li> item…

<li><a href="#"><strong>More articles on <txp:section name="section1" title="1" />…</strong></a></li>

I would ideally like that line of code to only be displayed if a section has more than 11 articles associated with it, can it be done with some clever txp conditional tags?

Thanks,
Phil

els · 2009-12-09 18:08:36

philwareham wrote:

I would ideally like that line of code to only be displayed if a section has more than 11 articles associated with it, can it be done with some clever txp conditional tags?

<txp:article_custom sort="custom_11 asc" limit="11" break="li" section="section2">
   <txp:permlink><txp:title /></txp:permlink>
</txp:article_custom>

<txp:variable name="countarticles" value='<txp:article_custom sort="custom_11 asc" offset="11" limit="1" section="section2" />' />

<txp:if_variable name="countarticles" value="">
<txp:else />
   <li><a href="#"><strong>More articles on <txp:section name="section2" title="1" />...</strong></a></li>
</txp:if_variable>

philwareham · 2009-12-10 07:53:26

Worked great, thanks Els!

Gallex · 2009-12-10 12:04:48

Els wrote:

…<txp:if_variable name=“countarticles” value=”“>
<txp:else /> <li><a href=”#”><strong>More articles on <txp:section name=“section2” title=“1” />…</strong></a></li>
</txp:if_variable>

testing this solution as well.
how to make “more articles on…” link to section where those articles belongs to?

my solution not working

<txp:variable name="countarticles" value='<txp:article_custom sort="Posted asc" offset="3" limit="1" section='<txp:section />' />' />

<txp:if_variable name="countarticles" value="">
<txp:else />
   <li><a href='<txp:site_url />' '<txp:section />'>More articles on <txp:section name='<txp:section />' title="1" />...</a></li>
</txp:if_variable>

philwareham · 2009-12-10 12:56:43

I was just going to hardcode the section links, as my sections themselves are not going to change, for example…

<li><a href="/section2"><strong>More articles on <txp:section name="section2" title="1" />...</strong></a></li>

However, if there is a better method I’m all ears.

els · 2009-12-10 21:53:08

Gallex, you don’t need single quotes when using a Txp tag in an html tag:

<txp:variable name="countarticles" value='<txp:article_custom sort="Posted asc" offset="3" limit="1" section='<txp:section />' />' />

<txp:if_variable name="countarticles" value="">
<txp:else />
   <li><a href="<txp:site_url /><txp:section />/">More articles on <txp:section name='<txp:section />' title="1" />...</a></li>
</txp:if_variable>

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Textpattern CMS support forum

#1 2009-12-04 16:55:06

Automated Navigation Menu

#2 2009-12-04 17:12:01

Re: Automated Navigation Menu

#3 2009-12-04 17:21:33

Re: Automated Navigation Menu

#4 2009-12-04 20:31:46

Re: Automated Navigation Menu

#5 2009-12-04 20:58:04

Re: Automated Navigation Menu

#6 2009-12-09 12:21:58

Re: Automated Navigation Menu

#7 2009-12-09 18:08:36

Re: Automated Navigation Menu

#8 2009-12-10 07:53:26

Re: Automated Navigation Menu

#9 2009-12-10 12:04:48

Re: Automated Navigation Menu

#10 2009-12-10 12:56:43

Re: Automated Navigation Menu

#11 2009-12-10 21:53:08

Re: Automated Navigation Menu

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