Mega Menu

#1

Just admiring your work on this site: http://www.visitnsw.com/


We are adopting a similar navigation system with 'mega menu' drop downs. I currently have this working within Matrix but as I'm using several listings of asset listings - listings to get it to work (to avoid hard coding and keep editable with Matrix), I was wondering if there are any alternate/more efficient ways to do this.



To explain I have the following setup:


    1 asset listing for the Entire Navigation -> 5 asset listings for each navigation link -> 4 asset list for each navigation link's mega menu (20 in total)


Cheers for any wisdom.
(Eric) #2

I am not sure if this helps, but on our website we use asset listing as a landing page and normal menu area in a design code to generate menus http://www.parracity.nsw.gov.au Live, Work, Play, Build, Your Council are all asset listings

#3

[quote]
I am not sure if this helps, but on our website we use asset listing as a landing page and normal menu area in a design code to generate menus http://www.parracity.nsw.gov.au Live, Work, Play, Build, Your Council are all asset listings

[/quote]

Thanks for sharing Eric, That's exactly what we're trying to produce.



As mentioned I created our navigation entirely with asset lists but as this caused performance issues, I'm now having to create this via a menu area within the design's parse file.



I was curious how you configured your menu area to include your asset listings?



Cheers!

(Nic Hubbard) #4

[quote]
I was curious how you configured your menu area to include your asset listings?

[/quote]



Using nested asset listings in a design can be a bad idea and cause performance issues. That being said, we needed some drop down menus for PUC so I used design tags with a set root node for each drop down:


Not sure if that would be helpful for you.
#5

[quote]
Not sure if that would be helpful for you.

[/quote]

Thanks Nic, always good to see a working example to get ones head around these things, I'll need to try if I can setup what I need this way.

Cheers!

(Eric) #6

Come to think of it, it's a normal menu, it was a 18 month ago and I originally wanted to do same thing as you by nesting asset, but figured out a better way. Luckily because top level was asset listings I have restricted first level menu to asset listings only in customisation. We used metadata where we define column number and CSS to position columns. We didn't need images in a menu, but I suppose you can use CSS or metadata for that. We also exclude in menu customisation certain asset types (files images). Hope it helps
#7

Awesome!


Really appreciate your assistance with this Eric and Nic, this will give me much needed direction and save me lots of trial and error.



Big Cheers

(Peter Grube) #8

I really like the mega menu used on Squiz's own site at www.squiz.com.au. Anyone have any idea how they've achieved that?

(Nic Hubbard) #9

[quote]
I really like the mega menu used on Squiz's own site at www.squiz.com.au. Anyone have any idea how they've achieved that?

[/quote]



They are using Squiz CMS for that site, so it is using a different method.

(Peter Grube) #10

I figured that they were using Squiz CMS, but as far as I'm aware it's not documented anywhere, eg. not in the Squiz User Manual Library. Presumably it's an advanced version of the menu design area. I've been trying to pick apart the code to figure out how they've done it.

[quote]

They are using Squiz CMS for that site, so it is using a different method.

[/quote]

(Benjamin Pearson) #11

[quote]
I figured that they were using Squiz CMS, but as far as I'm aware it's not documented anywhere, eg. not in the Squiz User Manual Library.

[/quote]



Squiz CMS documentation is found inside the product, the Manuals site is only for Squiz Matrix docs.

(Peter Grube) #12

thanks Benjamin, we use Squiz Matrix, is it possible to create a Squiz CMS megamenu in Squiz Matrix, and if so, where can I get the information about how to do that?



[quote]

Squiz CMS documentation is found inside the product, the Manuals site is only for Squiz Matrix docs.

[/quote]

(Benjamin Pearson) #13

[quote]
thanks Benjamin, we use Squiz Matrix, is it possible to create a Squiz CMS megamenu in Squiz Matrix, and if so, where can I get the information about how to do that?

[/quote]



From looking at the CMS design, it only looks like 2 menu design areas (one for the site and one for the current asset) doing this menu, and some metadata and implementation wizardry. Not familiar enough with the Matrix designs to definitely say whether the same can be done in Matrix or not.



Hope that helps you or someone else.