Top-Level Pages Organization: Am I missing something?

[jjoshuaa]

Hey all.

First of all, even though I am really quite frustrated and completely red-in-the-face right now… I do admit this is a really handy and well, beautiful plugin. Finally I’ve found something to rival TransMenu (but sadly I can’t seem to get that working with WP 2.6)

HOWEVER!!! I DO have a major problem with the way this plugin works… It’s an issue SO INCREDIBLY irritating I can’t believe it hasn’t been discussed with more frequency here.

All I want to do is have the first level navigation show each of my WP pages, and have their child pages displayed as second-level under each of these parent pages… Instead, I see this plugin is built to display ALL of the pages under one top-level item, with categories and blogroll etc. displayed as the other top-level items.

I DO understand that I can achieve the organization I’ve described via the Custom Code fields in the plugin options… But this means every time we add a new parent or child page I have to go in again and add <li>’s and links to my new pages… Isn’t that sort of anti-CMS? Why shouldn’t I be able to select individual pages from the Menu Item # dropdowns? Better yet, why can’t I select an option to populate my top-level menus with just all of my pages?

Anyway like I said, maybe I’m missing something. Regardless, I’m going to give this plugin a shot because it was so easy to install, works perfectly (despite my gripes) and although I am handy with CSS, it’s nice to see the style generator is so easy to deploy! Really sweet!

Ryan, do you have any suggestions to how I might modify the plugin to display to create my page hierarchy automatically as described? If not, do you forsee this feature as an update for future releases?

Can’t wait to hear your response, I feel like it might be a quick fix on my end to achieve this, but I only took a cursory glance at the source files and I was having trouble finding the code that reads the pages from WP. Where should I look?

Thanks in advance! Don’t let my pissy ranting fool you, I LOVE YOUR PLUGIN!! And any of you who love this Multi-Level Navigation plugin but would like to see the organizational feature I have described above in future releases, speak up with your nods or further suggestions! This could be the menu-nav plugin the world has truly been waiting for… but we need more options baby!

Sincerely,

-j

[jacf182]

There’s a really easy way for you to show anything, and I mean ANYTHING on your menu, just the way you want it to.
So I assume you want your pages displayed on your first level, not on the second one. All you gotta do is copy all the CSS code of your menu and paste it on your Style.css file…then, create your menu on your header.php.  I’ll give you and example of what you should have on your header.php…I’ll create a menu, that on the first level it shows: Home – About Us – Pictures – Videos – Contact Us (then you can add as mamy items as you want and you can also add other levels).

<ul id="suckerfishnav">
<li><a href="somewebsite.com" rel="nofollow">Home</a></li>
<li><a href="somewebsite.com/about" rel="nofollow">About Us</a></li>
<li><a href="somewebsite.com/pictures" rel="nofollow">Pictures</a></li>
<li><a href="somewebsite.com/videos" rel="nofollow">Videos</a></li>
<li><a href="somewebsite.com/contact" rel="nofollow">Contact Us</a></li>

Just remember to call your "superfishnav" class on your php, else it won’t read your CSS and you’ll have a messed up site with lots of words spread all over. Also, you must edit the CSS code by changing the source of the images, so it can get the background images (if you chose to display an image background, such as the ones provided with this plugin).

I hope I helped instead of confusing you ” title=”Smiley” />  If you don’t understand something, I’ll be glad to answer any questions you have.

[jacf182]

There’s a really easy way for you to show anything, and I mean ANYTHING on your menu, just the way you want it to.
So I assume you want your pages displayed on your first level, not on the second one. All you gotta do is copy all the CSS code of your menu and paste it on your Style.css file…then, create your menu on your header.php.  I’ll give you and example of what you should have on your header.php…I’ll create a menu, that on the first level it shows: Home – About Us – Pictures – Videos – Contact Us (then you can add as mamy items as you want and you can also add other levels).

<ul id="suckerfishnav">
<li><a href="somewebsite.com" rel="nofollow">Home</a></li>
<li><a href="somewebsite.com/about" rel="nofollow">About Us</a></li>
<li><a href="somewebsite.com/pictures" rel="nofollow">Pictures</a></li>
<li><a href="somewebsite.com/videos" rel="nofollow">Videos</a></li>
<li><a href="somewebsite.com/contact" rel="nofollow">Contact Us</a></li>

Just remember to call your "superfishnav" class on your php, else it won’t read your CSS and you’ll have a messed up site with lots of words spread all over. Also, you must edit the CSS code by changing the source of the images, so it can get the background images (if you chose to display an image background, such as the ones provided with this plugin).

I hope I helped instead of confusing you ” title=”Smiley” />  If you don’t understand something, I’ll be glad to answer any questions you have.

[Dreamshop]

I just started using this plugin and was able to get what you want fairly quickly….it’s formatting the output that’s driving me insane. ;-O

What I did was select "Pages" in the Menu Item #1 under Menu Contents. If there is a Category you want to add then I believe you would select "Categories" under Menu Item #2.

The next step is excluding the pages or categories you don’t want listed. You do this under Advanced Options "Exclude Items". You list the ID of the page/cat separating multiples with a comma.

That’s it!

I do think the wording and layout of the Menu Item boxes is not intuitive. You would think that selecting Pages Dropdown is what you wanted to have your sub-pages drop down from the primary page button, but that’s not how it works.

Hope this helps!

[Dreamshop]

I just started using this plugin and was able to get what you want fairly quickly….it’s formatting the output that’s driving me insane. ;-O

What I did was select "Pages" in the Menu Item #1 under Menu Contents. If there is a Category you want to add then I believe you would select "Categories" under Menu Item #2.

The next step is excluding the pages or categories you don’t want listed. You do this under Advanced Options "Exclude Items". You list the ID of the page/cat separating multiples with a comma.

That’s it!

I do think the wording and layout of the Menu Item boxes is not intuitive. You would think that selecting Pages Dropdown is what you wanted to have your sub-pages drop down from the primary page button, but that’s not how it works.

Hope this helps!

[imported_Ryan]

[quote:69bk713f]All I want to do is have the first level navigation show each of my WP pages, and have their child pages displayed as second-level under each of these parent pages[/quote:69bk713f]

Choose "Pages" instead of "Pages dropdown" in the admin panel.

[quote:69bk713f]Instead, I see this plugin is built to display ALL of the pages under one top-level item, with categories and blogroll etc. displayed as the other top-level items.[/quote:69bk713f]

No, you can change all of those on the admin page.

[quote:69bk713f]Ryan, do you have any suggestions to how I might modify the plugin to display to create my page hierarchy automatically as described?[/quote:69bk713f]

This is the only thing the initial version of the plugin was capable. This is how about two thirds of the sites I see use the plugin.

[quote:69bk713f]but we need more options baby![/quote:69bk713f]

It’s almost optioned out. I’m running out of things to add.

[quote:69bk713f]Thanks in advance! Don’t let my pissy ranting fool you[/quote:69bk713f]

No. I knew what the problem was after reading the first sentence. This is a constant question I receive – which I’ll get to in my next post …

[imported_Ryan]

[quote:69bk713f]All I want to do is have the first level navigation show each of my WP pages, and have their child pages displayed as second-level under each of these parent pages[/quote:69bk713f]

Choose "Pages" instead of "Pages dropdown" in the admin panel.

[quote:69bk713f]Instead, I see this plugin is built to display ALL of the pages under one top-level item, with categories and blogroll etc. displayed as the other top-level items.[/quote:69bk713f]

No, you can change all of those on the admin page.

[quote:69bk713f]Ryan, do you have any suggestions to how I might modify the plugin to display to create my page hierarchy automatically as described?[/quote:69bk713f]

This is the only thing the initial version of the plugin was capable. This is how about two thirds of the sites I see use the plugin.

[quote:69bk713f]but we need more options baby![/quote:69bk713f]

It’s almost optioned out. I’m running out of things to add.

[quote:69bk713f]Thanks in advance! Don’t let my pissy ranting fool you[/quote:69bk713f]

No. I knew what the problem was after reading the first sentence. This is a constant question I receive – which I’ll get to in my next post …

[imported_Ryan]

[quote:yfqtxxrb]I do think the wording and layout of the Menu Item boxes is not intuitive.[/quote:yfqtxxrb]

It seemed intuitive when I designed it, but it seems to be a constant problem for people. No one understands what the difference between "Pages" and "Pages dropdown" is ” title=”Sad” />

Any opinions on how this should be worded/organised?

I’d like to make a wysiwyg system, but unfortunately I’m a Javascript/programming idiot, so don’t know how to create anything like that. CSS is my area of expertise and somewhere along the line I figured out enough programming to create some very basic plugins. But creating anything too complicated is a little beyond my meagre abilities hence I’ve used a simpler approach to the admin panel.

Is there a way I could word the options so that it is more intuitive?

Perhaps "Pages (top level)" and "Pages (second level)"? That doesn’t seem particularly intuitive either, but at least it’s confusing enough that people don’t make a wrong assumption about what the "Pages dropdown" option does.

[imported_Ryan]

[quote:yfqtxxrb]I do think the wording and layout of the Menu Item boxes is not intuitive.[/quote:yfqtxxrb]

It seemed intuitive when I designed it, but it seems to be a constant problem for people. No one understands what the difference between "Pages" and "Pages dropdown" is ” title=”Sad” />

Any opinions on how this should be worded/organised?

I’d like to make a wysiwyg system, but unfortunately I’m a Javascript/programming idiot, so don’t know how to create anything like that. CSS is my area of expertise and somewhere along the line I figured out enough programming to create some very basic plugins. But creating anything too complicated is a little beyond my meagre abilities hence I’ve used a simpler approach to the admin panel.

Is there a way I could word the options so that it is more intuitive?

Perhaps "Pages (top level)" and "Pages (second level)"? That doesn’t seem particularly intuitive either, but at least it’s confusing enough that people don’t make a wrong assumption about what the "Pages dropdown" option does.

[kuenhlee]

[quote:1mi5uvel]Any opinions on how this should be worded/organised[/quote:1mi5uvel]

[quote:1mi5uvel]Is there a way I could word the options so that it is more intuitive?[/quote:1mi5uvel]

Ryan,

I have a suggestion regarding to this item (I think this is the same reason why I am asking the question in the other post). Can you try to let say change the default setting such that the "Pages" is a "non dropdown" and the "Categories" is a "dropdown" after the initial setup / activation.

I believe most uses ( or maybe just me ) that has initially set it up will have a shock with the Categories fan out to floads the header area and immediately go to the optio menu to shut it off to just "Dropdown" for everything. At least that was what happened to me, when i first turn it on, all the categories floaded the menu area into few columns and I straight away go and turn the setting into Dropdown and didn’t realize that it actually faning out the 2nd Level menu as the Base starting point.

If the Default setup has Pages as "Non Dropdown" it will at least only few of them shown in the Menu area with the Categories showing the Dropdown. So, the New user will directly realize the differences of setting those 2.

Just my 2 cents.

[kuenhlee]

[quote:1mi5uvel]Any opinions on how this should be worded/organised[/quote:1mi5uvel]

[quote:1mi5uvel]Is there a way I could word the options so that it is more intuitive?[/quote:1mi5uvel]

Ryan,

I have a suggestion regarding to this item (I think this is the same reason why I am asking the question in the other post). Can you try to let say change the default setting such that the "Pages" is a "non dropdown" and the "Categories" is a "dropdown" after the initial setup / activation.

I believe most uses ( or maybe just me ) that has initially set it up will have a shock with the Categories fan out to floads the header area and immediately go to the optio menu to shut it off to just "Dropdown" for everything. At least that was what happened to me, when i first turn it on, all the categories floaded the menu area into few columns and I straight away go and turn the setting into Dropdown and didn’t realize that it actually faning out the 2nd Level menu as the Base starting point.

If the Default setup has Pages as "Non Dropdown" it will at least only few of them shown in the Menu area with the Categories showing the Dropdown. So, the New user will directly realize the differences of setting those 2.

Just my 2 cents.

[imported_Ryan]

Thanks for the input. I see where you are coming from there. If there are two DIFFERENT styles of items set by default, then people will be more likely to realise the difference between the options.

I’ll consider adding that in the next version. Although I’d still like to make the menu options themselves easier to understand.

[imported_Ryan]

Thanks for the input. I see where you are coming from there. If there are two DIFFERENT styles of items set by default, then people will be more likely to realise the difference between the options.

I’ll consider adding that in the next version. Although I’d still like to make the menu options themselves easier to understand.

[Anonymous]

Hello, ok i like this plugin but it is not user friendly and took a while to work out how to get pages and subpages to display how i wanted.

I think the big confusion is the language, in setup it has:

Menu Item 1 – Menu Item 2 etc

The problem with this is has relevance to constructing a menu, i, and i imaging most users think that the Menu Item corresponds to where the menu will appear on the page:

Menu Item 1      Menu Item 2      Menu Item 3
Home            Gallery          Hobbies
                > One            > Fishing
                > Two            > Photography

but in reality to get above you need to set:

Menu Item 1      Menu Item 2
Home            pages

have all other Menu Items turned off and pages set as parent with children.

The other problem i found though not necessarily directly to do with this plugin is have top menu page just as place holder, so in above example clicking on Gallery will load Gallery page but in reality i really just want this as place holder with only active links being One and Two.

cheers

[Anonymous]

Hello, ok i like this plugin but it is not user friendly and took a while to work out how to get pages and subpages to display how i wanted.

I think the big confusion is the language, in setup it has:

Menu Item 1 – Menu Item 2 etc

The problem with this is has relevance to constructing a menu, i, and i imaging most users think that the Menu Item corresponds to where the menu will appear on the page:

Menu Item 1      Menu Item 2      Menu Item 3
Home            Gallery          Hobbies
                > One            > Fishing
                > Two            > Photography

but in reality to get above you need to set:

Menu Item 1      Menu Item 2
Home            pages

have all other Menu Items turned off and pages set as parent with children.

The other problem i found though not necessarily directly to do with this plugin is have top menu page just as place holder, so in above example clicking on Gallery will load Gallery page but in reality i really just want this as place holder with only active links being One and Two.

cheers

[Author]

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