Navigation Controls - A menu to suit every design

Simple Menu XML

The simple menu is probably the most frequently used menu control of all - in fact it is in use on this website, as the main left-hand navigation.

The menu shows all pages that exist within the current level in the navigation as well as pages that appear in the parent levels.

The menu has the option to enable security, so you can personalise the experience of users visiting the site and only show them sections or pages that you have given them permission to access. Permissions are totally granular so you can be assured you will be able to configure the permissions the way you want.

As with all menu controls, there are a range of settings that can be applied to configure the menu.

Local-View Menu

The Local-View Menu is often used when there is a very deep navigation structure, as it acts almost as a breadcrumb control and menu at the same time. We often find the control being used on Local Government sites.

There are wide ranges of implementations and like all other navigational controls, it uses a standardised mark-up.

 

 

There are a wide range of other navigational controls available in Contensis. We have detailed some of these, but the list is by no means exhaustive.

Folder Summary List

The Folder Summary List provides a multi-column list of elements within a particular navigational section. The menu can either just show the first level or can show sub-elements of the first level too.

The menu is often useful when you have a large navigational structure and you have a small amount of content for sectional pages. This menu can be used where sectional pages are normally.

The example we are looking at here is for Macmillan Cancer Support, and enables you to navigate a particular section of their site. 

 

Accordion Menu

The Accordion Menu is very similar to the Simple Menu XML in structure and general function, other than the fact that sections open automatically as you hover over them or click on them.

The control has been used in many implementations and, again like the Folder Summary List, is useful when you don't want to provide intermediate or sectional pages to dig down through the navigation.

 

Dynamic Jump Menu

The Dynamic Jump Menu is very useful when you have very long pages of content. Often the menu is built-in to a template as standard, and can be turned on using a meta data checkbox.

The menu creates a link to each of the headings in the page and can be configured to look at each of the different heading types.

Normally, text will precede the menu saying for example "On this page:" and each of the heading will have a 'back to top' link added.

 

Related Items

Contensis has a whole framework for defining relationships between different pieces of content. This framework can be explored in more detail on our relationships page.

This control allows you to render the results of the relationships created by your editors. Normally, it is presented in the form of an ordered or unordered list and can be styled in any way you choose.

 

Quick Links Menu

The Quick Links Menu is, quite literally, a drop-down menu, which is normally bound to a folder of links within the CMS.

This type of menu is normally incorporated in the main template of a site design and can be accessed at any time.

The menu is simple and effective. As with all menu controls, you can use them wherever you choose in your site.

 

Tag Cloud

The Tag Cloud control is often used as part of a Blogs implementation but could, of course, be used to navigate any type of content in the Contensis Content Management System. The control renders a set of tags sized by the number of times a tag has been used. The more times a tag has been used, the larger the item will appear in the cloud.

Tagging can be adopted on any content in Contensis, and is often used to manage general page keywords. More on tagging can be found on our Meta Data pages.

SiteMap XML

The SiteMap XML is a control that will be used in virtually every Content Management implementation. The Control provides a site map of an entire site or just a sub-section, if required.

Every piece of content has the option to include the content in the site map, so you can exclude and include content at individual contributor level.

 

 

Site A-Z

The A-Z control can be used anywhere on your site. Often it is used for an entire site A-Z, but it is also used for sub-sections such as a product A-Z or a news A-Z. The content displayed is based upon the setting available to editors to include any piece of content in the A-Z, although often filters will be applied to remove entire blocks of content.

For example, if the control is being used as a site A-Z it is normal to only show web pages.

Breadcrumbs

Virtually every site implemented today will use a breadcrumb control. As you would expect, the Contensis Content Management System has a breadcrumb control built-in as standard.

Content Ticker

The Content Ticker uses simple ticker animation and allows you to pull information from upcoming events and current news items to any page in your site. This is a great way to keep users informed without taking up a lot of page real-estate.

From an editor's perspective, all you need to do is use the content management system and the menus will be created automatically.

Where an item appears in the menu is directly related to where the item is created in the Contensis Navigator.

As you can see from the screenshot, the editor has the ability to

• Set the menu name
• Choose whether an item is included in the menu or not
• Choose whether an item is included in the search or not
• Choose whether an item is included in the A-Z or not
• Choose whether an item is included in the SiteMap or not

Each of the controls has a set of options that enable the template developer to configure how they work.

Probably the most frequently used option common to almost all controls is the Root Folder ID. This property allows you to decide at which point in the site structure the navigational control will hook into.

Contensis has a complete framework for creating your own navigational controls, and this is available through the Contensis Open API .

If you are using a platform other than .Net, then the navigational structure is available in the published website as an XML file. We currently have PHP versions of the Simple Menu XML and the Breadcrumbs control as examples.

The source code for menu controls is available on request, so you can see exactly how the Contensis Team have developed and implemented the menu controls.

This makes it very quick and straightforward to implement any menu of your own.