Other Menus

[DThomas]

I have clients that are interested in menus that scroll with the page, delay the opening of menu items, and other features that CoolMenus doesn't have. I found Milonic.com. This is not a free menu, but it's fairly cheap. It LOOKS like a pretty cool menu and it has some of the features that CM does not. Does anyone have any experience with it? What about other menus? Alternatively, are there any plans to update CoolMenus?

[Tim Scarfe]

Andy from Milonic.com comes here sometimes, so maybe he can tell you

I think his menu is probably the most functional of all the drop-down menus. You really need to think of a few things first though:

*These menus are an accessibility nightmare, even if you hack the semantics and use one that builds from a UL list. I don't even agree with that practice on some levels!
*All of these menu systems that I have seen are poorly written (only exception I know of is Erik Ardvisson's and Aaron Boodman's menus)
*You really need to evaulate why you need this type of menu, and what it can offer you
*If you decide to use one, they should ONLY BE ONE LEVEL! -- nothing worse than being able to navigate the entire site from the first page, it needs to be a logical progression. So even having one level is arguably wrong.

So in closing:

Semantics aside, if you really don't care about accessibility and still want to use one of these menus in your page, Andy's one is fine. Ones that start from a UL foundation are a compromise, but by no means perfect. I personally recommend getting a really good free menu (i.e. Aaron's or Erik's) and powering them from Dan Pupius' UL parser.

Just a load of subjective comments anyway


--
Regards,
Tim Scarfe <tim@developer-x.com>
http://www.developer-x.com

[DThomas]

Thanks very much for the advice. I couldn't agree more with what you said about having multiple levels. Unfortunately, I have to deal some mainframe workflow considerations... so the cascading menu lives.

I also took a look at Aaron Boodman's menu code. I was surprised at how small the file is. I was also surprised at how legible it is. I can actually read it!

Thanks again,

Mike

[Garrett Smith]

My GlideMenus is also accessible; conforms very well to WAI specs.

http://dhtmlkitchen.com/scripts/glidemenus/

another demo, click-based:
http://dhtmlkitchen.com/scripts/glid...one/click.html




"The releasing of anger can better any medicine under the sun"
-Phil Anselmo

[hzr]

Why don't you use a list instead, Garrett?
Also, the menu headers are in one place and the rest of the menu in another (in the source I mean).

<font face="Courier New">--
David</font id="Courier New">

[Tim Scarfe]

Don't agree David.

I think UL lists make a pretty poor basis for a hierachial menu. It should come from a document structure, not a list. It's unreal how few people have thought of this. The thing is, when you really understand how to skin this cat -- you realise at the same time that the whole concept of these menus (in general) are flawed.

I mean, what are you trying to make? A web page? A wannabe web application hybrid thing? I know I'm potentially opening a big can of worms but I don't think the web is designed for stuff like this. Of course there is a compromise but I'm not sure what it is yet. Fascinating stuff though ehh?

I don't think Garrett's is perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but he sure is on the right lines. I can't even talk anyway! Garrett has actually taken the time to do something here so kudos to him.

--
Regards,
Tim Scarfe <tim@developer-x.com>
http://www.developer-x.com

[Garrett Smith]

I put the links on the bottom so that people with screen readers wouldn't read the page every time and guys on text only (lynx) browsers wouldn't have to see the entire site structure. That's why the headers are not right next to the source in the source code.


"The releasing of anger can better any medicine under the sun"
-Phil Anselmo