TinyPortal

hi all

well now my site has gotten crammed with way too many features and as a result the menu which SMF comes with is inadequate to accomodate them all for a screen res of 1024x786 (which is the optimal viewing size for my site)

What menu items do I have?

Well on the site u wont see all of them in the SMf menu but if u click on the tabbed thingie present there undr "site menu" u will get an idea of what all I would preferrably have on my menu:

-Home (takes u to the main page)

-Portal (takes u to TP main page)

-Forum (takes u to smf)

-P2P Galleries (gallery maintained by me officially)

-User Galleries (gallery for users using gallery2+smf integration by oldiesman)

-Articles (takes u to my custom designed .com site which is how it all stated)

-Arcade (takes u to smf arcade)

-Links Directory (smf links mod)

-Muslim Pals (osdate by tufat.com)

-Kids Club (custom designed kids club running another SMF)

-Calendar (built in smf calender)

-Downloads ( download manager)

-Media (takes u to mkportal media mod)

-Quran Tutors (a unique tool i designed in flash for teaching people recitation)

-Member map (google map mod)

-P2P shop (smf shop mod)

-Blogs (takes u to user blogs, currently mkportal, in the future feling blogs)

-Chat (flash chat)

-Wisdom Cookies ( a fun little thing I made)

-Candle 4 Peace (something I copied of webshots)

-Nasheeds (islamic songs)

-Mobile (mobile phone apps + stuff )

-E-Books ( free downloadable e-books)

-Wallpapers (seperate from the gallery - not active yet, only cenetered on wallpapers)

-Jokes (not active yet but a whole humour section)

-Islamic Games ( custom games i purchased and made in flash)

-Help (smf default help menu)

===============================

So now you see my dilemma?

and thats not all in the future ill probably be adding even more stuff!!

How can I resolve this?

Will smf allow multi level menus?

Or do I need to replace the menu in SMf altogether?

I would prefer to keep the smf menu..but if there is no option then please let me know some alternatives

thanks.

aku

The only thing i can think of is to create a block and use it to link to your site content.
Another good thing about that is that if you add another theme it just import the block there and the job with adding a lot of buttons and arrays are gone :)

yes thats the best plan yet

im also looking into incorporating a DTHML menu in all my themes...like a cool drop down one which will make poeple go OOOHHHHH :O OOOOOO

but thats a tougher thingie that the menu at top

I also wanted to ask...if i remove the menu display array from the template wont that also remove all the links for me for admin panel ?

put in a drop-down box for a lot of the add-ons (ie the things people dont click every visit/day)

http://www.techdomain.com.au/index.php second block on the right type thing. I have heard that it can behave a little wierd in IE at times though.

i put something like that on my site before but to be honest i dont like it very much its too plain but thanks very much for the suggestion anyways

I like flashy stuff (if u havent already guesed lol)

I am thinking from G6's suggestion maybe ill just have a longgggg block with all the menu items in it!

Or im thinking maybe use one of the menus from dhtml drive..:D

flashy stuff? why not make a flash block... have tabbed flash menu's.

or you could use a toolbox style menu:
for example: http://forums.ocwizard.com/ then click the toolbox link at the top.

i really like these menu systems...now to figure out how to incorporate them into my site

http://dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex1/openmenu/index.htm

http://dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex1/jimmenu/index.htm

http://dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex1/hvmenu/index.htm

http://dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex1/sm/index.htm

OMG i did it :D

I got this menu to work

http://dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex1/hvmenu/index.htm

simply paste the code into a scriptbox

upload the files to the forum folder and ur set to go

the menu is still hidden on my site until i configure it :D

I like it... I like it a lot!

If you like flashy menus, take a look at http://www.milonic.com. I used to use it on SMF 1.0.7. I stopped using cos' when I switched to RC2, I had no time to look at RC2 theming.

Otherwise, you can add main contents to the horizontal menu and the rest, vertically in a block. I put all members options (profile, pm, etc. in a customised user block).

ive used milonic before....downside is they require a link to be placed near their menu..and sometimes the page dosent read that correctly and viola ur menu is gone! lol

woohoooo :D:D:D:D

Check it outtttttttt

my new menu on my portal page http://path-to-peace.net/forum

im still working on it so right now the colors and all the rest is just crazy

That menu system is nice. pity i cant seem to adjust it from the right of the page, instead of the left... makes life harder with variable width, but I will muck around with it tomorrow.

Thanks for that link.

just out of interest, does the menu appear on every page of your site? When I am testing mine, I notice that it doesnt appear on some pages (ie in boards), even though the block is enabled for that area.

I am also wondering if I could integrate it with the index.template.php  file to get it on every page that way.

yup seems to be appearing in all the boards

except membermap but ill figure out why not there in a while

integrating with index template would be the best option

in my case it will be hard to do since i have loads of themes

I am actually thinking about putting it into the html header and footer mod and seeing if that works for all boards and pages... I have to configure the menu first, because when I use it, it will replace the standard aero menu altogether.

lemme know if it works for u and for all themes too

if u need any help just holler..im working on mine too

wow this is awesome!!

now i can display all my member options in one menu for them to chosse from :D like change a theme or all the other member options...im so excited :D ooooo

ok - will do. its getting later here, so I will work on it in the morning (10 hours or so)

oki doki take care and be well

see u tomorrow

What really would be cool, is to have Amber theme display multiple levels..and in the same graphics as the menu. But it require that all menus go in a array first, with a "level" on each, so the rendering routine knows where everything goes.

ive discovered something even cooler bloc!

something which infact all of SMF could use!

check this out:

http://www.tohzhiqiang.per.sg/projects/jsdomenu/docs/example.php

Left click anywhere on the page - any empty space

Not bad lol :) But kind of hard to see its there before you try it. I think having visible main menus is better then.

yea im working on this for my site with a small sign to tell the user that menu is activated by clicking anywhere on the screen

I just hope my visitors can read :2funny:

I've been wondering about something like what's implemented with SMF's Advanced Search page. You can click on the "Choose a board to search in, or search all" and it will expand and show the categories / boards to search in underneath.

I'd love to see a menu block like that. You know, just have the main categories always showing and then the articles / links / etc. shrinked and not showing. So, when you click on the category or on an image (ex: the + and - buttons), it'll expand and show the articles / links / etc. Click on it again, and they'll shrink and not show.

I think SMF desperately needs to incorporate vB style menus - they look very elegant plus they really make posibilities limitless with drop down menus and search box in menus etc etc

not to mention they also use it for "thread tools" if u know what i mean - those thread tools are AWESOME

Quote from: akulion on July 27, 2006, 05:46:20 PM
I think SMF desperately needs to incorporate vB style menus

I don't know what they look like (https://www.tinyportal.net/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nokonium.plus.com%2Fblack-cat%2Fnice%2Fangel1.gif&hash=844c8a7906291cec41715b7115f4b9eca7e546a7)

oh tye are awesome check out any vbboard

Quote from: akulion on July 27, 2006, 05:46:20 PM
I think SMF desperately needs to incorporate vB style menus - they look very elegant plus they really make posibilities limitless with drop down menus and search box in menus etc etc

not to mention they also use it for "thread tools" if u know what i mean - those thread tools are AWESOME

Well we have our very own SMF theme guru here that has a good influence on the default theme for SMF. Maybe we can convince him to do something similar, but better. :)

yes yes better :D

by the way did u see the menu system i put on my page? :D its really cool :D

erm..I am actually not so fond of using menus for everything. For new topic, new poll etc, imho its quicker to use links or buttons. Quote and modify likewise. Maybe the moderation buttons, they tend to sit there unused more than anything else.

But thats also really a theme question - the links can very well can be put in a dropdown list and/or vb dhtml menu. A theme that do this fully isn't made yet afaik.

I'm not saying that the default theme should have all the menu's this way. But I think something like you said with the Moderation buttons etc could use this. I would really like to see a theme put these to good use at least to see how it works with SMF.

I got Alienation theme 99,99% ready, but I like the way its now, so not on that. But I've got 3 other drafts, 2 of them css based, so in one of those I want to try it out. It will suit them better than in the graphically intensive Alienation.

If I get what Im working on Bloc to work or you now have the link, I think it will be slick.

For the rest of you:

http://www.dynamicdrive.com/dynamicindex1/chrome/index.htm

thats a good menu system

plus it will be very easy to modify for everyone since its only using simple ahref tags to define the content

Quote from: akulion on July 28, 2006, 11:43:17 PM
thats a good menu system

plus it will be very easy to modify for everyone since its only using simple ahref tags to define the content

Thats what I was thinking. Anyways youll see it soon enough if it works lol.

only issue i personally had implementing any menu systems to my site

and i tried about 5 or 6 available on DD

was: the links with an If condition on them like

If allowed to admin

If logged on

etc etc....

hardcoding them into the menu spoils all the fun and they are pretty useless for people

only alternative i can think of till now but havent tried is having multiple menu configurations and then use PHP within the index template to display the different menus

like if the person is an admin then menu X is displayed

for guests menu Z is displayed

for members menu A is displayed..so on and so frth...
but its a bit more hectic, so ill try and implement that later on on my site using the existing left click menu i installed on it

;) let me see what magic i can work bro, i can be pretty stubborn sometimes :D

looking forward to it!!

make it really memorable so that MAYBE the guys down at SMf say..."heeyyy thats pretty nice, lets use it"

(hopeful) :D

lol we can see

i also made a thread down at SMf requesting a cooler menu (with ur link above as an example) for future releases

it wont hurt to suggest, so hey! :D

Well akulion check this sh*t out :D

http://stormlrdsreality.co.uk/SMF_RC2/index.php?theme=16

got it working just need to polish it tomorrow yehhhhhh!

cool :D good job...

there is a small alignment problem in FF...the register link is showing in a second row..but im sure u can fix it!!

man if u pull this one off it will be BIG...maybe even the NEXT generation of SMF/TP themes :D

Great looking theme storm  :up: :up: Is there a place where I can download some of the themes you've made? I tried going to your site but I couldn't find a download section  :'(

QuoteWell akulion check this sh*t out Cheesy

http://stormlrdsreality.co.uk/SMF_RC2/index.php?theme=16

got it working just need to polish it tomorrow yehhhhhh!

I have to say that that theme is one of the nicest from you so far :)
That theme will be used a lot by those who want to have a great portal about cars, motorcycles, and other engine sports sites i think :D

thanks everyone it still needs alot of polish all i did was get it up. This theme should be ready soon.

captjlucpicard

checkout http://www.tinyportal.net/smf/index.php?page=36

Quote from: StormLrd on July 30, 2006, 02:04:43 PM
thanks everyone it still needs alot of polish all i did was get it up. This theme should be ready soon.

captjlucpicard

checkout http://www.tinyportal.net/smf/index.php?page=36

Thanks ;) I have tried going there before, but for some reason it wont let me download some of your themes. Permissions setting or somethig I guess :(

http://www.tinyportal.net/smf/index.php?topic=6770 (http://www.tinyportal.net/smf/index.php?topic=6770)

What a great looking theme..

I managed to do some pretty cool things with dhtml and Aero97, so thought I would show it off a bit: http://www.techdomain.com.au/

Your menu looks all screwed up in my Firefox. The contact button has been returned to the next line overlapping your buttons and screwing it all up. Anyone else see that?

i see it too, but i think thats how he has it because i hit the ie switch and it looked the same. just for good measure i open ie and tried it as well, still shows the contact on the second line in the middle........maybe his right blocks are too big?

since this post is back to the front i wanted to throw a link on here. i had to dig it up, but if you like working with css there are some awesome menus, galleries, and other cool stuff here. http://www.cssplay.co.uk/index.html . i have used a couple of the galleries and several menus for sites and they have been well received by people.

Thank you so much for posting that rbh. I had found that site months ago, but was too stupid to make note of it. I love those css-only dropdowns. Just lovely!

what screen res are you using? it will drop the links to the second line if the res is too low... I will move some of them into sub-menu's

does that look a bit better to you guys?

Quote from: JPDeni on November 09, 2006, 07:33:01 PM
Thank you so much for posting that rbh. I had found that site months ago, but was too stupid to make note of it. I love those css-only dropdowns. Just lovely!

not a problem. i have hundreds, probably thousands, of bookmarks but the special ones get their own folder. this was in there, but even it is getting pretty hard to navigate the number of links in there.  ;D i just happened to have used the link the other day for a menu and this post reminded me of it.

Quote from: JRW on November 09, 2006, 10:46:51 PM
does that look a bit better to you guys?

looks good now. :up: i am running 1024x768 res.

cool. Just as a note for anyone else that runs into this, I did it by putting the header html from the "demo.html" file into the header of my index.template.php (you need to modify the url to point at the folder you upload the rest of the files - make it an http://www type of url too, so it will work on all your pages!) then I put the menu part (including the script /script tags) into a scriptbox as a centre block.
Then I just /* */ commented out the old menu (from index.template.php) to make the other one disappear. As for the "register" button on the right of techdomain.com.au (it becomes a logout when you register) I just grabbed some code from my index.template.php and put it into a right php block.