Revision [3574]

This is an old revision of UserMenus made by DarTar on 2004-12-21 15:08:49.

 

User defined menus

Last edited by DarTar:
Replying to Christian
Tue, 21 Dec 2004 15:08 UTC [diff]


There is already a solution to create, manage and use menus from WikkaMenus. I was troubled because it allows any WikiUser to change any menu, possibly changing so the interface used by the other users. Also I wanted something closer from the users, allowing them to design icon-menus if they want.

An alternate solution

So I came with a simple idea that any user could simply define a WikiPage named UserLogonMenu where he would simply type in the menu he wants using the standard wikka formatting. He may define the ACLs of this menu page as he wish. This solution is perfectly compliant with the WikkaMenulets too.

The header.php and the stylesheet needs to be slightly changed so that when the system finds a page named UserLogonMenu it simply use it as the user menu. It also allows the admin to design an alternate GuestMenu for unidentified users.
I decided to have a class different from the "header" one but this is not mandatory.

The code

This code relies on the ExistsPage()function available from 1.1.6.0.
It also include the LoggedUsersHomepage proposal.

New header.php - the lines commented by only if you wish a different presentation are not mandatory
<?php
    $message = $this->GetMessage();
    $user = $this->GetUser();
      $site_base = $this->GetConfigValue("base_url");
      if ( substr_count($site_base, 'wikka.php?wakka=') > 0 ) $site_base = substr($site_base,0,-16);
?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<html>
<head>
    <title><?php echo $this->GetWakkaName().": ".$this->PageTitle(); ?></title>
    <base href="<?php echo $site_base ?>" />
    <?php if ($this->GetMethod() != 'show') echo "<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\"/>\n";?>
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
    <meta name="keywords" content="<?php echo $this->GetConfigValue("meta_keywords") ?>" />
    <meta name="description" content="<?php echo $this->GetConfigValue("meta_description") ?>" />
    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/<?php echo $this->GetConfigValue("stylesheet") ?>" />
    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/print.css" media="print" />
    <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">
        function fKeyDown()
        {
            if (event.keyCode == 9)
            {
                event.returnValue = false;
                document.selection.createRange().text = String.fromCharCode(9);
            }
        }
    </script>
</head>

<body
    <?php echo (!$user || ($user["doubleclickedit"] == 'Y')) && ($this->GetMethod() == "show") ? "ondblclick=\"document.location='".$this->href("edit")."';\" " : "" ?>
    <?php echo $message ? "onLoad=\"alert('".$message."');\" " : "" ?>
>

<div class="header">
    <h2><?php echo $this->config["wakka_name"] ?> : <a href="<?php echo $this->href("", "TextSearch", "phrase=").urlencode($this->GetPageTag()); ?>"><?php echo $this->GetPageTag(); ?></a></h2>
    <?php
        if ($this->GetUser()) {
            $username=$this->GetUserName();
            $usermenu=$username."Menu";
            if ($this->ExistsPage($usermenu)) {
                $themenu=$this->LoadPage($usermenu);
                echo '</div><div class="menuicon">'; //only if you wish a different presentation
                echo $this->Format($themenu["body"]);
                echo "</div>"; //only if you wish a different presentation
            }
            else
            {
                echo ($this->GetUser() ? $this->Link($this->config["logged_in_homepage"]) : $this->Link($this->config["root_page"]))." :: ";
                echo $this->config["logged_in_navigation_links"] ? $this->Format($this->config["logged_in_navigation_links"])." :: " : "";
                echo "You are ".$this->Format($this->GetUserName());
            }
        } else {
            if ($this->ExistsPage(GuestMenu)) {
                echo '</div><div class="menuicon">';  //only if you wish a different presentation
                $themenu=$this->LoadPage(GuestMenu);
                echo $this->Format($themenu["body"]);
                echo "</div>";  //only if you wish a different presentation
            }
            else
            {
                echo $this->Link($this->config["root_page"])." :: ";
                echo $this->config["navigation_links"] ? $this->Format($this->config["navigation_links"]) : "";
            }
        }
    ?>  
</div>


Add something like this in the style sheet file if you want a different presentation for these menus
.menuicon {  
    color: #333;
    background: #CCCCCC;
    text-align: center;  
}


Menu samples

You may have something like:
[[HomePage Home]] - {{edit}} - [[PageIndex Index]] - [[FormattingRules Writing rules]] - SandBox - [[UserSettings Settings]] - [[UserName My Home]]
Or more sexy like (I already use an icons folder but the user could upload its own icons using the files action:
{{image alt="Home Page" title="Home Page" url="icons/32/home.png" link="HomePage"}}{{imageedit alt="Edit Page" title="Edit this page" url="icons/32/pen.png"}}{{image alt="Index" title="Pages Index" url="icons/32/dictionary.png" link="PageIndex"}}{{image alt="Formatting Rules" title="Formatting Rules" url="icons/32/Whiteboard.png" link="FormattingRules"}}{{image alt="Sandbox" title="Sandbox" url="icons/32/paddle.png" link="SandBox"}}{{image alt="User Settings" title="Change Settings/Logout" url="icons/32/kgpg.png" link="UserSettings"}}{{image alt="User Page" title="My own page" url="icons/32/identity.png" link="UserName"}}


Christian, thanks for posting this interesting suggestion, which looks quite similar to what other wikis have proposed so far. Although I like the idea, I'll try to give some arguments why a table-based approach like that of WikkaMenus has some advantages:

  • I was troubled because it allows any WikiUser to change any menu
This is not a real issue: WikkaMenus can be set to allow only some users or admins to the menu configuration interface, much as in your proposal. OTOH, see below how custom user menus can be made compatible with this approach.
  • Also I wanted something closer from the users, allowing them to design icon-menus if they want.
As a general rule, icons and layout properties should not be addressed in the code. They should all be taken care of by the appropriate CSS stylesheet. In WikkaMenus this is possible by adding a different id to each menu entry that can then be modified at will in the stylesheets. Still, if you really want a user to add a custom icon before a single menu entry on WikkaMenus (not already formatted with an icon by the CSS stylesheet), this is perfectly possible by adding something like {{image ...}} MenuItem in the menu interface.
  • Stylesheet issues
Actually I had started thinking of menus in a way very similar to yours. Then I realized that the biggest limit in using Wikka pages as a source for menus is that they allow very little control on the output. As I suggested in the WikkaMenus page, the proper solution for formatting menus (either horizontal or vertical) is to use unordered list and to modify their appearance through the proper CSS selectors. This is difficult to do using standard Wikka syntax (unless you embed HTML with style tags in the code, which is definitely not a good idea). How do you display the main menu as a vertical menu, following your approach?
  • Custom/user menus
Another interesting aspect of WikkaMenus is that they allow an arbitrary number of menus to be created, deleted and renamed. You can always impose that some menus (like system menus) be read-only, while at the same time allowing the wikka admins to freely customize the number and appearance of menus (this was a suggestion made by JavaWoman). For instance, you might want to add a second (or third, or fourth) horizontal menu, or floating menus in the page etc. In the future, we might even consider the possibility of cross-referencing the menu table with the user table to store user-customized menu settings.
  • Renaming menus instead of hardcoding them
WikkaMenus, finally, allow menus to be created, deleted and renamed, which gives the whole system more flexibility and does not make a sensitive element like a menu depend on the name of a hardcoded page.

My2cents -- DarTar
There are no comments on this page.
Valid XHTML :: Valid CSS: :: Powered by WikkaWiki