MENU WRITER 2 dynamic menu recipe

[superpac250441]

Would it be possible for WebAssist to set up a simple dynamic menu recipe without any complications to show how it can be done. The finished files, especially the page recordsets would be most helpful alongside a step by step tutorial.
Many thanks in advance

[superpac250441]

I presume no response = not possible?

[Ray Borduin]

It is certainly possible. Thank you for the suggestion.

[superpac250441]

So where do we go now Ray?

This is what I would like to know about:

# Database-driven menu items compatible

* Works with any Dreamweaver recordset
* Nested dynamic menus supported
* Dynamically assigns labels
* Dynamically add links to menu items
* Full sort options
* Full filter options
* Supports PHP / MySQL

... so now that you have taken on board my suggestion, can you provide the tutorial? Much appreciated in advance

[Joe Lowery]

I've added it to the list of possible training topics. Thanks for the feedback.

Best - Joe

[superpac250441]

Thanks Joe, but the horse has already bolted. I have gone in another direction as a result of no definite and precise timeframe of my call for a simple tutoriual. I am sure that it is quite an easy tutorial for you to set up, given the marketing claims Webassist have made to sell me the extension. So c'mon, can we have some kind of ETA?

Interakt gave an excellent set of tutorials and example database and tutorial to set up their CSS menu dynamic menu. Surely you can, at the very least match that????? I promise you that it will enhance your sales volume. Interakt did it without having to ask and had it ready for users at launch. The truth is that unless WebAssist covers this, the excellent service that Interakt provided will continue to haunt this industry. Your marketing programme, if I recall, has already stated that webassist is a great alternative (and it is is many areas) so how about matching their backup. I am quite sure that you can do it.
Thanks in advance!!

[Ray Borduin]

Have you tried it on your own? Where did you get stuck? We appreciate tutorial suggestions, but we plan out our schedules many months in advance and this forum isn't really designed as a quick tutorial response mechanism.

This forum is for people that are trying to do something and get stuck. They describe what they are trying to do and where they are getting stuck and we try to help them through that step.

If you work on it, it is kind of like a choose your own tutorial, but it only works one step at a time. Have you tried to do this yet on your own? What part are you getting stuck on? have you created your database tables? can you get a menu that looks like what you want without dynamic options? I'm quite sure that you can do it as well.

[Neil Beadle]

Have you reviewed the How To on Creating Dynamic Menus?
http://assets.webassist.com/how-tos/mw2_creating_dynamic_menus_ht.pdf

If so, where did this leave holes in your understanding? Feedback is appreciated.

Any documentation suggestions or ideas can be submitted through the form at the following link.
http://www.webassist.com/support/submit-idea.php

[superpac250441]

Have you reviewed the How To on Creating Dynamic Menus?
http://assets.webassist.com/how-tos/mw2_creating_dynamic_menus_ht.pdf

If so, where did this leave holes in your understanding? Feedback is appreciated.

Any documentation suggestions or ideas can be submitted through the form at the following link.
http://www.webassist.com/support/submit-idea.php
It would be useful to have a basic database schema and a work through of how to make the menu through to level 2. I have tried to follow the pdf but I am obviously too stupid to get it working. From what has been said in earlier posts, it might have been put on the list but it could be months away. It's such a pity that such basic things have no priority especially knowing that I bought it because it stated:

* Works with any Dreamweaver recordset
* Nested dynamic menus supported
* Dynamically assigns labels
* Dynamically add links to menu items
* Full sort options
* Full filter options
* Supports PHP / MySQL

Never mind, I'll take this one on the chin

[canalegrande345703]

There is another extension from Felix1, called FX outlining dyna menu.
http://www.felixone.it/extensions/prod/mxodmen.asp
It even supports Ajax and it comes along with a sample mysql database. It works as it should, but not always:
It gets easily stuck as soon as you use your own stylesheets.
I "almost cut my hair" in trying to get it done, although it is well built. It creates its own recordsets.
But each little change takes ages to correct, because it always sends the .js file, opener images etc again and again to the testing server.
So it has some severe flaws.

That is why I bought WebAssists Menu Writer2 and was a bit disappointed that dynamic menus were not their main approach to this.
Because most pages are dynamic. Why not menus?
This is really important to me, much more than bubbly, colorful layouts, actually I miss those clean, classic, "text - only" ones.
But Webassist's extensions look professional to me. Please don't underestimate the dynamic issue.

I should say what I am missing:
I always get this:
"Parse error: syntax error, unexpected ')', expecting T_STRING or T_VARIABLE or '$' in .../CSSMenuWriter/cssmw/menu.php on line 61"
There is always an empty
if (isset()) {
$MenuWriterL2_menuwriter_categoriesv = (get_magic_quotes_gpc()) ? : addslashes();
}
in this line
and I can't figure out which variable should be set there.

There is no easy way to add more than one URL parameter and more than one sort option. I have a sorter field in my table but sometimes this is not set and then it should be alpahbetical

For my collegue poster this would be my suggestion for a dynamic table in mysql5:

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `categories` (
`categories_id` int(11) NOT NULL auto_increment,
`categories_name` varchar(64) collate utf8_unicode_ci default NULL,
`parent_id` int(11) NOT NULL default '0',
`sort_order` int(5) default NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`categories_id`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 COLLATE=utf8_unicode_ci AUTO_INCREMENT=1;

The trick is the pair of id and parent.
In this example you just use one table:
The first level has a parent level of 0.
This is the top level.
If you had 5 items there would be (automatic generated) ids from 1 to 5.
Lets say:
Cars(id=1), Bycicles(id=2), Tanks(id=3), Aeroplanes(id=4), Rollerskates(id=5)
For the next level these id's would be put into the parent fields and so forth. All items of the next level with parent_id 1 would belong to Cars then and so on. Each follow-up level behaves the same way.
Hope that helps.

[superpac250441]

To canalegrande345703, thank you for taking the time to respond to this thread. It's the first piece of constructive assistance offered so far. I will have a go and try it. Much appreciated !!