ok cool as long as I can use the actual names of the menu items in the URL then I am happy as ideally I want to use.htaccess rules to modify the URL to make them look user friendly for links :)
....I was thinking though if I were to join using the ID (what if) the client later deletes a menu link (the reference via the ID would be broken) then later they decide to recreate the same menu link "name" but then the ID reference...I guess then if they were to delete that menu link I would need to make sure I code it so that the link table would also be deleted. does that make sense?