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Status Report: HierMenus Version 6 Sneak Preview
D.M Ragle, March 3, 2004
Our HierMenus script continues to improve, thanks in no small
part to suggestions made by you, our customers (both current and future). Version
6 of HierMenus, which we're in the process of wrapping up as I type this, is chock
full of improvements as a direct result of requests you've made of us over
the years. We're pleased to offer a sneak preview of what you can
expect in the next version of our popular menu navigation script.
As a reminder, though our release articles can be appreciated by and may
be useful to all DHTML developers and HierMenus fans, the HierMenus script itself is
a licensed product and its use on your site(s) requires a paid license agreement. Contact
Barry Pullen
or call him at (203) 662-2868 for further information (be sure to let him
know how you plan to use HierMenus and tell him a bit about your organization, as well).
Menu and Item Specific Parameter Settings
In past versions of HierMenus, configuration parameters were limited
to global, page-specific, or menu tree-specific settings.
(In a few specific instances, parameters could also be differentiated
between top level menus in a menu tree and all of the tree's children.)
Menu tree-specific settings mean that you could style an individual
menu tree differently from another menu tree, but you could not style
the child menus of a particular menu tree differently from their parent
menus. All child menus, with few exceptions, inherited the look and feel
of their parent menus. Additionally, certain configuration parameters
such as border and separator widths were not available on the menu tree
level; meaning that, at best, they could only be set once to apply to
all menus displayed on a particular page.
HierMenus version 6 offers a wealth of new menu design possibilities,
by supporting nearly all configuration parameters on a menu-specific
level. No longer is a designer limited to child menus which all look exactly
like their parents, as each individual menu contains a full set of configuration
parameters that are applied specifically to that menu; including colors,
fonts, and widths (menu, border, and separator widths). Of course, global
parameter settings are still supported for ease in assigning
settings that the designer requires to be established "across the board."
HierMenus version 6 also implements item-specific
parameter settings, which override the menu-specific settings for any
particular item within a menu. Practically all the parameters that can
be set on a menu level can be overridden for a specific item; including
background and rollover colors, padding width settings, and font sizes and
styles; meaning that the individual items of a menu need no longer
be identical to one another in appearance.
Finally, in HM5 and previous versions, certain parameters could only be set on
specific types of menus; for example, scrolling was never applied
to PositionUnder menus, and the KeepInWindow behavior was
never applied
to permanent menus. Both of these restrictions are removed in HM6, meaning
that you can create PositionUnder menus which properly display scroll bars
if they exceed the height of the view screen; and the initial display of
permanently visible menus can be automatically adjusted to be within the
viewable area of the browser. And because each of these parameters can
now be applied specifically to individual menus, you can always specifically
set them so as to emulate the HM5 behavior, if you so choose (by setting the
ScrollEnabled and KeepInWindow override variables specifically
on the menu in question).
New Menu Styling Options
In addition to the expanded capabilities of existing configuration parameters
as described above, HM6 will offer many new menu styling options for the first
time. Among the newer offerings:
Text Alignment. Menu text can now be aligned to the left (the default),
right, or center. This removes the need to align individual menu items
using additional HTML in the configuration file (i.e., no more need for:
<div style='text-align:center'>Menu Item 1</div>
in your menu items).  Menu Padding and BackGround Colors. Menu padding widths may be specified
(in pixels only) for the top, right, bottom, and left sides of a menu
(each side is set independently). The MenuPadding is applied between the
border of the menu and the edges of the individual menu items. The color
displayed in this area is controlled by a new menu background
color parameter. (Menu padding and background color are not supported
in NS4.)
Independent Menu Border Widths. Each of the four border widths may be
specified (in pixels only) independently on a menu by menu basis.
(Independent border widths not supported in NS4.) Font Settings. Font weight, size, family, and
style can now be
set independently, with possible values corresponding to their CSS
equivalent settings. This CSS equivalence now includes font size, which can
therefore be set in pixels, points, or any other legal CSS length value.
 Selected Colors. In addition to our existing
"off" and "over" colors for menu items, you may now specify a third set of
colors that will be applied to the item when it is "selected," that is, when
the item has a child menu that is currently visible. The KeepHilite
behavior honors this selected state, so if you roll over a child menu when
KeepHilite is in effect, the parent item (the menu item that spawned
the child menu) will continue to display its "selected" state. Like the
existing IsPermHilite parameter, a new IsSelected parameter
allows you to set a particular item so that it displays its selected state at
all times. (Selected colors not supported in NS4.)
Separator Styles. Item separators can now be
styled in the same manner
as border styles, using CSS keywords such as "groove," "dashed,"
"dotted," and etc. The actual appearance of the separators on the
page is, of course, highly browser dependent; just as it is in
standard CSS settings. (Separator styles are not supported in NS4.) Variable Width Minimums. You can now specify the
minimum width of
variable width menus; ensuring that variable width menus with short
menu item descriptions will still be presented with at least a certain
pixel width. Menu and Item Titles, Image Alternate Text.
You can now specify titles
for your menus and menu items (that will be transfered directly to the
title attribute of the elements) and you can also specify the exact
alt text for more images. Both the title and alt text specifications
can be made at a global, menu specific, or item specific level.
But what about all those "not supported in NS4" disclaimers? Let's
continue our preview with a look at HM6's
support for older browsers.
 
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