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HierMenus 6.0: Release Notes

D.M Ragle, April 8, 2004

HierMenus 6.0 has landed!

Version 6.0 of HierMenus is chock full of improvements, the direct result of many requests you've made of us over the years. We're pleased to announce its official release and immediate availability. Additionally, you've no doubt already noticed the major face lift we've given to this HierMenusCentral.com site. By rearranging some things (especially the documentation) we hope to make the site easier to use and more helpful than ever before. The new HierMenusCentral.com is more, however, than just a redesign of existing content; many, many new pages have been added to the site documenting and explaining the newer features of HierMenus. And much of the existing content (including all the reference pages) have been redone to make key HierMenus information easier to find and access.

The remainder of this release notes bulletin will introduce you to the features of HierMenus 6.0, by directing you to the appropriate areas of our newly redesigned site.

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).

What's New?

We begin with a look at the new features of HierMenus 6, and later on this page we'll examine the major changes made between version 5 and version 6.

In each of the following sections we refer you to the actual reference pages and/or tutorials elsewhere on the site that describe in detail the new feature(s) being introduced. If you'd prefer to start with a more concise rundown of the new features provided in HierMenus 6, you might want to refer to our HierMenus 6.0 sneak preview, which was the topic of Bulletin 13.

The new features of HierMenus 6.0 include:

New Site and Documentation

Our HierMenusCentral.com site has been completely redesigned to help you find the information you need quickly and easily. The key components of this new design include:

• Documentation
  Instead of spreading reference entries throughout the site in various independent articles and bulletins, we've collected all the parameter reference entries in a single place (see the new reference section). Additionally, our documentation area is now home to multiple new "mini-tutorials," including Menu Positioning and Using Classes, which further explain the use of key parameters in conjunction with a particular HM task. Finally, our setup instructions section includes a new advanced topics section with mini-tutorials devoted to such issues as Using the Custom Code in HM_Loader.js and Using HierMenus with a Database.

• Known Issues
  Our known issues list is now grouped by browser, with separate pages defined for each issue, allowing you to browse and find issues faster.

• FAQ
  Our expanded Frequently Asked Questions section has also been broken out into individual pages, making the questions easier to browse.

• Browser Compatibility
  Many of our newer features are not supported in all browsers. The parameter reference now includes browser support information for each parameter described, and our browser compatibility chart has been expanded to note which browsers support which of the new major features.

• Samples
  Rather than only link to sample pages and menus from within release articles, we've collected our sample pages into a single area that will always reflect the latest HierMenus release. In addition, we've added multiple sample pages to demonstrate the use of some of the newer HM6 features; including Reposition On Scroll menus and Buttons.

Menu and Item Specific Parameter Settings

The number one request you've made of HierMenus since the early days of version 4 is support for menu and item specific parameter settings; i.e., the ability to define individual menus so that they needn't look just like their parent menus, and to style individual menu items so they don't look identical to all the other items in a menu. The new, easier to manage configuration file layout of HierMenus version 6 addresses each of these issues, allowing you to specify nearly all the configuration parameters on a menu-by-menu or item-by-item basis. See our new setup instructions, and especially the layout of our new configuration file for further details.

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. We refer you to the new reference pages for each of the following new parameters:

BorderTopWidth
BorderRightWidth
BorderBottomWidth
BorderLeftWidth
MenuPaddingTop
MenuPaddingRight
MenuPaddingBottom
MenuPaddingLeft
FontWeight
FontStyle
FontColorSelected
BGColorSelected
IsSelected
MenuClass
ItemClass
ItemClassOver
ItemClassSelected
ButtonClass
ButtonClassOver
ButtonClassSelected
IsGroupSeparator
MenuBackgroundImage
MenuBackgroundProperties
ScrollBackgroundImage
ItemBackgroundImage
ItemBackgroundProperties
MenuOpacity
ItemOpacity
MenuTitle
ItemTitle
SeparatorStyle
TextAlign
VariableWidthMinimum

In addition to the reference pages listed above, we also highly recommend giving the Using Classes Mini-Tutorial a look, as it describes HM's new ability to use style sheet classes to apply basic styling to menus and buttons.

Alternate Cross Frame Methodology

In addition to our standard cross frame implementation instructions, we now provide an alternate cross frame implementation method which remedies many of the limitations inherent in the standard method. Our Cross Frames Primer describes the basic differences between the two methodologies, while our setup instructions provides the directions you need to apply either method to your own site. Finally, our new samples area provides working cross frame pages for both types of implementation.

Enhanced Menu Positioning

New keywords and the addition of custom code in the HM_Loader.js provide several new menu positioning options, all of which are described in detail in our new Menu Positioning Mini-Tutorial. In addition, check out the reference entries for each of these configuration parameters:

IsFixed
RepositionOnScroll
RepositionInterval
ScrollPositionDelay
TopMenuX
TopMenuY
ChildMenuX
ChildMenuY
PositionChild
TopKeepInWindowX
TopKeepInWindowY
ChildKeepInWindowX
ChildKeepInWindowY

See also our sample pages, which include examples of relative positioning as well as fixed and reposition on scroll menus.

Transitions and Filters

HierMenus version 6 offers support for Internet Explorer 5.5+ transitions and filters, via the following new parameter entries:

IEFilters
IEShowTransition
IEHideTransition

Again, our sample pages include IE5.5+ transition and filter examples.

Custom Transitions / Menu Event Hooks

Feeling like getting your hands dirty? HierMenus now supports both menu event hooks--the calling of custom menu/item methods of your own design at key points of HierMenus processing--and custom transitions, which are themselves a special type of menu event hook. More information on both topics can be found in the following mini-tutorials:

Custom Transitions
Menu Event Hooks

as well as the following parameter reference entries:

HM_OnBuildMenus
HM_OnCreateItem
HM_OnCreateMenu
HM_OnLink
HM_OnItemClick
HM_OnItemCreated
HM_OnItemHilite
HM_OnItemHover
HM_OnItemOver
HM_OnItemOut
HM_OnMenuCreated
HM_OnMenuOut
HM_OnMenuOver
HM_OnMove
HM_OnVisibilityToggle
killTrans
setTrans

In addition, the HM6 HM_Loader.js file includes an example custom transition that implements sliding menus via the following configuration parameters:

SlideInFrom
SlideInInterval
SlideInPercent
SlideOutInterval
SlideOutPercent
SlideOutTo

New Configuration File

Our new configuration file format was designed to make it easier to build and maintain menu configuration definitions, without the hassles inherent in array based structures. You can read all about our new structure in step 2 of our setup instructions.

Custom Code in HM_Loader.js

Several of the new features described above are implemented by way of custom code in the HM_Loader.js file. This is the subject of the advanced setup topic Using the Custom Code in HM_Loader.js in our setup instructions, and we refer you to it to learn how to position menus relative to an object that exists within your page, how to implement sliding menus, and how to implement an IFRAME based masking technique that allows your menus to properly cover select elements in IE5.5/6.

What's Changed?

For existing HierMenus users or those who are familiar with past versions of our product, the new upgrading section in our documentation area has a complete run-down on the changes between HierMenus version 6 and HierMenus version 5. We refer you to that page for all the details, but in brief we'd like to draw your attention to these important points:

Browser Compatibility

Browser compatibility in version 6 remains the same as it was in version 5, with three important exceptions.

Internet Explorer on the Macintosh is no longer supported by HierMenus. Despite our best efforts, we continue to uncover menuing problems in this browser for which we can discover no graceful workarounds. This, combined with Microsoft's decision to produce no new versions of Internet Explorer for Mac led us to our decision to drop support for Mac IE entirely in HierMenus version 6.

Konqueror 3.x is disabled in HierMenus version 6. Unlike Macintosh Internet Explorer v5, it is our hope that we can reinstate Konqueror support in HierMenus in a later maintenance release. For now, however, we've uncovered several key problems in our Konqueror implementation that we were unable to resolve in time for this initial publication. We will continue to work on these issues and hope to provide you with a Konquerer capable version in the near future.

Finally, as mentioned above, note that not all of our new features are implemented in all browsers. See our compatibility page for basic support of each of the major new features, as well as the reference entries for the parameters corresponding to the features, each of which now states which browsers they are or are not compatible with.

New Configuration File Layout

Our new configuration file is discussed at length in our setup instructions. Especially for our existing users (of version 4/5), the upgrade section of our documentation includes a link to a script tool that will assist you in the conversion of your existing array-based configuration files to our new file format.

CreateChildrenJIT, CreateMenusOnLoad, CreateTopOnly Obsolete

CreateChildrenJIT, CreateMenusOnLoad, and CreateTopOnly are now obsolete; replaced instead with the single variable CreateOnLoad, which, like most other parameters, can be assigned independently on a menu-by-menu basis. Like the parameters it replaces, note that CreateOnLoad is true by default. We suspect this will be one of the more commonly altered global parameter settings.

Conclusion

As always, we'd like to thank all of our customers whose suggestions have helped us to shape HierMenus over the years. We hope you enjoy this new major upgrade to our product!