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Upgrading From HierMenus 4/5 to Version 6
Many changes were made to HierMenus version 6 to accommodate its new feature set. For
those of you familiar with HierMenus version 4/5 implementations, this guide will help
you to both know what the changes are, as well as provide a series of steps to assist you
with the upgrade process. Note that this page is not intended to present all of the
new features of HierMenus 6; for a listing of new features please see the
HierMenus 6 Release Bulletin.
What's Changed
For the do-it-yourselfers who just want the facts and only the facts, here's an
at-a-glance listing of all the primary changes in HierMenus version 6.
- New Configuration File
- By far the biggest single change to HierMenus 6 is our new, easier to manage
configuration file, which allows for named menus (no more 1_2_3_4 naming schemes)
and the setting of parameters by name (you no longer have to remember which "slot"
in the array a particular parameter occupies and count commas up to that slot).
Additionally, a built-in inheritance scheme allows you to easily set parameters
on a global basis that are then inherited by all menus defined, or a menu specific
basis that are then inherited by all items of the menu. Visit
step 2 of our setup
instructions for further details on the new configuration file layout.
Our Array Conversion Tool will give you a great
head start in the transferring of your existing arrays to the new configuration
file format.
- 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.
- Global Variables Specified In Configuration File
- With a few exceptions (6, to be exact) global parameter defaults (formerly
represented by the HM_GL_xxx series of variables) are no longer
specified in the HM_Loader.js file. Rather they are set via the
HM_f_UpdateDefaults command in the configuration file. The 6 global
parameters that must be set in HM_Loader.js are described in
step 1 of the setup
instructions.
- Page Specific Variables Changed
- Similar to the above, page specific variables also have a new syntax, which
is described in the advanced topic
Page Specific Variables in
the setup instructions.
- Configuration File After Scripts, Not Before
- For those dynamically generating a configuration file apart from the
standard HierMenus loading process, you must now generate the file after
the HierMenus execution scripts are loaded, not before (unless you are continuing
to use arrays, in which case they should still be before the
HM_Loader.js call).
- No Restrictions On Permanent/Horizontal/Position Under Menus
- In v4/5 of HierMenus, permanently displayed menus
(IsPermanent equals
true), and position under menus were never allowed to be scrollable
and never followed the standard HierMenus keep in window behavior. Additionally,
horizontal menus were also never allowed to be scrollable. In HM 6, these
restrictions have been removed. If you want to emulate the version 5 behavior,
you will therefore need to set your permanent, horizontal, and/or position under
menus like this:
IsPermanent:true,
ScrollEnabled:false,
TopKeepInWindowX:false,
TopKeepInWindowY:false,
ChildKeepInWindowX:false,
ChildKeepInWindowY:false
- Position Under
- Speaking of which, the menu array parameter formerly known as position under
is now called PositionChild and
accepts two possible values: above and below.
- Top vs. Child
- In the new configuration file, a single menu can serve as both a top level menu
and a child menu (and in fact, it can serve as a child menu to multiple parent items).
This necessitated the separation of several parameters into "Top" vs. "Child" entries;
i.e., the "Top" version of the parameter is applied to the menu when it is being
used as a top level menu, and the "Child" version of the parameter is used when the
menu is being utilized as a child menu. The parameters so split include:
TopMenuX,
TopMenuY,
ChildMenuX,
ChildMenuY,
TopUponDisplay,
TopUponHide,
ChildUponDisplay,
ChildUponHide,
TopKeepInWindowX,
TopKeepInWindowY,
ChildKeepInWindowX, and
ChildKeepInWindowY.
- FontSize
- FontSize now accepts length
units ("px", "em", etc.).
- FontBold, FontItalic
- FontBold is now called FontWeight,
and FontItalic is now called FontStyle.
Each of the parameters now accepts as valid values any valid CSS setting for their corresponding CSS
properties.
- MenuID, ChildID
- All menus must now include a MenuID,
which identifies the menu. Child menus are assigned to menu items by assigning their
ChildID parameter to a valid, existing
MenuID.
- 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.
- TopSecondsVisible, TreeSecondsVisible Obsolete
- TopSecondsVisible and TreeSecondsVisible
are now obsolete; replaced instead with the single variable
MilliSecondsVisible, which,
like most other parameters, can be assigned independently on a menu-by-menu
basis. Separate top vs. tree hiding times are no longer available; instead, the entire
menu tree will be hidden simultaneously based on the MilliSecondsVisible setting
of the last menu rolled over.
- HoverTimeTop, HoverTimeTree Obsolete
- HoverTimeTop and HoverTimeTree
are now obsolete; replaced instead with the single variable
HoverTimeMilliSeconds,
which, like most other parameters, can be assigned independently on a menu-by-menu
basis.
- HM_a_TreesToBuild
- The HM_a_TreesToBuild parameter has been replaced with
MenusToBuild.
- ImageSize
- ImageSize is now known as
ImageWidth.
- mouse_x_position / mouse_y_position
- The keywords formerly known as mouse_x_position and mouse_y_position
are now known as HM_default_x_position and HM_default_y_position.
see the Menu Positioning Mini Tutorial
for further information.
- Some Optimized Variable Names Changed
- To accommodate the new application of global parameters as object properties instead
of global variables, some optimized parameter names have changed. This only effects
you if you're using the optimized code set and have applied your own custom routines
or functions that interact with HierMenus internal variables. See the new
cross-reference chart for a complete
listing.
Upgrade Steps
With the above changes in mind, you should follow these general steps when
upgrading from version 4/5 of HierMenus to version 6.
Install and setup the HierMenus 6 scripts on your server in accordance
with step 1 of the version 6
setup instructions. We recommend creating an entirely new directory for this
step, so that you can--at least temporarily--keep your new configurations entirely
separate from your old. Read through the documentation for the configuration file
(step 2 of the setup
instructions) to get a feel for the layout of the new configuration commands
and syntax. Then use our Conversion Tool to perform
the initial conversion of your existing arrays into the HM6 configuration file
format. Finally, review the results of the conversion in light of the step
2 documentation, and install your resulting configuration file on your server
as in the step 2 instructions. It's important that you review the results
of your configuration file before directly implementing to ensure that
the transfer was made as expected. The conversion tool is quite thorough, but
will not necessarily create the most efficient configuration file
possible. For example, it will generate a new HM_f_SetMenuTemplate
call with each new menu tree definition; which, if all your menu trees are
designed the same way, may not be necessary (but will still work, of course).
Also, if you have an HM_o_RolloverImages object defined in your
existing array file, copy it as is (the HM6 syntax is identical) to the
new configuration file. If you don't know what HM_o_RolloverImages
is then you aren't using it. Convert page specific variables--if you still need them--to the new
syntax. See the advanced topic Page Specific Variables
for further information (and note that many, many existing HierMenus version 4/5
implementations misuse page specific variables badly. Both the advanced topic
described above and our array conversion tool discuss this point). Apply HierMenus to your test pages (always work with test pages
first) as per the instructions in
step 3 of the setup instructions.
With the exception of the alternate cross frames implementation method (new to
HierMenus version 6) you will find these instructions to be syntactically identical
to the version 4/5 application instructions; including the loading of the
HM_Loader.js file as well as the onmouseover / onmouseout commands
for pop up menus. The only differences include:
- The popUp and popDown dummy functions are no longer
officially documented (but you may continue to use them if you like; simply
continue to include them in your dummy functions declaration script).
- When specifying a menu name in your HM_f_PopUp and
HM_f_PopDown calls, you must now use the menu's MenuID.
If you used the conversion script above, you will find that the MenuID
was automatically assigned in the same manner as HM 4/5 (i.e., HM_Menu1,
HM_Menu1_2_4, etc.). But in any event, the elMenu1,
elMenu1_2_4 etc. syntax is no longer supported in HierMenus 6; you
must refer to the actual MenuID in your HM_f_PopUp and
HM_f_PopDown calls.
As always, feel free to contact us if you run into any snags with this process.
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