Menu's, menu's, and more menu's!
Last Post 11/21/2008 5:32 PM by Steve. 5 Replies.
Author Messages
Steve
Nuke Active Member
Nuke Active Member
Posts:33


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11/19/2008 2:00 PM
    Well, I've been trying to steam ahead with the DNN sites I inherited a few months ago.  I've found lots of great stuff here (thanks Lee & co.) but my head is swimming with the different menu options out ther.  I have several skins that we have worked with (none of which are terribly good, unfortunately) and I have been shopping for some new options.  While trying to find a good W3C valid CSS skin, I've come across tons of options for menu's and it seems every skin delevoper has their own favorites.  So far, I've run across the free options of the built in solpart, a customized solpart, DNNNav, and the House menu that Lee recommended in some of the early tutorials, as well as the paid options of Snapsis, JD, and a handful of other more obscure offerings.  Does anyone have any feedback regarding which menu option works best for different applications (especially as they relate to on page SEO and internal linking structures) or is there a review/resource that gives an overview of the pros and cons of the different menu options out there?

    Thanks!
    Lee Sykes
    DNN Creative Staff
    Nuke Master VI
    Nuke Master VI
    Posts:4945


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    11/19/2008 2:17 PM
    Hello,

    If you are looking for a menu for SEO reasons, any CSS based unordered list menu will be SEO friendly.

    My favourites are HouseMenu and Snapsis.

    Snapsis has more configuration options, I have a developer version of Snapsis menu and this allows me to use those menus on all of my client sites or any skins you wish to sell.

    As a subscriber you can get a discount - check the subscriber discounts in the forum. Thanks,
    Lee Sykes
    Site Administrator
    Subscribe to the website : DotNetNuke Video Tutorials : The Skinning Toolkit : DotNetNuke Podcasts

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    Steve
    Nuke Active Member
    Nuke Active Member
    Posts:33


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    11/19/2008 2:30 PM
    I typically end up using a hybrid of a vertical menu and a horizontal menu due to the sheer number of categories that we use (an bad implementation, but good example of what I'm looking to do can be found at www.unclehowards.com).  Do you think the Snapsis CSS menu will let me do something like this?
    Lee Sykes
    DNN Creative Staff
    Nuke Master VI
    Nuke Master VI
    Posts:4945


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    11/19/2008 2:39 PM
    Hello,

    Yes that should be possible with snapsis, I have used snapsis CSS with flyout menus on a horizontal menu and it should be possible on a vertical menu.

    thanks,
    Lee Sykes
    Site Administrator
    Subscribe to the website : DotNetNuke Video Tutorials : The Skinning Toolkit : DotNetNuke Podcasts

    Twitter: www.twitter.com/DNNCreative

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    Steve
    Nuke Active Member
    Nuke Active Member
    Posts:33


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    11/19/2008 2:43 PM
    Thanks! I'm still a bit curious about some of the other options, but I think that gives me enough confidence to try the Snapsis menu until I have the time and the supporting knowledge to explore more.
    Steve
    Nuke Active Member
    Nuke Active Member
    Posts:33


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    11/21/2008 5:32 PM
    Well, I've purchased the Snapsis CSSMenu.  Installing it is turning out to be more complicated than I was expecting.  I'm not terribly proficient editing skins yet (i've played around a bit, but am still working my way through the tutorials) and from what I can tell, it does require splicing the menu's css code into the skin's css file.  I had hoped it would be a little more plug & play.  Hopefully I'll manage to figure out how to integrate it into my skin today!


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