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#1 09-08-2009 22:32:50

OutcastGirls
Member
From: New York, NY
Registered: 07-16-2009
Posts: 219

Creating new custom menu

I need help creating a custom menu because I couldn't find it in the Wiki or anywhere else in the forum. How do I do that? Can anyone provide me with more detailed instructions, please?

Currently I have 2 menus: "Categories" and "Other Products", and I need a 3d menu under "Other Products"... There will be 4-5  items under the new menu.

Could anyone also point me to where I can find the existing "Categories" and "Other Products"? I couldn't find them anywhere... My intend was to copy them and modify them but I'm not sure if this would work.

Thanks!

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#2 09-08-2009 22:50:05

dh783
Member
From: Avondale, Arizona
Registered: 04-06-2005
Posts: 6233
Website

Re: Creating new custom menu

Categories and Products are at System Dashboard > Store > Catalog . Don't know if this will help but there is a custom menu at System Dashboard > System > Displays > Custom Menu where items for it can be set, and it's turned on at System Dashboard > System > Displays > Skin Widgets.

John

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#3 09-08-2009 23:11:06

OutcastGirls
Member
From: New York, NY
Registered: 07-16-2009
Posts: 219

Re: Creating new custom menu

Thanks John. Unfortunately that didn't work. When I go to the Custom Menu I don't have the option to create a menu. I expected that under "Function Menu" I'd find the option to create one. The following is what I have there:

"System: Custom Menu

All available options for this function are presented below.

Functions Menu

Search: Locate data in this database table.

Navigation

A total of 3 items are available matching the criteria you selected. All items are presented on this page."


dh783 wrote:

...  there is a custom menu at System Dashboard > System > Displays > Custom Menu where items for it can be set ...

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#4 09-09-2010 09:03:32

shopmagwa
Member
Registered: 08-03-2010
Posts: 64

Re: Creating new custom menu

Any solution here?

I'm having difficulty coming to terms with what seems like a glaring mistake that a new menu can't be simply created via main admin controls and then populated with items / products whatever.

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#5 09-09-2010 09:21:25

dh783
Member
From: Avondale, Arizona
Registered: 04-06-2005
Posts: 6233
Website

Re: Creating new custom menu

Custom menu items must be entered directly in the database core_custommenu.

John

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#6 09-10-2010 08:16:40

shopmagwa
Member
Registered: 08-03-2010
Posts: 64

Re: Creating new custom menu

Is it not possible for example to easily create a second "categories" menu and populate it via standard admin controls?

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#7 09-10-2010 09:32:21

KryptoJim
Member
Registered: 07-08-2010
Posts: 455

Re: Creating new custom menu

shopmagwa wrote:

Is it not possible for example to easily create a second "categories" menu and populate it via standard admin controls?

What standard admin controls would you control it off of?

There's no out of the box way to do this, but you can use php/sql and get it setup reasonably quickly.

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#8 09-10-2010 09:50:29

shopmagwa
Member
Registered: 08-03-2010
Posts: 64

Re: Creating new custom menu

I had imagined a second categories menu would be populated with menu items pointing at products in the same way the current categories menu does.

In other words, for "standard controls" read the same as is currently available for existing categories menu.

Silly me for being so simplistic.

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#9 09-10-2010 10:08:46

KryptoJim
Member
Registered: 07-08-2010
Posts: 455

Re: Creating new custom menu

shopmagwa wrote:

I had imagined a second categories menu would be populated with menu items pointing at products in the same way the current categories menu does.

In other words, for "standard controls" read the same as is currently available for existing categories menu.

Silly me for being so simplistic.

So what you're asking for is a featured1 and featured2 menu essentially?

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#10 09-10-2010 10:17:26

dh783
Member
From: Avondale, Arizona
Registered: 04-06-2005
Posts: 6233
Website

Re: Creating new custom menu

The category menu is a script that looks at the ecom_cat database table looking for categories that have the Main Category Indicator display field set to true thus making the display. To get a menu section to show products in the same manor you would need to create a new field in the product database to control which product should be displayed as well as a new script to query the products to find these products and build the information, new namespace to operate the script and a new include script to display the newly created menu section (not exactly easy).
The custom menu is a script that gets its information for the menu from the core_custommenu database, which means it will display anything within ccp as long as you know the app, namespace and or reference. In the case of products these are

app = ecom
namespace = prodshow
reference = your_product_id

about as simple as it can be in a dynamically built menu without writing allot of new code. The other choice is to hardcode the menu and its items into the skin.

John

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#11 09-10-2010 10:22:15

shopmagwa
Member
Registered: 08-03-2010
Posts: 64

Re: Creating new custom menu

Admin:   "So what you're asking for is a featured1 and featured2 menu essentially?"  -- yes.

John, thanks for the explanation - I'll give that a whirl and revert with either more questions (very likely @ 95%) or a first time success story (very not likely @ 5%)

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#12 09-10-2010 14:12:50

KryptoJim
Member
Registered: 07-08-2010
Posts: 455

Re: Creating new custom menu

shopmagwa wrote:

Admin:   "So what you're asking for is a featured1 and featured2 menu essentially?"  -- yes.

John, thanks for the explanation - I'll give that a whirl and revert with either more questions (very likely @ 95%) or a first time success story (very not likely @ 5%)

Be sure to post your code that you try.  Remember that many members are helpful with these custom mods, and I try to be as well.  We'll help ya work through it!

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#13 09-13-2010 05:48:38

shopmagwa
Member
Registered: 08-03-2010
Posts: 64

Re: Creating new custom menu

After much experimenting it seems as if the custom menu cannot do what I want.

Sure, I can create a menu with individual links to lots of products, but I can't group them by category and that's what I need.

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#14 09-13-2010 08:10:29

shopmagwa
Member
Registered: 08-03-2010
Posts: 64

Re: Creating new custom menu

To explain my predicament further, I require two independent categories menus.

There will be products in each of these that will appear in both,  but not by default.

The best explanation I can think of is...

"Shop by Category 1" which will be various groups of different types of my products, ie, Champagne, Spirits, Wines

"Shop by Category 2" - in which the categories will be event driven, ie, Birthday, Wedding, Anniversary, Engagement etc etc

In Cat 1, Wine for example could be further itemised at product level as perhaps, Red, White, Vinegar, and this same item could appear in Cat 2 - but the customer would reach them via a menu system that begins at the event (eg Birthday) that the product is being bought to celebrate.

So this product could appear in both but reached via different routes - separate Category Menus.

In Cat 2 my customer might come along looking for a Birthday gift and select "Birthday" from my second Category menu, and then I would present a group of products that I deem suitable for Birthday gifts,  but of course they could also already know what they want, "Vinegar Wine" and select it from Category 1 menu.

I need to be able to present this choice of route to product and not be forced into declaring all groups of products via one menu only.

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#15 09-13-2010 11:41:39

dh783
Member
From: Avondale, Arizona
Registered: 04-06-2005
Posts: 6233
Website

Re: Creating new custom menu

You can with the current category menu create for example a main category of Champagne (or other products) with all of its sub-categories and products and another main category of Birthdays (or other events) with all of its sub-categories and products. Both main categories can point to any or all products or categories, you can group them together by giving them display numbers so that all product categories would be grouped together and all events would group together.

As for the custom menu if  you want to display categories instead of products the the information needed would be

app = ecom
namespace = catshow
reference = category_id

John

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#16 09-14-2010 05:23:39

shopmagwa
Member
Registered: 08-03-2010
Posts: 64

Re: Creating new custom menu

Thanks for that John.

I realise I can have Birthdays and Champagne in the same Categories menu, but I want to keep "events" separate as their own categories in a separate menu, even though customers might very well end up at the same end product.

I have a physical retail unit, and how it works there is that customers fall into two categories -

1/ People who know what product they want, ie champagne, and just need help with selecting the right one (product options in online terms)

2/ People who have an upcoming event, for example a Birthday, and start from that point in looking for a suitable gift.

I want to mirror those customer starting points in two separate menus online

In the custom menu, I had figured out that I could pull catshow instead of prodshow,  but when I create the Birthday category, won't it by default appear in the main category menu where I don't want it?

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#17 09-14-2010 07:43:31

dh783
Member
From: Avondale, Arizona
Registered: 04-06-2005
Posts: 6233
Website

Re: Creating new custom menu

Create them as you would make a main category just don't set there Main Category Indicator* to true, this field just makes it display in the normal category menu and doesn't effect anything else. Generally this would cause the category to not be visible by anyone (if its not being called by another category as a sub) but since you will be calling it directly in the custom menu people will see it and it will act the same as if it where displayed in the normal category menu.

John

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#18 09-14-2010 09:55:36

shopmagwa
Member
Registered: 08-03-2010
Posts: 64

Re: Creating new custom menu

That makes sense, thank you John.

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