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Key Lotus Web Content Management definitions - Menu component

The following article describes a Menu component within Lotus Web Content Management. All examples are based on the River Bend Tea and Coffee Company Web site.

A menu is ultimately a search mechanism that groups together related documents based on specific criteria such as categories, keywords, authoring templates, site areas, and so forth.

To users, menus and navigators provide similar functionality, which allows a user to navigate around the site or to locate specific content. A menu differs from a navigator in the way that it is constructed and in the way that it displays the resulting links. A menu displays content, while a navigator displays site areas for navigation. Think of a menu as a list of documents grouped by a number of different criteria (categories, site areas, keywords, and so forth).

When a document is created, changed, or deleted, menus are updated dynamically, and the link lists displays the recent changes, eliminating the need for re-coding and preventing the possibility of broken.

Menus display links as images, icons with text, links with a summary, or many other combinations (see Figure 21 ).

Figure 21 Menu construction from various selection criteria (31_21)

The River Bend Web site displays content that is created for the News Corporate Information site area through the menu Menu-Corporate Information (See Figure 22 ). The menu displays the display title, and body. 

Figure 22 Menu-Corporate Information News page (31_22)

The following options define a menu:

Menu Element Query – Site Area:

• The available selection criteria can create very granular menus. In the River Bend Web site, the Menu-Careers definitions are kept very general.
• Matching content associated site areas define a menu for content that is linked to the selected site areas using the Select Site Areas button. This action makes the menu specific for a certain site area but not generally usable as the MENU-Site Area is intended. It has to be usable for every site area in the River Bend Web site.
• Similar to navigators, ancestors and descendants can be included in the menu selection by select the Include ancestors and Include descendants options.
• By expanding Further Options the user can:
  • Select User-specified rendering portlet, which searches for site areas defined in the settings of the Rendering portlet.
  • Select current content which searches for content that is in the same site areas as the one being currently rendered
• Enter a query string. The selection would be based on the parameters sent
• Choose to merge selected authoring templates with included authoring templates. This option merges the contents that are found by the menu based on the settings made in this section with those contents that are found with the selected authoring template
• Choose to replace selected authoring templates with included authoring template. This option overrides the contents found by the menu based on the settings made in this section over the ones from the selected authoring template

Menu Element Query – Authoring Template:

• The Matching Authoring Templates option like the one used in the Menu-HomePage , identifies content that is created using the authoring template that is selected for this option. This option is not related to the hierarchical site framework structure but finds content beyond and independently.
• By expanding Further Options the user can
  • Choose the current template to be selected
• Enter a query string. The selection would be based on the parameters sent
• Choose to merge selected authoring templates with included authoring templates. This option merges the contents that are found by the menu based on the settings made in this section with those contents that are found with the selected authoring template
• Choose to replace selected authoring templates with included authoring template. This option overrides the contents found by the menu based on the settings made in this section over the ones from the selected authoring template

Menu Element Query – Categories:

• Matching content that is associated with categories takes advantage of content categorization. Again, independent from the hierarchical site framework, all content is found that contains the categories as specified in this field. Selected the results must match all categories option creates a AND link between all categories.
• Similar to navigators and site areas, ancestors and descendants can be included in the menu selection by select the Include ancestors and Include descendants options.
• By expanding Further Options , the options are similar to the ones used in the Site Area search criteria. For the current content and current user option, the user can narrow down the search by restricting certain categories.
  • The option for selecting current content, searches for contents profiled with the same categories used to profile the current rendered content.
  • The option for selecting current user, searches for content profiled with the same categories as those selected by the current user

Menu Element Query – Keywords:

• Identical functionality as matching content that is associated with categories provides the Matching Content Keywords field. However, the keywords have to be typed rather than selecting them from a list. The related field in the authoring template -- whose values are compared in this option -- is also a text field where users enter the keywords. Finding content with this option can be difficult as no guidance on keyword spelling nor a list of existing keywords exists.
• By expanding Further Options , the options are similar to the ones used in the Site Area search criteria.
  • The option for selecting current content, searches for contents profiled with the same keywords used to profile the current rendered content.
  • The option for selecting current user, searches for content profiled with the same keywords as those selected by the current user

    Note: The user can also select to exclude current content from the results returned when applicable.

The following options define the presentation of content using the menu MENU-Site Area:

• The current document can be excluded in the displayed menu by selecting the exclude current document from . That is only valid if the case is applicable , which reminds you that a menu can be displayed in a content context and also can be based on a site or site area.
• The ascending order for results option is selected. Alternatively, deselecting the field creates a descending order based on the sort key of Results Primary, Results Secondary, and Results Tertiary sort key fields. Available sort keys are: name, description, published date, last modified date, title, expiry date, general date One, and general date two.
• The results per page is set to zero (0) to allow all items to display on one page regardless of how many are found. Increasing the number changes the number of documents that display. For example, changing the results per page to 3 displays documents 1 through 3 on page 1, documents 4 through 6 on page 2, and so on.

For a better overview, limit the number of displayed documents to no more than 10. Also, sort in reverse order so that the newest document is at the top of the list.

• The Start Page field defines on which page results display.
• The maximum pages to include option limits the total number of pages that will be displayed and returned for the menu.
• The pages to read ahead option controls the number of result pages to read ahead when using a page navigation element.

The following fields define the design for the menu to appear on the pages through text, tags, and components:

• Header Design can specify a header text or component to appear before the menu list.
• The appearance for the Menu elements are defined in the Component Design for each matching Content field.
• The footer defines the design below the menu and separator between the menu element.
• The layout if no results are returned defines the layout if there were no matching content items. No header nor footer will be displayed in that case.