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A dynamic menu management system for the Web and Notes (continued)
A simple tool that I use for creating buttons is Hot Buttons from Jalapeno software (at http://www.jalapenosoftware.com). There are probably many other great software packages for creating menu images but I haven't found one as simple, quick and cheap as this one. Plus, the buttons it creates also look good in a Notes navigator. [This tip alone is worth the price of admission! -- DG]
The "heart" of the system: The Menu Item Form
The heart of the system is the Menu Item Form, which can be seen in Figure A. This form collects all of the vital information about a link that can be used for maximum effectiveness. Rather than just gathering the name of the link and the URL that it pointed to, I also wanted to gather other information that could be useful.
FIGURE A
 
The Menu Item Form collects a lot of useful information about a link. Roll over picture for a larger image.
Table A contains a rundown of the most important fields on the form and what their purpose is. Don't be confused comparing Figure A with the table -- I'm describing only the most important fields here.
| Field Name |
Description |
| NotesDocLink |
This is a rich-text field where I pasted the Notes doclink if there was one. I'll tell you why later. |
| MenuItemHeading |
This is a keyword field with an @DbColumn formula that enables me to pick one of the menu item headings that has already been defined with the menu heading form. |
| MenuHeadingGIF and MenuHeadingRank |
These are both computed fields that use an @DbLookup formula (based on contents of the MenuItemHeading field) to find out the URL for the Menu Heading GIF and to calculate the ranking of this heading. |
| MenuItemTarget |
This is a radio button field that is used by the framed version of the Web Menu View. |
| StatusBarMessage |
This is a text field that contains a description of the link that is put in the status bar of the browser when the mouse moves over the link. |
I'll show you how I use the MenuItemTarget and StatusBarMessage fields later in this article.
The "eyes" of the system: The Web Menu View
Creating Web views with HTML has always been one of my favorite things to do (OK, so I'm easily amused!). And I definitely had fun creating the Web Menu View that brings this whole system together. The greatest advantage, of course, to making every link a document is that you can view them in myriad ways without changing the information.
There are actually two slightly different versions of the Web Menu View, one that works in a framed environment and one that can be inserted directly on a regular page (in a $$ViewBody field). You can see how the Web Menu View looks in design mode in Figure B.
FIGURE B
 
Here is how the Web Menu View looks in design mode. This is the non-frames version. Roll over picture for a larger image.
There are hidden columns in each view that sort the menu items into exactly the order I want them (using both the MenuHeadingRank and MenuItemRank fields). All but two columns are hidden. The first visible column is sorted ascending and categorized on either the MenuItemHeading or the MenuHeadingName, depending on whether or not you have an image for the heading or not. Here's the formula:
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