Hi!

I have a question about the products dropdown menu. Is it possible to change the ordering in there? I’m using the menu in two columns and I would like to change the automatically offered ordering. The problem is that I don’t want to change the sidebar-A menu ordering, just the ordering in the dropdown.

Please see the attachment…

Hi,

You have asked a very hard question. Currently no, because it requires some custom coding modification. I am not even sure the coding changes would be enough itself to achieve what you are looking for. But i can say It requires some extra work and bunch of testing for different scenarios.

Because in the drop down, the listing the menu item goes straight, line by line;
1
2
3
4

but if you define 2 columns, the listing gets cut in the middle and put the next group to right side. So it becomes:
1 3
2 4

In order to have:
1 2
3 4

the original listing should have been like this:
1
3
2
4

(which is an extra ordinary situation)

So, when it gets cut in the middle (to generate the 2nd column) we would have
1 2
3 4


I hope you followed me and understood what i am seeing.

There is a trick you can do;

Create 2 menu groups. (one to use in the top menu module, one to use in the sidebar menu module)
But while creating the 2nd menu group, use "Menu Item Alias".

Menu Item Alias = is actually the duplicate copy of the allied item but you are allowed to name it differently, and also you can change the order of it in the group differently as well.

If you don't use Menu Item Alias, then if you choose the menu item from the top menu, that item won't be "active" in the side bar. But with Menu Item Alias, since they are allies, once you click any menu item in the top menu, if they are allies, the other item in the sidebar would also be active too.

Understand the idea? Spend some time on it and do some tests. It is a doable thing.

Regards,
Support

Thank you for the fast reply!

Yes, I think I understand the idea, but the tricky part for me is using one menu group in the top menu module and the other one in the sidebar menu module. I can make the Menu Item Alias, and it works too, but then I see double menus in the top menu module and sidebar menu module. How can I assigne one menu group to one menu module and the other menu group to the other menu module?

All the best,
Maris

Currently, you have 1 menu group.

This menu group is being used in the "Top menu module" and the "Sidebar menu module". Is that correct?

What i am saying is, create an another menu group (for the sidebar menu module), this menu group will have the exact same menu items as the main menu group. But those menu items will be created by using Menu item Allies.

Then open the "Sidebar menu module" and choose the newly created menu group from the menu drop down. So the module will have the sidebar menu group. (instead of the top menu group)

As a result, if you click any item in the main menu, the allied menu item will also be marked as "active" in the sidebar, because they would be allies menu items.

You can define a different ordering for the sidebar menu items. Which is what you are looking for I guess.
Because you asked:

Regards,
Support

Ummm... I still don’t manage it. In DarkMart there is no “Sidebar menu group” or “top menu group”. All the menus are under “main menu”.

Here is what I did:

First the sketch of what I wanted to do.



So, I created another menu group called “Pood” and all the menu items in there were created by using Menu item Allies. Now I have two “Pood” dropdown menus which are differently organized.



And now the tricky part begins. If I switch off the first “Pood” menu, from the main menu, then the all top menu disappears. If I switch off the second “Pood” menu, from the main menu, then nothing happens. I still have two “Pood” menus.



If I switch off the first “Pood” menu, from the sidebar menu, then the all sidebar goes missing. If I switch off the second “Pood” menu, from the sidebar menu, then nothing happens. The sidebar is still gone.



The strange thing is that I can make two “Pood” dropdowns, but I can’t make double menus for sidebar…

I just need to remove the first “Pood” dropdown menu and I’m all set. How can I do that? Is it even possible?

Maris

No you misunderstood me. Or i misunderstood you. 'cause i am little confused. I guess you are newbies to joomla, because i think we are talking about the same thing.

Here i am explain my self again with screenshot.

I said "create a menu group", a completely new menu group. (like mainmenu)
One menu group: mainmenu comes with the DarkMArt QuickStart, but you can create your own, as many as you want through Joomla Backend.

From here:



Name this menu as "Sidebar" and duplicate "all" the menu item that you have in mainmenu to sidebar. (but make them "Allies")

If you have around 10-20 menu items total, it won't take you more than 10 minutes. But if you a large menu tree with 100 menu items, that might be very annoying though)





But of course the menu item inside the sidebar menu group will be Allies of the menu items in the mainmenu. So the "active" menu item will be carried.

Then open the SideBar Module.



And do this change.




Regards,
support

No you misunderstood me. Or i misunderstood you. 'cause i am little confused. I guess you are newbie to joomla, because i think we are not talking about the same thing.

Here i am explain myself again with screenshots.

I said "create a menu group", a completely new menu group. (like mainmenu)
There is one menu group, mainmenu that comes with the DarkMart QuickStart, but you can create your own, as many as you want, through Joomla Backend Menu Manager.

From here:


Name this menu as "Sidebar" and duplicate "all" the menu item that you have in mainmenu to sidebar. (but make them "Allies")

If you have around 10-20 menu items total in the mainmenu, it won't take you more than 10 minutes to generate Allies duplicated to sidebar group. But if you have a large menu tree around 100 menu items, that might be very annoying)




But of course the menu item inside the sidebar menu group will be Allies of the menu items in the mainmenu. So the "active" menu item will be carried along with the menu group.

Then, open the SideBar Module.



And choose the sidebar from the drop down. So the SideBar module will reflect the sidebar menu group (instead of mainmenu)



Also, to make the "Sidebar" module published in the new menu item pages you have created. (because even though they are allies, each menu item is a page and they have their own individual itemID)

then select the new menu items from the below checkbox list to publish the module on those Allies pages.





Regards,
support

Thank you for re-explaining things. The screenshots were very helpful. I was completely off the course. But still…

I created a new menu group called “New sidebar”. Then I duplicated all the menu items that I had in the mainmenu to “New sidebar” (except the homepage) with the Menu item Allies. After that I opened the sidebar module in module manager and set the menu to “New sidebar”. Then I checked all the menu items in the “New sidebar”.



After saving the sidebar module I see no menu links on the sidebar.



What have I done wrong now?

Maris

Hmm, that's weird.

Please leave everything as they are right now.
Email me your Joomla (super) admin account to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and let me take a look at the module and menu settings.

You must be missing something somewhere, but i can't tell it now by looking at the screenshots.
(the screenshots show you did everything correctly, but i need to see them alive.)

While emailing to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Don't forget to include this forum topic's URL at the of your message (or in the Subject field) as reference to avoid possible confusion in our end.

Sorry, I can't do that. It is running on localhost. Maybe you can tell me which setting you want to look at and I can make screenshots? I haven't changed any module or menu settings after QuickStart install.

Maris

Hi,

IF I knew or had any idea about what went wrong. I would have told you right away, instead of asking your login credentials.

But try this;
As i am seeing in the screenshots. You have selected Start Level: 2 (in the SideBar Module at the right-hand-side parameters)

Change that number to Start Level:1. And see if you start seeing the left sidebar module and check if the allies menu item becomes active.

A quick sample: We have done the same thing in flexiblewebdesign.com as well.
There is a "top menu" at the top of this page:
MODULES - TEMPLATES - SERVICES - SUPPORT - BLOG - COMPANY

Right?
And there are lots of links at the bottom section. (around 20-25 links) some of the bottom links are marked as allies with the top menu links

For instance, click the "Company" from the top menu and you will see that at the bottom; "About Us" (under Company title) will also be active. They are actually not the same links, but "About US" in the bottom menu group and the "Company" in the top menu group are allies. I told you to do the same thing.

By the way; this is not a feature of our template, it is a feature of Joomla2.5 itself.
Joomla 2.5 is capable to do that. (Item Alias wasn't possible in Joomla1.5 though)


regards,
support

Hi,

I changed the Start Level from 2 to 1 and now there are all the top menu links on the sidebar all the time. And only 3 of the allies links work. All the others give me 404 error. I can't figure out, why only 3 of them work and how are they different from all the others. Any ideas?

Absolutely no idea what might have gone wrong.
If you said "all of them not working", that would be understandable. But you are saying, 3 of them working fine.

Awkward. I definitely need to browse your joomla backend and see what you have done.

Regards,
Support

Hi!

I managed to upload the test version of my shop. I sent all the necessary log in information to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Please let me know if you received it and maybe now you can help me fix the problem with the menus.

Greetings,
Maris