gpEasy Custom Menus Tutorial

gpEasy 2.x introduces significant feature enhancements and one of those is the ability to have multiple unique menus. Glade I didn't write up the tutorial for 1.7 ;)

The menus area is found via the "Page Manager" admin page. Previously the "Page Manager" was named "File Manager." As you will note in my tutorials I often referred to the File Manager as File/Page Manager. Many users were often confused as to the name of the File Manager. They often thought they should be managing files in that area. In reality you are managing files in the "Page Manager." The files gpEasy uses to create your web pages and they are found in the /data/_pages/ folder (see the folder structure tutorial). Nonetheless, the choice was made to rename the "File Manager" to "Page Manager." Please don't be confused by the new naming convention.

Main Menu

The first thing to learn about in the Page Manager is the "Main Menu." This is the default menu that gpEasy uses. After Josh's, the gpEasy developer, clarification on how the Main Menu functions in relation to gpEasy I realized that we need to know certain things about this Main Menu if we choose to use multiple alternative menus and do not have all our pages in the Main Menu.

If you remove a page from the Main Menu, as of gpEasy 2.1, that page will NOT show up in the site map (/Special_Site_Map).

If you remove a gallery from the Main Menu it will not show up in the /Special_Galleries page.

The Main Menu is the ONLY menu that allows you to delete a page and change a page's associated layout.

The above functions associated with the Main Menu must be understood before using additional menus in gpEasy. Let me give you an example. Here on trueacu.com I'm using several alternative/additional unique custom menus in addition to the Main Menu however, I don't actually use the Main Menu on any layout--you the visitor won't see it anywhere other than the site map. The reason I don't use the Main Menu on any layout is because I have nearly all pages & galleries in it and I don't want a menu like that on any layout but I need to have all the pages and galleries in it so that they will show up in the site map and special galleries pages. Therefore, for my purposes I use the Main Menu only to organize all my pages so that I can easily see what layouts are applied, ensure that all the pages show up in the site map that I want there and special galleries page has all the galleries. In other words, it's just a functional menu for me to work with. It isn't one being used in any layouts and therefore isn't seen anywhere on my site other than the site map.

That's a long way of saying, if you are NOT going to have all your pages in the Main Menu then consider using it only for work purposes--site map, applied layouts, and special galleries organization.

Now let's check out the "Page Manager."

gpEasy CMS Page Manager

  • The Page Manager

    Notice the different areas of the Page Manager. At the bottom you have two areas, Menus and Lists.

    Menus area allows you to choose what menu to work with or create a new menu. Currently on this fresh installation there is only the Main Menu to work with.

    The Lists area allows you to select different lists to work with pages.

    Later we will see a third area at the bottom when working with an added menu.

    Also notice the drop down selection box. It gives you the option to quickly select the menu you want to work with or a list--same as the bottom lists.

    Finally notice the different elements you get when clicking on a page.

  • Drop Down Menu

    Choose the menu you want to work with or a list you wish to view.

  • Drag-N-Drop

    All menus in gpEasy are easily rearranged by dragging and dropping a page within a menu. This is how you organize the layout of your menu pages.

Many aspects of the Page Manager are rather self evident. Take a look at the tutorial for creating new pages for more info about page options--not much has changed with that since 1.7.

Add New Menu

This is a new BIG feature introduced in gpEasy 2.0, and for those of use doing wonky things with menus and thems it makes life a whole lot easier. So, let's get to creating a new menu.

  • Click the "Add New Menu" link to create a new menu.

    You are presented with this pop up window asking you to name your newly created menu.

  • I chose to name my new menu Test Menu.

    Now click continue.

  • After clicking continue you are back in the Page Manager with your newly created menu.

    Notice the drop down list. It now has your new menu listed and it is currently selected.

    Your home page is automatically inserted as the first page to every newly created menu. you can't have a menu with NO pages. Therefore, before removing the home page from the menu you will have to add at least one page.

    Also notice the new list at the bottom. The list is titled with the name of your newly created menu. It gives you two options, rename and delete. These options allow you to easily change the name of your menu or delete it. Don't worry. Deleting a menu does not delete the pages on that menu neither does removing a page from a menu.

  • Now that we have a new menu we need to add some pages. Just click one of the insert options--before, after, or child.
  • After clicking one of the insert page options you are presented with this pop up window.

    You have several choices on what to insert into your new menu.

    • Create a new page and have it inserted
    • Add a page you have already created that is available--tab 2
    • Insert a previously deleted page that is now in the trash.
    • Add an external link--can actually be external or internal. It works with relative and absolute links.

    Go ahead and insert some pages that you have available to you. . . or don't. I'm not going to because this is just for a tutorial.

You should now have a newly created menu at the very least. Now we need to figure out what to do with this menu.

Adding Menus to Layouts.

Navigate to one of your pages so you are out of the Page Manager and looking at a normal page. I've chosen to navigate to the "Another_Page."

  • Now that I'm on a normal page, logged into gpEasy still, I'm going to click the "edit this layout" on the admin menu. This will edit the layout that is applied to the current page I'm on. See the layouts tutorial for more info about layouts.
  • After clicking the "edit this layout" link we end up here. This is the layout editor. All areas highlighted in red can be dragged and dropped, changed, removed, and others can be inserted.
  • Hover over the current menu and you can see what it is. This is the Main Menu--the default menu.
  • We want to insert our newly created menu. Click the insert link on one of the highlighted areas where you want to insert your menu before. I'm just going to insert it here before the default menu.
  • After clicking the insert link I get this pop up window asking me what I would like to insert--extra content area, menu, or custom menu. Go to the custom menus tab.
  • Select the drop down list box. You will see your newly created menu. Select it.
  • Click the "add new menu" button to add the menu you just selected to the layout.
  • The new menu is inserted before the item we selected insert on.
  • Hover over your new menu and you can see the setting for it.
  • Now we can remove the other menu that was there by default. Just click the remove link on it.
  • Now we just have our newly created menu all by itself. You could add more menus if you like. There's no limit as far as I know. Just follow the same process.
  • Now click one of the pages listed below the layouts button. This will take you to a page that has the layout you just edited so you can see your new menu in action.
  • And here we are on the home page with our newly created custom menu.

Now you should have your new custom menu added to a layout. You can repeat these steps to create more alternative custom menus and add as many to a layout as you like and to as many layouts as you like. I didn't spend much time editing and adding pages to a newly created menu because there just isn't must to it--drag-n-drop the pages you add to your menu to arrange them, remove them from the menu if you don't want them, add before, after or as child to add pages. Just think of custom menus as a way to create an unordered list of links that you can place into a layout that is automatically updated when you change it. Don't think of them like the Main Menu--a menu that allows you to change layouts, delete pages, define what's shown in the site map and special galleries page. Custom menus are much simpler than the Main Menu.

I hope this tutorial is clear enough and thorough enough to get you going with gpEasy's new custom menus.

 

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