[Seaside] How to Implement a Menu Component

Richard Eng richard.eng at rogers.com
Mon Jul 30 20:02:27 UTC 2007


I'll also offer up how I do it, a slight variation on Michael's approach...

I start with a regular, static HTML mockup of my website (complete with
separate, external CSS files), comprising a number of webpages. For each
webpage, I create a class. Each class renders the HTML of the corresponding
static webpage.

(Actually, I start with a "template" class that renders individually--ie,
with individual methods--the logo, the menu, the footer, the sidebar, etc.
Each webpage class subclasses the template. This allows me to customize the
look of each webpage, eg, perhaps I don't want a menu or sidebar for a
particular page. I'm leveraging HTML reuse here as best I can. And note the
side-effect benefit: the menu method, which renders an unordered list, can
make #call: <webpage class> calls that replace the entire page, rather than
just the content subcomponent!)

I also make use of "announcements" in my GSServiceCentre webpage, which, as
I alluded to above, has a customized look--no navigational menu, but rather
a menu in the sidebar [implemented with announcements] that swaps out
content subcomponents. Really quite nifty, actually.

It seems to me that announcements are too specialized (swapping out content
subcomponents only) to be used for general page handling as I've outlined
above. (I'm sure it can be done, but at what cost to complexity or design
obfuscation?)

Regards,
Richard

------------

> My Seaside application have 3 components
> 1.) main component with two instance variables for menu and content
> and a children method (array with: menu with: content)
> 2.) menu subcomponent
> 3.) content subcomponent

Here's how I do it, but your mileage may vary:

I have an "Interface" component for each of my main sections.  My
Welcome page, which handles logins and new user creation is called
"GHWelcomeInterface".  Once you get beyond that, you are sent to the
meat of the app, the GHUserInterface.

GHUserInterface handles rendering the menu and has a content
subcomponent.  Since the menu is actually part of the GHUserInterface
instance rather than a subcomponent, it just swaps out 'main' (or
'content' in your case) with the appropriate content instance.

So, just to be clear, I don't have three components, I just have two:
one that handles the general state of things (including the menu), and
the other is the actual content.

Hope this helps,

Michael Gorsuch




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