# [Meta]Drop Down Menus on News Site



## Michael Morris (Nov 17, 2003)

Well, with Russ' permission I've installed the drop down menus on the main site. My head is sore and the wall is dented.  They are working properly on IE and Netscape.  If anyone has a comment or a major issue with them please post it here.  They're up for a trial basis at the moment - if there's a huge problem they can be pulled.


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## Cthulhu's Librarian (Nov 17, 2003)

Michael_Morris said:
			
		

> Well, with Russ' permission I've installed the drop down menus on the main site. My head is sore and the wall is dented. They are working properly on IE and Netscape. If anyone has a comment or a major issue with them please post it here. They're up for a trial basis at the moment - if there's a huge problem they can be pulled.



 The only problems I see from a quick look at the page are that the dropdown bar is currently sitting onto of the click through ad on the upper right hand corner of the page, and the EN logo on the upper left hand corner is sitting on top of the text that says "D&D/d20 news and reviews site"

 ALso, the page is now cream colored instead of black. I assume that is intentional. Its a bit easier to read, but all the icons are still sitting in black boxes, which makes them look funny. 

 I'm looking at the page in both IE and Mozilla Firebird, and it looks the same in both.


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## BobROE (Nov 17, 2003)

Could the colour be matched to the background so it doesn't look so distinct?


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## Michael Morris (Nov 17, 2003)

Cthulhu's Librarian said:
			
		

> The only problems I see from a quick look at the page are that the dropdown bar is currently sitting onto of the click through ad on the upper right hand corner of the page, and the EN logo on the upper left hand corner is sitting on top of the text that says "D&D/d20 news and reviews site"
> 
> ALso, the page is now cream colored instead of black. I assume that is intentional. Its a bit easier to read, but all the icons are still sitting in black boxes, which makes them look funny.
> 
> I'm looking at the page in both IE and Mozilla Firebird, and it looks the same in both.




I didn't change the color settings, and there was text there??  (checks source) There is no text there.  Anyway, I can't help unless I know the SPECIFIC VERSION of the browser you are running.


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## HellHound (Nov 17, 2003)

It looks good to me on IE 6.0.2800

Very nice, like the curve at the left hand side.


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## Michael Morris (Nov 17, 2003)

BobROE said:
			
		

> Could the colour be matched to the background so it doesn't look so distinct?




Part of the point of the bar is to make sure it stands away from the rest of the page.  On the Dusk site I changed it to dark blue because the page is black - And on the ENPublishing test page I changed it to dark red.  I want the bar to be visible.

http://www.thedusksetting.com/

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/hosted/ENPublishing/


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## Piratecat (Nov 17, 2003)

They're sweet, and work perfectly for me. Very nice job.


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## Ashrem Bayle (Nov 17, 2003)

Can we get them at the top of the boards?


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## Michael Morris (Nov 17, 2003)

Thanks PC, Jason.  I'm going to wait and see before trying to bring the code onto the message boards.  I expect it to be *quite* tricky - WotC hasn't figured it out.


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## dream66_ (Nov 17, 2003)

Works great for me and hopefully will save me some clicking,  I like it.


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## Michael Morris (Nov 17, 2003)

Ashrem Bayle said:
			
		

> Can we get them at the top of the boards?




I *think* so...  However, WotC hasn't figured it out - so that isn't encouraging.

Also, I'll need full admin access to change the spacing at the heading (the ad banners and the ENWorld Logo) to make room for the menus.

The problem is that some of this material has to be inserted at the code level - and there's always a risk of crashing the PHP program that builds the boards. That won't erase the messages, but it will knock EVERYONE off (including the admins) until the error is fixed.  I'm studying the code now, and any monkeying will be done in the wee hours of the morning to avoid major disruptions


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## KB9JMQ (Nov 17, 2003)

Looks great to me and works fine.


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## BSF (Nov 17, 2003)

My only real annoyance is that the Meta forums do not seem to be listed.  But, that is a very small annoyance and I can get to Meta in other ways.


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## Michael Morris (Nov 17, 2003)

BardStephenFox said:
			
		

> My only real annoyance is that the Meta forums do not seem to be listed.  But, that is a very small annoyance and I can get to Meta in other ways.




I can add them - I guess I should.  BRB (should take about 5 mins)


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## Morrus (Nov 17, 2003)

Looks great!  I sent you an email with a few minor problems, but I'll repeat it here in case you see this first:

1) Forums is spelt "Forums" not "Forumns".

2) Some of the links are wrong or outdated; the correct ones are on the news page.  Topsites is the one I noticed.

3) Could you change "Russ" to "Morrus" - otherwise people get confused with seeing different names about the site.

Thanks!


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## Michael Morris (Nov 17, 2003)

Morrus said:
			
		

> Looks great!  I sent you an email with a few minor problems, but I'll repeat it here in case you see this first:
> 
> 1) Forums is spelt "Forums" not "Forumns".
> 
> ...




Will do.


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## Michael Morris (Nov 17, 2003)

Requested changes complete.

Remember to hit Refresh to see them - the javascript file that controls the menus is cached to save time for dialup users.


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## Morrus (Nov 17, 2003)

Thanks!

The link to EN World Player's Journal is also out of date.  it shoudl go to:  http://www.goodman-games.com/store.php#GMG9004


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## Morrus (Nov 17, 2003)

Oh, and could we add in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy News page and the PDF News page somehow?  Perhaps an initial dropdown (before "Community") which lists D&D/D20 News, Sci-Fi/Fantasy News, and PDF News?


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## BobROE (Nov 18, 2003)

Michael_Morris said:
			
		

> Part of the point of the bar is to make sure it stands away from the rest of the page.  On the Dusk site I changed it to dark blue because the page is black - And on the ENPublishing test page I changed it to dark red.  I want the bar to be visible.




Fair enough, could the black bar be extended all the way across the screen then?  I'm running at 1280 by 1024 and it stops in the middle. (and looks sort of odd)


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## Tom Cashel (Nov 18, 2003)

Nice job.  I like that I can go to whatever forum I choose directly from the EN News page.


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## Michael Morris (Nov 18, 2003)

BobROE said:
			
		

> Fair enough, could the black bar be extended all the way across the screen then?  I'm running at 1280 by 1024 and it stops in the middle. (and looks sort of odd)




In the newest update I rounded the tip so that it doesn't stop abruptly.  Unfortunately I can't make the bar go across the top without causing left to right scroll bars to appear on the lower resolutions.

In that update I lowered the font size of the links topside to add the quick links section to the top bar.  I think I'm done toying with it for awhile.


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## Michael Morris (Nov 18, 2003)

Morrus said:
			
		

> Oh, and could we add in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy News page and the PDF News page somehow?  Perhaps an initial dropdown (before "Community") which lists D&D/D20 News, Sci-Fi/Fantasy News, and PDF News?




I added the quick links section in whole cloth - I can put it somewhere else if you like.


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## Michael Morris (Nov 18, 2003)

The reviews page now has the site wide menu system installed.  It was MUCH easier to implement there than on Post Nuke


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## Michael Morris (Nov 18, 2003)

Correction - I'll have to do this one one page at a time 

Oh well, at least the code is easier to understand.


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## rpgHQ (Nov 18, 2003)

Did you do a php java script call in the post nuke header file or is it kinda like a header on top of a header or did you do some other code hack to get it to work up there? I am curious as that java menu you got going would be nice with phpbb2 boards and with php-nuke with integrated phpbb2 it should work the same way as you did for post nuke there. Your java menu is better than the php flatfile menu pulldowns I been trying to code, I been doing some real ugly coding


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## Michael Morris (Nov 18, 2003)

Code now installed on the reviews pages.  I put the ORIGINAL files into the directory as oldfiles.zip in case I accidently damaged any of the files.  If anyone encounters an error message on the reviews site please contact me and I'll correct it ASAP.


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## Michael Morris (Nov 18, 2003)

rpgHQ said:
			
		

> Did you do a php java script call in the post nuke header file or is it kinda like a header on top of a header or did you do some other code hack to get it to work up there? I am curious as that java menu you got going would be nice with phpbb2 boards and with php-nuke with integrated phpbb2 it should work the same way as you did for post nuke there. Your java menu is better than the php flatfile menu pulldowns I been trying to code, I been doing some real ugly coding




I put all the relevant script into a file called topmenu.js, and I placed the call immediately after the meta tags in header.php (you can see it if you look at the source code).  The image map is spliced into the footer.php file because, since it is on a layer, the exact position of the code in the file is irrelevant.


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## nopantsyet (Nov 18, 2003)

Like 'em.  And using nightlies of Firebird.


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## Michael Morris (Nov 18, 2003)

Ok...  The PDF Reviews site now has the drop downs - I modified the background of the drop down menus to match the silver texture of the rest of the page.  That leaves these messageboards.


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## mythusmage (Nov 18, 2003)

First, thank you.

Second. Have you contacted the vBulletin people about this? Drop down menus on their bulletin boards would be a great addition.


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## Cthulhu's Librarian (Nov 18, 2003)

Michael_Morris said:
			
		

> I didn't change the color settings, and there was text there?? (checks source) There is no text there. Anyway, I can't help unless I know the SPECIFIC VERSION of the browser you are running.



 It all looks good this morning. Maybe there wasn't text there, but there was something (a graphic maybe?), and the color was changed. It's all back to normal now. The menus seem to be working just fine. 
 And just for the record, I'm using Mozilla Firebird 0.7 and Internet Explorer 6.0.2800.1106. The things I saw yesterday were identical in both. But I guess thats a moot point now. I'll let you know if I have any other problems. I usually don't like drop downs, but I'll give them a try. Who knows, maybe I'll grow to like them.


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## Ron (Nov 18, 2003)

Good job, not only is a better page design than the previous one but also works nicely with Opera 7.1.1 for Windows.


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## Singing Smurf (Nov 18, 2003)

Well done.  The pull-downs look sharp in IE 6.0.1106.

Thanks.


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## Morrus (Nov 18, 2003)

Looks great!  I've noticed another error, though - "Latest Reviews" links to "Upcoming Products".

Also, could we rename "Quick Links" to "Main", and make it the first dropdown in the list, adding "D&D/D20 News" to it as the first option?

Thanks!


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## Michael Morris (Nov 18, 2003)

Morrus said:
			
		

> Looks great!  I've noticed another error, though - "Latest Reviews" links to "Upcoming Products".
> 
> Also, could we rename "Quick Links" to "Main", and make it the first dropdown in the list, adding "D&D/D20 News" to it as the first option?
> 
> Thanks!




Ok, I'll get to work on that.  Meanwhile, I'm going to need admin access to complete the installation of the menus on the board.  I installed and got the script to work last night (that was what "wacky test" was about in meta), but I have to post the code properly for it to work.


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## Dimwhit (Nov 18, 2003)

Hmm, I'm getting errors on the menu here at work (WinXP - IE 6). I like the new colors, looks nice. The font is nice, but a little hard to read. But the menus don't drop down for me right now.

I'll try to remember to check on my Mac at home--not that you'll be able to do much if it doesn't work with Safari, but it will be nice to check out.


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## alsih2o (Nov 18, 2003)

i have watched the progress on this with no idea what you were talking about, but it does indeed look rather cool....


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## Michael Morris (Nov 18, 2003)

Dimwhit said:
			
		

> Hmm, I'm getting errors on the menu here at work (WinXP - IE 6). I like the new colors, looks nice. The font is nice, but a little hard to read. But the menus don't drop down for me right now.
> 
> I'll try to remember to check on my Mac at home--not that you'll be able to do much if it doesn't work with Safari, but it will be nice to check out.




I have a feeling you checked at the same time I was updating things.  I screwed the script up momentarily.  It's back to normal and should work now.


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## Michael Morris (Nov 18, 2003)

Morrus said:
			
		

> Looks great!  I've noticed another error, though - "Latest Reviews" links to "Upcoming Products".
> 
> Also, could we rename "Quick Links" to "Main", and make it the first dropdown in the list, adding "D&D/D20 News" to it as the first option?
> 
> Thanks!




Requested changes complete.

I switched the font to Morpheus on the bar while I was at it.  It matches the title font, but it is a little harder to read.  Opinions? (I can always switch it back)


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## Michael Morris (Nov 18, 2003)

Cthulhu's Librarian said:
			
		

> It all looks good this morning. Maybe there wasn't text there, but there was something (a graphic maybe?), and the color was changed. It's all back to normal now. The menus seem to be working just fine.
> And just for the record, I'm using Mozilla Firebird 0.7 and Internet Explorer 6.0.2800.1106. The things I saw yesterday were identical in both. But I guess thats a moot point now. I'll let you know if I have any other problems. I usually don't like drop downs, but I'll give them a try. Who knows, maybe I'll grow to like them.




Hmm, that is odd.  Maybe it was a caching issue (I'm relying heavily on caching with this script cause the thing is some 62 KB in size and it would be murder on the dial up users to have to reload it on every page).


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## Morrus (Nov 18, 2003)

OK, I've given you temporary admin status.  I'll remove it when you're done.


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## Dimwhit (Nov 18, 2003)

Morrus said:
			
		

> OK, I've given you temporary admin status. I'll remove it when you're done.



Plenty of time for you to wreak havoc, Michael!



> Originally posted by *Michael_Morris*
> I have a feeling you checked at the same time I was updating things. I screwed the script up momentarily. It's back to normal and should work now.



Right you are. Works great now.


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## Henry (Nov 18, 2003)

Same as Cthulhu's Librarian: Using Mozilla Firebird 0.7 and IE 6.02. Looking good, with the aforementioned exception of the "ENWorld" Logo being slightly covered over at its top in Firebird  (about the top 1/10th of the globe is covered).


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## Michael Morris (Nov 18, 2003)

Morrus said:
			
		

> OK, I've given you temporary admin status.  I'll remove it when you're done.




Went snooping around (didn't change anythin) but didn't find what I was looking for.  Specifically Russ, where is the Community supporters information stored??  i.e. This stuff....

Search, Private Messaging, Who's Online and Custom Titles are only available to Community Supporters
Click here for advertising information
Click here for EN Publishing's latest release, Four-Color to Fantasy (d20 Superhero Toolkit, Revised/Modern Edition)

I think I can splice in there, but I need to find it.


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## Michael Morris (Nov 18, 2003)

Well, we're coming into the busy time of day for the boards, so I'll hold off on further changes till midnight Eastern time (about 8 hours from now).


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## bertman4 (Nov 18, 2003)

*thumbs up*

I like it!
Can it appear on all the pages? Kind of like a header? So you can navigate quickly from any ENWorld page? Just a thought.
Bertman


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## patrickmallette (Nov 18, 2003)

nopantsyet said:
			
		

> Like 'em.  And using nightlies of Firebird.



What settings do you need to enable to make it work?
I'm running Mozilla Firebird 0.7 (2003/11/07 nightly) with adBlock 0.5b. I have javascript enabled.


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## Morrus (Nov 19, 2003)

Michael_Morris said:
			
		

> Went snooping around (didn't change anythin) but didn't find what I was looking for. Specifically Russ, where is the Community supporters information stored?? i.e. This stuff.....



It's in the "Header" template.  Go into the styles and edit the headers directly.  Make sure you save the old version first!


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## EricNoah (Nov 19, 2003)

Michael, the menus are looking and working great -- thanks for helping out!


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## Dimwhit (Nov 19, 2003)

In case you're interested Michael, the new menu works great in Safari for Mac OS X.


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## Brown Jenkin (Nov 19, 2003)

Works fine on IE 6 on W2K here at home. The entire site has font size/color problems at work where I have to use Netscape 4.73 but I don't expect that to be fixed so I don't bother with anything but the forums at work. As for the IE6 the only thing I want to bring up is the choices of Font. I am using all default instalation settings and I find that the old style font you chose looks blurry (Know its not really but when I glance at it that is the effect I get). Additionally in the Dropdowns the font looks fine except when you highlight when it uses a black outlined by white on top of grey. This font also becomes hard to read as the white seems to interfer with legibility. Good job overall on the overall scripts though.


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## Guillaume (Nov 19, 2003)

They look ok to me.  I'm using Netscape and IE.  cool addition


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## Steve Jung (Nov 19, 2003)

It works well for me in Safari 1.0, Mac OSX 10.2.8 as well. The menus look good, Michael. Some of the text extends past the right edge of the drop-down menus, though.


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## Nifelhein (Nov 19, 2003)

They just take space from the banners on the main page new on the karate theme, also, morrus, the messageboards link that sean k reyonolds told you about is back, linking to the older forums.

I love that bar, are we gonna have it on the forums too?


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## Ryan Koppenhaver (Nov 19, 2003)

I'm seeing some issues with text being too wide, but I'm using an obsolete version of Mozilla Firebird, so if it looks all right on the more recent builds, it's probably not a problem.

(Screenshot attached.)

(edited for typo.)


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## Michael Morris (Nov 19, 2003)

Ok, learned some things...

First, the banner must be put in at the code level - why?  VBulletin puts any data inputted as an admin into a table and LAYER TAGS CAN'T BE PUT IN TABLES!!  

That dent in the wall is getting pretty big...  Still looking.

It took 2 months to figure out PostNuke initially, it looks like it will be awhile on Vbulletin.


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## Michael Morris (Nov 19, 2003)

Ryan Koppenhaver said:
			
		

> I'm seeing some issues with text being too wide, but I'm using an obsolete version of Mozilla Firebird, so if it looks all right on the more recent builds, it's probably not a problem.
> 
> (Screenshot attached.)
> 
> (edited for typo.)




Older browsers don't allow variant box widths, so the program defaults to 100 pixels


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## Michael Morris (Nov 19, 2003)

I'm gonna scoot this over to the meta forum now.


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