RocketTheme Blog

One of the newest additions to the Gantry framework coming in Gantry5 is the powerful Menu Editor. This global administrative panel gives you the ability to quickly and easily enhance your site’s menus.

In this article, we will take a look at Gantry5’s Menu Editor, and how users can use it to quickly and drastically change the way menus appear on the front end.

Making Menus Look Good

Gantry5's Menu Editor is designed to make menus look great, with a minimal amount of effort required on the part of the developer. At a glance, the user will notice how easy it is to arrange menu items and resize columns within dropdowns.

Want to move a menu item to a new column? Just drag-and-drop it where you want it to go. Reordering top-level menu items, which can be a real pain when doing so from the CMS' Menu Manager, can be done in seconds.

If you have a dropdown menu filled with submenu items, you can have them display in one column or sort them into multiple columns for easy organization. These columns can be easily resized by clicking and dragging the divider between them to further refine how it appears on the frontend.

Menu items can be easily assigned icons, which is a visual element that adds a modern touch your site's visitors will appreciate. These fonts are powered by FontAwesome, which has an extensive library of icons to choose from.

In the Layout Manager, a Menu particle can be placed anywhere in the page's layout. You can customize it at the Block level with CSS classes and other variations which will further refine how your menu appears on the front end.

These settings expand on the capabilities of the CMS’ integrated menu system, enhancing them with additional functionality and customization options - but only in cases where the CMS does not already provide this feature and changing these options does not have an adverse affect on the menu's functionality.

CMS Menu Manager Vs. the Gantry5 Menu Editor

Content management systems (CMS) such as Joomla and WordPress have their own integrated menu solutions, and Gantry5’s Menu Editor doesn’t replace these.

Instead, it takes the menus you create in the CMS and gives you the ability to reorganize them, configure their visual elements, and insert Particles and Module positions that add features and functionality beyond what’s possible in the CMS and in a more modern way.

Edits and additions made through Gantry5’s Menu Editor are instead directed at the front end. It’s an override that takes what the CMS has and alters it before serving it to your site’s visitors.

Nothing you change in Gantry5’s Menu Editor has any affect on how the CMS handles the menu. In Joomla, for example, this is especially important as the menu plays a key role in content management.

One very big advantage for a CMS such as phpBB which has no integrated menu is that you can build one in the Gantry5 menu editor to use in your design. Keep in mind it won't change the way the CMS works, but it will give you the ability to add and configure a menu where you wouldn't have had that option before.

So Long, RokNavMenu

RokNavMenu is no longer used in Gantry5. The functionality that made RokNavMenu such a powerful and useful tool is now built in to the framework.

This means less extensions to install, and a more seamless experience during site development. Everything you need to set up and manage your site’s theme can be handled from the Gantry5 administrator.

For more information about Gantry5, please check out these other blog posts from our ongoing series:

• Gantry5: Requirements and Details
• Gantry5: Built from the Ground Up for Speed
• Gantry5: Regarding Backward Compatibility
• Gantry5: Incredibly Easy to Use
• Gantry5: Reimagining the Layout Manager
• Gantry5: Rethinking How Positions Work in Joomla

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