» Mega Menu

It's finally here! You can now add a beautiful Mega Menu to your website in just a few clicks. It overcomes the difficulty of multi-level drop-down menus by combining multiple submenus into a single drop-down. This is the ideal way of displaying the navigation menu on larger websites. Usability expert, Jakob Nielsen, recommends the use of Mega Menus:

Given that regular drop-down menus are rife with usability problems, it takes a lot for me to recommend a new form of drop-down. But, as our testing videos show, mega drop-downs overcome the downsides of regular drop-downs. Thus, I can recommend one while warning against the other.

- Jakob Nielsen (March 2009)

This Mega Menu is based on the core Concrete5 "Autonav" block so it uses your existing website structure, but with a number of additional features.

The Mega Menu is perfect for everyone: website managers, web designers and web developers. You can choose from 8 colourful skins, or advanced users can create their own skin. The number of submenu row items is customisable along with the animation effect and animation speed.

It's easy to use, but powerful & flexible. The best of both worlds!

Download from the Concrete 5.6 Marketplace ($15)

Download from the Concrete 5.7 Marketplace ($15)

Features:

  • Cross-browser support
  • Uses your existing C5 site structure to automatically update the menu as you add new pages
  • Control the ordering of menu items
  • Control the number of submenu levels to show
  • 8 beautiful skins to choose from (black, blue, green, grey, light blue, orange, red, white)
  • Designers can create their own custom skins with a bit of CSS knowledge
  • Choose from fade or sliding animated effect
  • Control the speed of the animation effect
  • Allow menu drop-down by either mouse hover or mouse click
  • Uses the "hover intent" jQuery library, so the drop-down menus have a short delay before hiding when the mouse rolls off
  • Configure the number of items per row to show
  • Position of drop-down menu is automatically adjusted if menu item is near left or right edge of page.
  • 1-click to add a drop-down site search tool (with a built-in custom block template)
  • (Concrete 5.6 only) 1-click to add user login form (requires free C5 login block)
  • Supports multiple menus on the same page
  • Adds 4 new page attributes:
    • Hide children from Mega Menu
    • Replace link with first child in Mega Menu
    • Don't link in navigation (ideal for creating text-only headings)
    • Mega Menu access key
  • Customisable keyboard shortcuts (uses browser "access keys" - usually ALT or ALT+CTRL and a single letter)
  • Anyone can add their own custom menu items
  • Developers/designers can create all sorts of custom formatting since each element in menu is given unique classes using the Collection (Page) ID. This could be used to apply a custom background image for a specific submenu or even an individual menu item.
  • New fade-in animation once page is fully loaded so IE users will not see partially loaded menu.
  • Uses jQuery, not Flash, for super-fast load time + iPhone/iPad support
  • Easily create your own custom skin with no technical skills. Now with 20 customisable colours! Linear gradient effects included (with IE support)
  • Easy turn on or off rounded corners on your sub menus as well as drop shadows. 
  • Stack/Scrapbook integration means you can add multiple blocks WITHIN a submenu (top, bottom, left, right) for even more "wow" factor.
  • Revamped custom skin feature for improved upgrade compatibility in the future. All customisations to the skin can be done within the editor interface.
  • New "responsive" support (can be turned on or off) for mobile devices - the menu collapses into a vertical list.

Advanced Tips:

The built-in search tool will send the user to the following page: /search/search-results
If you have modified (or deleted) the default search results page that ships with Concrete5, you can easily add it back in. Then you just need to add the "Search" block to that page. 

If you would like to format the current page (or current page path), there are 2 built-in CSS classes you can use in your site's CSS file: "nav-selected" and "nav-path-selected". The "nav-selected" class is added to the current page you're viewing on the website. The "nav-path-selected" is added to each parent page above the current page you're viewing. These classes are added to BOTH the "li" and "a" elements so you can style them independantly. Here's an example of what to add to your site's CSS file:

.mega-menu a.nav-selected{
color:red;
font-weight:bold; 
}

Examples:

See the different skin colours as well as a number of key features: text only labels, replace link with 1st child's, external links and more. See the screenshots on the left for examples of the new "extended menu" features.

Demonstration Video

Mega Menu 5.6

Screenshots

Mega Menu 5.6

Mega Menu 5.7

Extra Videos:

Getting started: demonstration of Mega Menu (14:28)

Advanced: Extended Menu, custom skins & more (6:39)

Designers: unlimited customisations with custom skins (9:42)

FAQs

See answers to common questions about this add-on