= Menu =
[[TOC]]

BluePrint/Menu/Application

Our current menu has these deficiencies:
 * No visual clue to the user as to where in the system that they are
 * Not easy to provide deployment customisations which are separated from the main code

Proposed solution:
 * Move all the menu configuration to a single pair of files:
  * Generic settings (01_menu.py)
   * aURL handles the disabling of modules & hiding options without access rights
  * deployment-template for per-instance customisation (01_menu_.py)
   * Labels & Hiding unused options
 * Render out HTML using a new S3Menu class (replacing the existing MENUS3)
  * HTML/CSS will come from a design company
 * 1st level navigation will be horizontal (as-now) with CSS to show which one we're active in
 * 2nd level navigation will be available onHover of the 1st-level & when inside a 1st/2nd level, will be available as a vertical menu on the left
  * The Vertical menu will mean that our dataTables lists will have less width available to them. The designer's recommendation is to reduce the font-size & keep the vertical menu's width as small as possible.
 * 3rd level navigation will be available onHover of the 2nd-level & when inside a 3rd level, will be available as a submenu within the 2nd-level vertical menu on the left
 * Breadcrumbs will be rendered out from the same configuration
 * (default) Module index pages will be rendered out from the same configuration
 * Site Map can be rendered out from the same configuration

== Old Ideas ==
Ideally this would be loaded once & then cached (e.g. have the system generate a static menu.js which can then be loaded/cached)

We should always know where in the system we are.
 * e.g. Chevron-style breadcrumbs (e.g. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/usa)
 * e.g. Highlight the active menu item using CSS (JS to set this would be in the main body template, rather than in menu.js)
 * Web2Py implementation of breadcrumbs: http://www.web2pyslices.com/main/slices/take_slice/47

Icons in Menus?
 * http://groups.google.com/group/web2py/browse_thread/thread/aeb21cca011e4632
 * Easy with this [http://demo.eden.sahanafoundation.org/jquery jQuery menu]

ExtJS menus are flexible & can allow DRY creation of navigation elements (buttons/menus):
 * http://www.extjs.com/deploy/dev/examples/menu/menus.html
 * http://www.extjs.com/deploy/dev/examples/menu/actions.html
 * Example: http://demo.eden.sahanafoundation.org/extjs

Ideas for improving the menu:
 * Code for the menus should be segregated between the technical implementation and the layout - making it easy for non-technical users to customize the menu and reducing the clutter in the code, and reduce the amount of code being executed every run in the models.
 * Make Menu customization completely independent from the modules.
 * How many levels? Configurable. Suggestion.
   * Application - a deployment of Sahana may contain different applications, which may be used by different people and certainly at different times/workflows. This could be separate from the main menu - at the very top.
   * Functional - what does someone want to do in the current application.
   * Functional level 2 / Work Stage - this could represent work flow, or just reduce the clutter in one level of functional
   * Avoid 3rd level - especially pop-ups!

Allow the user to define a custom home page, without editing core code.