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Newbietoo
Working Mechanic
Posted
I've seen quite a few posts on this topic, but I must admit I wasn't able to figure out from those exactly how to Load a XARA Menu into SS. So here's my modest attempt at an "How to do it for Dummies"

1. Create a Folder (e.g. "menus") in the "geometry" folder of your Site Spinner "Preview" Folder. In my case that was:

C:\Program Files\Virtual Mechanics\SiteSpinner V2\preview\geometry\menus

2. Save your XARA Menu Project into the "menus" Folder (or somewhere else and then copy/paste the contents into the "menus" folder). The following assumes you called your Project "mymenu"

3. If you now look in the menus folder, you will see a javascript (mymenu.js) file, image files for the menu, and a "mymenu.html" file.

4. Right click on mymenu.html and "Open with" Notepad (or else open the file in a Browser and select "View>>Source" from the menu bar)

5. The source will look something like this:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<title>MenuMaker produced NavBar</title>
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="BLACK">
<script menumaker src="menus/mymenu.js"></script>
</body></html>

6. There may be some variations on this, but you ONLY need the line that looks like this:

<script menumaker src="menus/mymenu.js"></script>

7. Open a new "Code Object" in Site Spinner and then copy and paste that line into it (making sure you get the < and > on each end).

8. Move the Code Object to wherever you want the menu to appear on your page. You won't see the menu on your Edit Page just the Code Object, however the menu will appear in a Preview (tip: re-size the Code Object to the same size as your menu so you reserve the space for it when you're doing the rest of your page design).

8. "Preview" your page and voila! the menu should be there.

Note: When it comes to publishing your site, you need to make sure that the menu files end up in the geometry folder and that the path in the menu Code Object reflects that. Now there's probably an elegant way to get SS to do that for you, but I haven't figured that bit out yet. No doubt that's the subject of anoher Post somewhere...it was a major undertaking for me to get just this far!

Patrick

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Newbietoo,
 
Posts: 13 | Location: Brisbane, Queensland, Australia | Registered: April 29, 2005Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
Bruceee
Guru 'Power' Mechanic
Picture of Bruceee
Posted Hide Post
Nice one Patrick!

I haven't used Xara myself, but others here have, and have had problems. So your post should help others in the same situation.
 
Posts: 9235 | Location: Wellington, New Zealand | Registered: December 11, 2003Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
Newbietoo
Working Mechanic
Posted Hide Post
OK, now for Part 2...

Here's how to Publish your Xara menu to a local disk. This assumes you got as far as getting the menu into Site Spinner (see above)

I haven't tried to FTP it to the Net; in fact, I haven't even started to build a site yet...I'm still learning the basics! However, having published locally, I'd imagine it will work on the Net (yeah right).

Site Spinner won't publish the menu files; well, not for me anyway, during the usual Publish process, so try this:

1. Publish your site as usual

2. Copy the "menus" folder from the Preview location and paste it into the geometry folder of your Publish Folder i.e. into the same relative location it was in in the Preview Folder.

That's worked for me a few times; however it didn't on one occasion and I have absolutely no idea why; I suspect because I didn't use the "Gather" option when publishing.

I notice too that the Alt Text I entered in Menu Maker doesn't appear in the published menu (or the preview); again I have no idea why. So I'd be keen to hear if anyone has got that to work.

Patrick
 
Posts: 13 | Location: Brisbane, Queensland, Australia | Registered: April 29, 2005Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
gerlynch
Junior Mechanic
Posted Hide Post
Thanks for sorting this out. I can now get the menu working in S.S. but the page links dont work. I have copied the html files to the same folder(geometry/menus)but get a cannot display page error. Any ideas?

Regards,

Gerlynch
 
Posts: 2 | Registered: April 18, 2005Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
Newbietoo
Working Mechanic
Posted Hide Post
When you say "working" I take it you mean the menu is appearing, but you don't get to the pages...I'm unclear if you mean it works (finds the pages) in Preview but not in Publish or neither?

Anyway, sounds like you may not have set up the page URL's in XARA Menu Maker. That is, the addresses that you enter into XARA (for each Button) aren't the same as those of your pages. Those details are exported from MM in the Javascript file.

As I mentioned in my note above, I did lose a menu on one ocassion and am not too sure why, but suspect that I didn't use the gather option when Publishing, which if I understand it correctly takes care of the addresses of things...once you have got them right in MM and thus into SS. One they work in SS I believe SS will take care of them from there if you use it to move them i.e. Publish (I think!!)

Patrick
 
Posts: 13 | Location: Brisbane, Queensland, Australia | Registered: April 29, 2005Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
quadzmoto
Junior Mechanic
Posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Newbietoo:
I've seen quite a few posts on this topic, but I must admit I wasn't able to figure out from those exactly how to Load a XARA Menu into SS. So here's my modest attempt at an "How to do it for Dummies"

1. Create a Folder (e.g. "menus") in the "geometry" folder of your Site Spinner "Preview" Folder. In my case that was:

C:\Program Files\Virtual Mechanics\SiteSpinner V2\preview\geometry\menus

2. Save your XARA Menu Project into the "menus" Folder (or somewhere else and then copy/paste the contents into the "menus" folder). The following assumes you called your Project "mymenu"

3. If you now look in the menus folder, you will see a javascript (mymenu.js) file, image files for the menu, and a "mymenu.html" file.

4. Right click on mymenu.html and "Open with" Notepad (or else open the file in a Browser and select "View>>Source" from the menu bar)

5. The source will look something like this:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
<html>
<head>
<title>MenuMaker produced NavBar</title>
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="BLACK">
<script menumaker src="menus/mymenu.js"></script>
</body></html>

6. There may be some variations on this, but you ONLY need the line that looks like this:

<script menumaker src="menus/mymenu.js"></script>

7. Open a new "Code Object" in Site Spinner and then copy and paste that line into it (making sure you get the < and > on each end).

8. Move the Code Object to wherever you want the menu to appear on your page. You won't see the menu on your Edit Page just the Code Object, however the menu will appear in a Preview (tip: re-size the Code Object to the same size as your menu so you reserve the space for it when you're doing the rest of your page design).

8. "Preview" your page and voila! the menu should be there.

Note: When it comes to publishing your site, you need to make sure that the menu files end up in the geometry folder and that the path in the menu Code Object reflects that. Now there's probably an elegant way to get SS to do that for you, but I haven't figured that bit out yet. No doubt that's the subject of anoher Post somewhere...it was a major undertaking for me to get just this far!

Patrick


I have tried this several times with no luck. The only difference is that I am using SiteSpinner v2.7f. Could someone please give me hand to make this work? Very much appreciated.
 
Posts: 3 | Registered: July 18, 2009Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
larryd
Guru 'Geezer' Mechanic
Picture of larryd
Posted Hide Post
It would help if you could say what is or what is not working. The way the Xara menu works, you should at least see a text representation of your buttons if the images are not loading. Are you getting that? Or are you just seeing nothing?

If you do not see the menu at all, then I suspect that you have not placed the menu's script file in the correct location. If you are previewing, copy the script into your preview folder; the menu Options->Preview Options... window should show you where your preview folder is located on your computer. You will also need to move all the menu images to that folder. The menu maker program gives you a list of all the files you need (the .html file it lists is a test page for the menu).

To use on your site, you will need to upload the script and images to your root directory.


http://sitespinner.lowtechgeezer.com
 
Posts: 5116 | Registered: December 03, 2006Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
quadzmoto
Junior Mechanic
Posted Hide Post
Your answer worked perfectly. I had the menu displayed and working in about 20 seconds. I followed the other instructions above to the letter which was my mistake. When a created the folder named menu in the geometry folder and saved all menu files to that folder it would not work. However, saving all menu files to the preview folder worked great. Thanks so much for the tip.
 
Posts: 3 | Registered: July 18, 2009Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
quadzmoto
Junior Mechanic
Posted Hide Post
quote:
To use on your site, you will need to upload the script and images to your root directory.


I have published my site and everything is transferred except the files for the menu. I have transferred the menu images and script file to what I thought was my root directory but still the menu bar does not show. I am transferring the menu files via FTP to /public/qdi_test/ with no luck. I tried putting the files in the "public" folder and no luck. I tried putting the menu files in the "qdi_test" folder and no luck. Any suggestions?
 
Posts: 3 | Registered: July 18, 2009Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
postyr
Honorary 'Aussie' Mechanic
Picture of postyr
Posted Hide Post
Is you index (home) page, or at least the page that includes the menu, in the “public” folder or the “qdi_test” folder?

Whatever folder that your index page is in is your root folder.

Also, if you have followed the example as shown in the original post, the actual javascript file should either be in a sub-folder called “menus”. Also, depending on the contents of the actual script, so should any associated files, such as required images etc.

Either that, or leave them in the root folder, but change the line 
<script menumaker src="menus/mymenu.js"></script>
to 
<script menumaker src="mymenu.js"></script>
 
Posts: 1157 | Location: Australia | Registered: April 17, 2007Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
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