8.2.5. Treemenu with PHP

The Treemenu for PHP-Nuke will read a simple, plain text file that contains the "nodes" and "leaves" of a menu and will create a block with a Treemenu, as shown in Figure 8-4. Features include:

• No database changes. You only change a text file.

• Grouping of menu items ("leaves" of the Treemenu) under "nodes".

• Expansion and collapse of the nodes based on the value of an URL parameter. You can thus let a submenu stay "open" , even after you cliked on a leaf link.

• Custom images for nodes (open or closed) and leaves. You can make it look like a window of a file manager.

• More complicated logic possible (e.g. depending on categories etc.), see Treemenu block for PHPNuke: Refinements.

This Treemenu is based on a PHP class and therefore does not require any client scripting (like Javascript). Thus it will still work on clients with Javascript disabled. On the other side, for every change of the menu, like expansion or collapse , a new HTTP page request is made to the server. Like PHP itself, the Treemenu is a server-side technology.

A detailed description of the Treemenu can be found in Treemenu block for PHPNuke. We also discuss it in Section 17.2.2, in the context of modifying blocks, specifically the Modules block.