Menu Tree

[Seville]

I just got AM 6.0 can anyone please help, I need to use a menu tree, for a project I want to make, Brett in the forum has an example for a browser tree, but I want to use as a menu to open a submenu where I can click to open a new page or to point to a video or music. just a little sample would be very appreciated, looking at the sample I can create my own, PLEASE HELP

[Brett]

Do you mean that you want to use the tree or the menu bar? Please br more specific and draw up an example of what exactly you are trying to accomplish.

[Seville]

Hi Brett, thanks for responding, I purchased the training CDs for AM 5.0 that is where I got the idea, where I have my menu, submenus then I again can click and open files, pages or videos, I am attaching a picture so you can see what I need, I may be confused about the real name of the menu, this a portion of the training that I captured to send you as an attachment.
Brett please help.
Seville

[Corey]

Hi. I built those menus using the free DHTML based tree menu called "dtree" FWIW.

http://www.destroydrop.com/javascripts/tree/

[Seville]

Corey or Brett, I checked the website where dtree is located, problem is, I am not good with programming or whatever is called, can you create a little sample using the dTree or maybe I can use the tree object to create my menu, I can change names in the tree object, I need help in telling a subfolder for instance to open the video which resides in the third page or jump to page number 8 clicking another subfolder. Again, can I do this with the tree object? or the menu bar? in AM 6.0?
Thanks again.

[Corey]

Actually the dtree site has a bunch of samples and examples. Check around there, probably in the "API & examples" section. I think there may even be examples in the download, i.e. "dtree.zip". Javascript is easy, you don't need to be a programmer. Once you look at their examples it should be pretty easy to figure it out. If not, let me know and I'll see what other online resources I can find to help.

[Seville]

Corey, I don't want to be a pest to you, I am willing to compensate you for your time, I don't know whether this is allowed in this forum or not, but you have done it already, I am not trying to steal your hard work just trying to create a little project, I don't understand what I see in the website, sorry to admit the truth. Hope you understand my desperation.
Thank you alot Corey

[Corey]

Hi. I'd love to build it for you but unfortunately I just don't have time. However I have found something very handy, they have an easy-to-use online tool to build your own menus, including a "show source" option which gives you the "cut 'n paste" code for the menu:

http://www.destroydrop.com/javascripts/tree/example/

Give it a shot and see how far you get. I have confidence in your ability to "get it" once you start fooling around with it. If you get stuck, just post again with details of the specific problem you are having and I'll help you through each obstacle one at a time until you get your menu built.

Bear in mind, that adding dtree to an AMS project is tricky. If you don't feel up to it, then I advise you try out the tree menu object in AMS 6.0 instead. The tree menu object in AMS 6.0 is a *far* superior way to go, great though it may be, dtree is just a workaround at best. The only reason I used dtree is because there was no tree menu object back then. If I were to redo those training CDs today, I would use the 6.0 tree menu object, not dtree.

[Seville]

Thanks Corey, that was a great advice I will forget completely dtree and I will focus my learning curve to tree menu in AM 6.0 Wonderful, can you point out to me the simplest way to creat my menu using tree menu from AM 6.0? So far I can create menus, submenus, what I don't understand is how to link, let's say, I have the menu "videos" then three subfolders under video, with names like, "family", "vacation", "pets". Then when someclicks on videos the subfolder will open giving you three options, now if I click on vacation video, that will go to that video which is located in let's say page number four.
that is what I want to do, any help or some samples in the forum may be I can find, then I can change the information to suit my project, once I see the sample, I can pick up and move on.
Thanks one more time Corey.

[Corey]

Hi, this is done by checking to see which node is selected with an IF statement and then placing your actions inside of that. Here's an example attached. If you double click the "Web Link" link it brings you here to our site, you could just as easily put a Video.Load action or any other action(s) in there. Basically the gist is that each node and branch have an identifier which we can retrieve as needed. In this example it's "2.2", i.e. the second item on the second level of the menu. Of course we can do lots more than that, like grab item data, etc. but that's the basic idea. To view the actions in this attached example project simply open it up in AMS 6.0, double click on the tree object, select the "Script" tab, then check out the "On Double Click" tab.

If you have any questions post away, and we'll eliminate them one at a time. I'm always happy to help and I'll definitely stick with you on this one until you have the tree menu working in your project...

[Dermot]

What I do if I want to use the tree to navigate to different pages is put the name of the pages in the Item Data field for each node. Then all you need to do is add the following code to the OnSelect or OnDoubleClick events. I put a "0" as the item data for parent nodes that I don't want to do anything. I just make sure the data is not "0" before trying to jump to the page.

tblTreeProps = Tree.GetNode(this, e_NodeIndex)

JumpTo = tblTreeProps.Data
	
if JumpTo ~= "0" then

	Page.Jump(JumpTo)
	
end

Of course you could just as easily put a name of a video, sound, image or any other file in the data field and load it rather than jumping to a page.

[Corey]

Great advice Dermot, that's definitely an excellent way to handle tree menus.

[Seville]

Corey, thank you very, very much for your advice and your sample, now that I saw I can do it myself, if you have more information of the same topic in the future I will be very appreciative of your help.
seville

[Seville]

Hey Dermot, can you please make a link to call a video let's say in page number 2, and another link to play a song stored in page 3. Or maybe I can have all my data in one single page?
Seville

[Jonas DK]

Originally Posted by Seville

Hey Dermot, can you please make a link to call a video let's say in page number 2, and another link to play a song stored in page 3. Or maybe I can have all my data in one single page?
Seville

Im not a great programmer my self and I know where your comming from Seville. I had my share of trouble with the tree menu, the fact is that it is not very good documentet in the help file.

But it is an exelent addon in ams60.

What I found was that if you can settle for the menu bar that is much easier to control with the simple actions then the tree object is.

it is not so nice to look at from a designers point of view then the menu tree but its easy.

I find that AMS is easy to learn once you get your head around the syntax of the scripting, but even with out doing much scripting AMS is still a powerful tool.

with regards to your question about having all the objects on one page, it is duable but I would recomend staing with the pages for simplicety.

keep up the good work

Jonas DK