.menu Files

`.menu` Files

HTML files whose names end in .menu automatically receive special treatment. Not only are they handled as document interface pages (just like pages whose names end in .shm or .shtml), but any unordered lists (enclosed in <UL></UL> tags) are converted to an expandable and collapsible menu. Menus can be used to represent any sort of tree structure, like an outline of a long document or a list of files.

A similar effect to this command can be achieved by using the .MENU command in the document interface.

This is the source of a sample menu. Click here to see what it looks like when processed by the document interface.

Notice how the Location URL changes each time you expand a branch. You can have a menu always open to a certain state by using this URL as a link from another page.

Another use of .menu files is for the site map. Within any directory, a file called sitemap.menu has special meaning to the script which generates the college's site map.

Let's say you had these documents:

pinball.html   All about Pinball
bally.html     Pinball Machines Made by Bally
williams.html  Pinball Mahines Made by Williams
pool.html      All about Billiards

You might represent these in a sitemap.menu like this:

<html><head></head><body>
<ul>
  <li><a href="pinball.html">All about Pinball</a>
  <ul>
    <li><a href="bally.html">Pinball Machines Made by Bally</a>
    <li><a href="williams.html">Pinball Mahines Made by Williams</a>
  </ul>
  <li><a href="pool.html">All about Billiards</a>
</ul>
</body></html>

Be sure to provide the correct relative links to any files contained in sub-folders of the one which has the sitemap.menu. Otherwise, you will get error messages from the search engine robot. You can test your links by viewing the sitemap.menu directly in your Web browser.

It's not absolutely necessary to list every page you own in a sitemap.menu; any missing pages will be added automatically. Generally speaking, however, the more complete you are in your sitemap.menu, the better the college's site map will resemble the actual structure of your pages.