Can i create Customizable Menu's in umbraco - content-management-system

Question

im trying to create customizable menu in umbraco. i.e. user should be able to add /remove / edit any menu item in menu. (User will not be a developer)
but i dont know how to do that..i've heard about Macros but dont know much about them so cant use it.
I think this has been done before also..
Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Generally, your menu will reflect your node structure within umbraco. This is the easiest way to allow your clients control of the site's navigation. If there are nodes that you would rather not have in the menu, that you could use the umbracoNaviHide property on the document type.
Try out some of the starter kits that are available. They will come with macros that build the navigation based on your nodes and will give you a good idea of how they work. You can even start by using a starterkit and then just modify it as you like. That's what I would recommend as you start out with umbraco. Umbraco has about 4 or so built in starterkits and Our Umbraco has several more that other users have contributed.
To use the default navigation template provided with Umbraco:
If you log into the Umbraco backoffice and head over to the Developer section, should should see Scripting Files. Right-click Scripting Files and choose Create. Choose a filename, like Nav and and from the "Choose a template" menu, select Site Map, then click Create. You should end up with the following razor code:
#*
SITEMAP
=================================
This snippet generates a complete sitemap of all pages that are published and visible (it'll filter out any
pages with a property named "umbracoNaviHide" that's set to 'true'). It's also a great example on how to make
helper methods in Razor and how to pass values to your '.Where' filters.
How to Customize for re-use (only applies to Macros, not if you insert this snippet directly in a template):
- If you add a Macro Parameter with the alias of "MaxLevelForSitemap" which specifies how deep in the hierarchy to traverse
How it works:
- The first line (var maxLevelForSitemap) assigns default values if none is specified via Macro Parameters
- Next is a helper method 'traverse' which uses recursion to keep making new lists for each level in the sitemap
- Inside the the 'traverse' method there's an example of using a 'Dictionary' to pass the 'maxLevelForSitemap' to
the .Where filter
- Finally the 'traverse' method is called taking the very top node of the website by calling AncesterOrSelf()
NOTE: It is safe to remove this comment (anything between # * * #), the code that generates the list is only the below!
*#
#inherits umbraco.MacroEngines.DynamicNodeContext
#helper traverse(dynamic node){
var maxLevelForSitemap = String.IsNullOrEmpty(Parameter.MaxLevelForSitemap) ? 4 : int.Parse(Parameter.MaxLevelForSitemap);
var values = new Dictionary<string,object>();
values.Add("maxLevelForSitemap", maxLevelForSitemap) ;
var items = node.Children.Where("Visible").Where("Level <= maxLevelForSitemap", values);
if (items.Count() > 0) {
<ul>
#foreach (var item in items) {
<li>
#item.Name
#traverse(item)
</li>
}
</ul>
}
}
<div class="sitemap">
#traverse(#Model.AncestorOrSelf())
</div>
This will produce a ul/li menu of the structure of your site. You plug this into your template by inserting the macro.

Answer 2

Take a look at the default Top Navigation template for XSLT or Razor. That should give you an idea of where to start and how navigation generally works in Umbraco. I second Douglas' answer that the Navigation usually mirrors the content structure in the Content section.
If you really want a setup where you add items to the nav independent of the Content tree structure, then use a Multinode Tree Picker on your Home Page and have that be the navigation in your Top Nav macro.