Linking Weblinks [SOLVED]

[BeckTek]

I have been fighting with the weblinks for a little while now.  One of the things I found was that, you cant Link weblinks to a menu module.  Is this a limitation of the system design? or is there a work around.

My problem is that I basically need a way to link menu modules to Weblink Categories.  The only way to link a menu module to Weblinks at all, that I know of, is to select All pages/items in the module.  But this creates duplicate/multiple menus on each page.

Ideally I need to link a menu module to each category.  Is this possible?

By The Way, thanks for everyones help.  This is a great community that has helped me and others out tremendously, with your expertise and quick responses to problems.

[datahell]

I don't understand what you mean by saying "link a menu module". You can create links (menu items) to weblink categories by selecting the "Table - Weblinks category" menu type when you insert a new menu item. Notice that you can also create menu items of type "Link-URL" to any URL.

[BeckTek]

If you use the "Table - Weblinks category" menu type, it doesnt show thumbnail images.  And if you use "Link-URL" you get thumbnails, but then you cant link the "mod_mainmenu" to those.

Here is how I have it setup.  www.becktekonline.com   I have a mainmenu on the left that is shown on all pages.  Then each "Menu Item" in the main menu has its own submenu that shows up on the bottom of the content. ( I have created a mod_mainmenu for each, and linked it to each "menu item"). 

In order to navigate within the Main menu item to each submenu item, each "menu item" that is on the submenu, must also be linked to the correct "mod_mainmenu"  so it looks like this

Main menu item 1         Main menu item 2       Main menu item 3  (this main menu available on all items.)
            |                                  |                              |                     
submenu item 1               submenu item 1           submenu item 1   
submenu item 2               submenu item 2           submenu item 2 
submenu item 3               submenu item 3           submenu item 3

so with this model, there would be 1 main menu, and 3 different submenu's (meaning 4 mod_mainmenu's)  If one of the submenu items are a URL-link, then I cant assign the correct mod_mainmenu for that item.

It is difficult to explain so hopefully that makes more sense.     

[BeckTek]

Basically the result seems to be that you cant assign different menu's to different "URL-Links".

[datahell]

I think I got it now. Here is a trick with Link-URL menu items that might help you:

When ever you create a link-URL item click apply and append to the same URL the Itemid that Elxis just gave you (&Itemid=....). The Itemid is the id of the menu item and can be seen from the URL of the administration page.

It would be easier to help you if you point me exactly to the url/menu item in your site that causes the problem.

Recommendation: enable SEO PRO!

[BeckTek]

Thanks for the help.  That method worked fine.  The only drawback was that it wont show thumbnails that way(because thumbnails only work if the itemid is the same id assigned to the original component), but that helped me find out the solution.

In order to separate the Weblink categories into seperate URL-Link menu items, and still have thumbnails.  You need to create as many component menu links as you have categories.

so if you have weblink categories 'portfolio, partners, and random links' then you need a weblink component menu item for each of these.  Then you need to create all of your other menu items(with their corresponding item Id).  THEN link each 'COMPONENT MENU ITEM' with the correct mod_mainmenu.

Also you may want to hide the list of categories for each component. otherwise those links will have incorrect menu's.

Finally unpublish all the component menu items, and you will have each category as a seperate menu item, each can be linked to its own menu's, and you will also have the thumbnails.

Only drawback from this method, is that it each url-link when clicked on, doesnt get assigned any a:link, visited, etc. attributes.  because they are assigned to the original component menu items.

If you want to see what I mean.  Go to www.becktekonline.com click on web services, then portfolio.  This link has a different menu at the bottom of the content area than if you go to the 'our partners' link on the left menu.

[BeckTek]

I want to thank everyone for their help with all my recent posts.  Elxis is a little bit of overkill for my website in particular, but my real interest in using it is more for testing and really stretching its capabilities for application in other sites.

Its a great system, and other than a few quirks here and there, has done everything I've asked.