nested templates for multi-tier navigation

[Budonk]

Greetings,

I am trying to use dreamweaver templates to build a site that my client can
maintain after initial development. The site will involve 3 levels of
navigation (let's global, secondary and tertiary). Obviously, the secondary
navigation links that are displayed on a page depend upon the global navigation
link the user clicked. And in turn, the tertiary navigation links displayed on
the page depend upon the secondary navigation... so there is a strict "Parent",
"Parent -> Child" or "Parent -> Child -> Grandchild" scheme being displayed.

In the spirit of reusing as much code as possible and making updates require
as little work as possible I began looking into nested templates.

At first I built a template containing the global navigation (non-editable), a
blank side-bar for secondary navigation (editable) and a blank area for content
(editable).

Since there are 4 global navigation links, I figured, I'd have to create
nested 4 templates based on the original - each template would contain the
secondary navigation links for each of the global navigation links.

After doing this, it began to dawn on me that this process is going to get
ugly as more navigation elements are added on any tier. My client would have to
create a new nested template every time a new page was added that had
sub-navigation (i.e. children or grandchildren).

There's got to be a better way. Has anyone used templates for dynamic
navigation display similar to what I'm describing?

[Murray *ACE*]

> There's got to be a better way. Has anyone used templates for dynamic

> navigation display similar to what I'm describing?

It's a big mess, as you are slowly gathering.

Is it essential that your client be able to add to the navigation?

--
Murray --- ICQ 71997575
Adobe Community Expert
(If you *MUST* email me, don't LAUGH when you do so!)
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"Budonk" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
news:ecdfme$p19$1@forums.macromedia.com...

> Greetings,
>
> I am trying to use dreamweaver templates to build a site that my client
> can
> maintain after initial development. The site will involve 3 levels of
> navigation (let's global, secondary and tertiary). Obviously, the
> secondary
> navigation links that are displayed on a page depend upon the global
> navigation
> link the user clicked. And in turn, the tertiary navigation links
> displayed on
> the page depend upon the secondary navigation... so there is a strict
> "Parent",
> "Parent -> Child" or "Parent -> Child -> Grandchild" scheme being
> displayed.
>
> In the spirit of reusing as much code as possible and making updates
> require
> as little work as possible I began looking into nested templates.
>
> At first I built a template containing the global navigation
> (non-editable), a
> blank side-bar for secondary navigation (editable) and a blank area for
> content
> (editable).
>
> Since there are 4 global navigation links, I figured, I'd have to create
> nested 4 templates based on the original - each template would contain the
> secondary navigation links for each of the global navigation links.
>
> After doing this, it began to dawn on me that this process is going to get
> ugly as more navigation elements are added on any tier. My client would
> have to
> create a new nested template every time a new page was added that had
> sub-navigation (i.e. children or grandchildren).
>
> There's got to be a better way. Has anyone used templates for dynamic
> navigation display similar to what I'm describing?
>

[Budonk]

[q]Is it essential that your client be able to add to the navigation?[/q]

Unfortunately yes. It will more likely be the scenario that they are adding
new content rather than updating existing. I know that these requirements are
more geared towards a full blown CMS system but I've had a good amount of
success using DW and Contribute in creative ways in the past and figured I'd
take a look around to see if anyone had any ideas... as this one has me stumped.

So the answer may be that Dreamweaver templates are not robust enough for what
I'm trying to do. And that's OK - I just needed to at least explore it as an
option.

Any thoughts?

[Murray *ACE*]

I think you need to use a CMS application.

The idea of turning a client loose with even a non-nested template makes me
nervous.

--
Murray --- ICQ 71997575
Adobe Community Expert
(If you *MUST* email me, don't LAUGH when you do so!)
==================
[url]http://www.dreamweavermx-templates.com[/url] - Template Triage!
[url]http://www.projectseven.com/go[/url] - DW FAQs, Tutorials & Resources
[url]http://www.dwfaq.com[/url] - DW FAQs, Tutorials & Resources
[url]http://www.macromedia.com/support/search/[/url] - Macromedia (MM) Technotes
==================


"Budonk" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
news:ecdlff$1qn$1@forums.macromedia.com...

> [q]Is it essential that your client be able to add to the
> navigation?[/q]
>
> Unfortunately yes. It will more likely be the scenario that they are
> adding
> new content rather than updating existing. I know that these requirements
> are
> more geared towards a full blown CMS system but I've had a good amount of
> success using DW and Contribute in creative ways in the past and figured
> I'd
> take a look around to see if anyone had any ideas... as this one has me
> stumped.
>
> So the answer may be that Dreamweaver templates are not robust enough for
> what
> I'm trying to do. And that's OK - I just needed to at least explore it as
> an
> option.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
>
>