Classic menus: Design > Menus (classic), menu.ini and menu templates #

This guide explains the classic menu settings of Exponential: what the page Design > Menus (classic) (/visual/menuconfig) does, which sites it matters for and which it does not, what each of its four arrangements shows a visitor, the recipes most sites need, and how to draw classic menus in templates of your own. It ends with a short history and the usual problems.

It is written for site builders who still run a site on one of the classic designs, and for administrators who meet the page and wonder whether to touch it. Every rule and file below was checked against the code of this repository on 6 October 2026, and every template example was rendered against the content of a real installation.

Guides · Related: Templates and design · Exponential Layouts

In short #

• The classic designs (design/base, ezwebin, and the demo and simple designs built on them) draw a top menu and a left menu from three settings in menu.ini [SelectedMenu]: CurrentMenu, TopMenu and LeftMenu. The page Design > Menus (classic) picks one of four arrangements per siteaccess and writes those three lines.
• Sites built with Exponential Layouts do not read them. Their menus are blocks in a layout, set in the layout editor (Layouts tab, /explayouts_ui/dashboard). The administration interface does not read them either.
• The page finds out by itself which siteaccess uses them: it reads the page layout each siteaccess resolves to. Siteaccesses where the settings do nothing are folded away with the reason, and saving for one of them needs a tick that says you know it changes no page.
• Saving writes only the three lines, into settings/siteaccess/<siteaccess>/menu.ini.append.php, keeps a copy of the file as it was in var/backup/ini, and clears the INI cache, the compiled page layouts and the template blocks. No restart of PHP-FPM or Velocity is needed.

1. When to use this page, and when Layouts #

On the page, every siteaccess of site.ini [SiteAccessSettings] RelatedSiteAccessList gets one of these labels:

• Uses these settings: its page layout, or a template the page layout includes, reads them.
• Uses these settings, with Layouts: it reads them and also renders Layouts.
• Not used: renders through Layouts.
• Administration siteaccess.
• Not used by its design: its page layout draws no classic menu.
• No page layout found.

The page opens on the first siteaccess that uses the settings. When none does, it says so at the top: nothing needs to be done there.

2. The four arrangements #

menu.ini [MenuSettings] AvailableMenuArray lists them; each has a group with its title and its two templates. Saving one writes these lines (exactly what the page shows under "Template, content and the lines it writes"):

What the templates fetch, read from design/base/templates/menu/ and extension/ezwebin/design/ezwebin/templates/menu/:

• Classes. The top menu and both rows of the double top menu list only objects of the classes in menu.ini [MenuContentSettings] TopIdentifierList; the left menus use LeftIdentifierList.
• Order. Each list is sorted the way its parent page sorts its children.
• Hidden pages are left out, as for every visitor, as long as site.ini [SiteAccessSettings] ShowHiddenNodes is false (the default).
• The start page. ezwebin's templates start from content.ini [NodeSettings] RootNode (and site.ini [SiteSettings] RootNodeDepth for sub sites). The design/base templates flat_top and double_top always start from node 2, the top of the content tree. On a site whose start page is not node 2 they list the wrong pages; use ezwebin's templates or your own (section 5).
• Which file draws it depends on the siteaccess's designs: the page names the file each template resolves to. On a site with ezwebin before base, flat_top, double_top and flat_left come from ezwebin and sub_left from design/base.
• ezwebin hides the left menu on pages of the classes in menu.ini [MenuSettings] HideLeftMenuClasses (frontpage, blog, blog_post by default).

Each arrangement on the page has a small preview built from the installation's own pages: the start page, the top menu pages, and the pages of the first top menu page that has pages of its own, as a visitor there would see them.

3. Recipes #

Each recipe gives the file, the exact lines, and what a visitor sees. Put them in the siteaccess you mean; the page shows the same recipes with that siteaccess's name filled in. None of them does anything for a siteaccess that renders through Exponential Layouts: there a menu is a block in the layout editor.

Top menu only #

settings/siteaccess/<siteaccess>/menu.ini.append.php

[SelectedMenu]
CurrentMenu=TopOnly
TopMenu=flat_top
LeftMenu=

A visitor sees one row of links under the header, the pages below the start page, and no left column.

Top menu plus a left menu for the current section #

[SelectedMenu]
CurrentMenu=LeftTop
TopMenu=flat_top
LeftMenu=sub_left

A visitor sees the same row; inside a first-level page (say "Showcase") a left column lists that page's pages. On the start page there is no left column.

Limit the menus to folders and landing pages #

[MenuContentSettings]
TopIdentifierList[]
TopIdentifierList[]=folder
TopIdentifierList[]=frontpage
LeftIdentifierList[]
LeftIdentifierList[]=folder
LeftIdentifierList[]=frontpage

The empty TopIdentifierList[] line clears the list read from the files before (settings/menu.ini, ezwebin's menu.ini.append.php), so only the classes that follow are menu items. frontpage is ezwebin's landing page class. A visitor sees only folders and landing pages in the menus; articles, links and other pages stay reachable but are no longer menu items. This applies to every arrangement.

Hide one page from the menus #

Hide the page in the content structure (its context menu: Hide / unhide). The menu templates fetch pages as visitors see them, so a hidden page is left out of every classic menu as long as this stays as it is by default:

settings/siteaccess/<siteaccess>/site.ini.append.php

[SiteAccessSettings]
ShowHiddenNodes=false

A visitor no longer sees the page, in the menus or anywhere else; editors still see it in the administration. To keep the page on the site but out of the menus, give it a class that is not in the lists of the recipe above.

A different menu per siteaccess #

Every siteaccess reads its own settings/siteaccess/<name>/menu.ini.append.php. Save on the page once per siteaccess, or put the lines in the two files:

settings/siteaccess/mysite_en/menu.ini.append.php

[SelectedMenu]
CurrentMenu=TopOnly
TopMenu=flat_top
LeftMenu=

settings/siteaccess/mysite_de/menu.ini.append.php

[SelectedMenu]
CurrentMenu=LeftTop
TopMenu=flat_top
LeftMenu=sub_left

Visitors of mysite_en get a top menu only, visitors of mysite_de a top menu and a left column.

A value in settings/override/menu.ini.append.php is read after the siteaccess files and wins over all of them. The page warns when that is the case: saving there would change nothing until the override is removed.

4. Which designs draw classic menus #

A menu appears only where a page layout includes it, so the settings do nothing on their own. In this repository:

The page lists the designs of the installation it runs in, found the same way.

5. Use in your templates #

Each example below is the same text the page shows with a Copy button. Each was rendered through the template engine against a real installation's content, as the anonymous visitor: no template errors or warnings, and the links of the real pages it must list.

Draw the chosen menus from a page layout #

Put it where the menus go in your pagelayout.tpl. {menu name=TopMenu} includes design:menu/<TopMenu>.tpl and is resolved when the page layout is compiled, which is why saving on the page deletes the compiled page layouts. The cache-block keys are those of design/base: the address, and the roles and limitations of the user, so every visitor gets the selected item of the page and only what their rights allow. The siteaccess is part of every cache-block key by itself, and the block expires whenever content is published.

{* In your pagelayout.tpl: draw the menus menu.ini [SelectedMenu] names.
   {menu name=TopMenu} includes design:menu/<TopMenu>.tpl, chosen when the page layout is compiled.
   ezwebin's menu templates also read $pagedata and $current_node_id; with that design, define them
   first, as its page layout does:
   {def $pagedata = ezpagedata() $current_node_id = $pagedata.node_id} *}
{def $menu_user = fetch( 'user', 'current_user' )}
{cache-block keys=array( $uri_string, $menu_user.role_id_list|implode( ',' ), $menu_user.limited_assignment_value_list|implode( ',' ) )}
<nav class="topmenu" aria-label="Main">
    {menu name=TopMenu}
</nav>
{if ezini( 'SelectedMenu', 'LeftMenu', 'menu.ini' )}
<nav class="leftmenu" aria-label="Section">
    {menu name=LeftMenu}
</nav>
{/if}
{/cache-block}
{undef $menu_user}

A top menu template of your own #

The visible children of the start page (content.ini [NodeSettings] RootNode) of the TopIdentifierList classes, with the item the visitor is in marked. Unlike the design/base templates it follows RootNode.

{* design:menu/my_top.tpl: the pages below the start page, of the classes in
   menu.ini [MenuContentSettings] TopIdentifierList, in the start page's sort order.
   fetch() leaves hidden pages out for visitors (ShowHiddenNodes=false). *}
{def $root_id = ezini( 'NodeSettings', 'RootNode', 'content.ini' )
     $root = fetch( 'content', 'node', hash( 'node_id', $root_id ) )
     $items = fetch( 'content', 'list', hash( 'parent_node_id', $root_id,
                                              'sort_by', $root.sort_array,
                                              'class_filter_type', 'include',
                                              'class_filter_array', ezini( 'MenuContentSettings', 'TopIdentifierList', 'menu.ini' ) ) )
     $in_path = first_set( $module_result.path[1].node_id, 0 )
     $here = first_set( $module_result.node_id, 0 )}
{if $items}
<ul class="menu-top">
{foreach $items as $item}
    <li{if eq( $item.node_id, $in_path )} class="selected"{/if}><a href={$item.url_alias|ezurl}{if eq( $item.node_id, $here )} aria-current="page"{/if}>{$item.name|wash}</a></li>
{/foreach}
</ul>
{/if}
{undef $root_id $root $items $in_path $here}

A left menu for the current section #

The pages of the first-level page the visitor is in, of the LeftIdentifierList classes, with the current page marked; nothing on the start page.

{* design:menu/my_section_left.tpl: the pages of the first-level page the visitor is in
   ($module_result.path[1]; ezwebin's $pagedata.path_array holds the same path), of the
   classes in menu.ini [MenuContentSettings] LeftIdentifierList. Nothing on the start page. *}
{def $section_id = first_set( $module_result.path[1].node_id, 0 )}
{if $section_id}
{def $section = fetch( 'content', 'node', hash( 'node_id', $section_id ) )
     $items = fetch( 'content', 'list', hash( 'parent_node_id', $section_id,
                                              'sort_by', $section.sort_array,
                                              'class_filter_type', 'include',
                                              'class_filter_array', ezini( 'MenuContentSettings', 'LeftIdentifierList', 'menu.ini' ) ) )
     $here = first_set( $module_result.node_id, 0 )}
<h2><a href={$section.url_alias|ezurl}>{$section.name|wash}</a></h2>
{if $items}
<ul class="menu-left">
{foreach $items as $item}
    <li><a href={$item.url_alias|ezurl}{if eq( $item.node_id, $here )} aria-current="page"{/if}>{$item.name|wash}</a></li>
{/foreach}
</ul>
{/if}
{undef $section $items $here}
{/if}
{undef $section_id}

Where the files go #

Never edit a shipped design: an update replaces it. A design extension of your own is found before the shipped designs, and the extra [MenuSettings] entry offers your templates as a fifth arrangement on the page.

# Your own menu templates belong in a design extension, never in a shipped design.
#
# extension/mysite_menus/settings/design.ini.append.php
[ExtensionSettings]
DesignExtensions[]=mysite_menus

# extension/mysite_menus/design/mysite/templates/menu/my_top.tpl
# extension/mysite_menus/design/mysite/templates/menu/my_section_left.tpl
#   ("mysite" is a design in your siteaccess's SiteDesign or AdditionalSiteDesignList)

# settings/siteaccess/<siteaccess>/menu.ini.append.php
# a fifth arrangement, offered on Design > Menus (classic) from then on
[MenuSettings]
AvailableMenuArray[]=MyTopAndSection

[MyTopAndSection]
TitleText=My top and section menus
TopMenu=my_top
LeftMenu=my_section_left

After adding the files, clear the template override cache and the INI cache (php bin/php/ezcache.php --clear-id=template-override --allow-root-user and --clear-tag=ini), and run exp:velocity cache clear when Velocity serves the site.

With Exponential Layouts #

A siteaccess that renders through Layouts draws its menus with blocks in a layout zone, so none of these templates apply there. Classic and Layouts siteaccesses can live side by side in one installation, each with its own design.

6. What saving does #

1. Takes the arrangement only if it is one of AvailableMenuArray; anything else posted is refused with a message.
2. Checks that the siteaccess is one of RelatedSiteAccessList, that its name is letters, digits, _ and -, and that settings/siteaccess/<name> exists and, with links resolved, lies inside settings/siteaccess.
3. Writes the three lines of [SelectedMenu] through the INI editor of exp:ini: only the touched lines change, comments, other sections and the <?php /* ... */ ?> wrapper stay, a missing file is created with the wrapper, the old file is copied to var/backup/ini, the owner and mode are kept, and the change is recorded in the audit (system.setting.write).
4. Reads the file back; if it does not hold the three values or the wrapper is broken, puts the old file back.
5. Clears the INI caches (global_ini, ini), the compiled page layouts of the siteaccess's cache directory and the template blocks. Every request reads the settings again, under Apache and Velocity alike, so nothing needs a restart; pages kept in a response cache show the old menus until that cache is cleared.

Before 6.0.15 the page saved every menu.ini setting the siteaccess read into that file, which froze all the other menu settings (the administration tabs among them) for the siteaccess. It now writes the three lines only.

The page is a link of the Design tab's left menu (menu.ini [Leftmenu_design], key menu_management, after Toolbar management) and marks the Design tab. Until 6.0.15 it was a link of the Setup menu, in the group "Site and URLs"; its address is unchanged.

The form keeps its old field names (CurrentSiteAccess, SelectCurrentSiteAccessButton, MenuType, StoreButton) and works without javascript. /visual/menuconfig/(siteaccess)/<name> opens the page for one siteaccess. The page needs the rights of the visual module, and the editor siteaccess refuses that module as before.

7. A short history #

The classic designs build every page from one page layout, and that page layout asks menu.ini which menus to draw. This page has chosen that since the first versions: four arrangements of a top and a left menu, saved per siteaccess.

Exponential Layouts replaced that for new sites: a layout holds zones and blocks, a menu is one of the blocks, and a rule picks the layout for each page. A siteaccess built that way never reads these settings. The page stays for sites that still use a classic design, and since 6.0.15 it says for each siteaccess whether it matters there.

8. When something does not behave #

References #

• Page: kernel/visual/menuconfig.php, kernel/private/classes/views/visual/menuconfig.php, design/admin/templates/visual/menuconfig.tpl and design/admin4/templates/visual/menuconfig.tpl
• Detection: kernel/classes/classicmenu/expclassicmenusiteaccessinspector.php
• Reading and writing: kernel/classes/classicmenu/expclassicmenusettings.php; template examples in kernel/classes/classicmenu/examples/
• Tests: tests/tests/kernel/classes/classicmenu/expClassicMenuSettingsTest.php
• Settings: settings/menu.ini ([MenuSettings], [SelectedMenu], the four arrangement groups, [MenuContentSettings]), extension/ezwebin/settings/menu.ini.append.php
• Templates: design/base/templates/pagelayout.tpl, design/base/templates/menu/*.tpl, extension/ezwebin/design/ezwebin/templates/menu/*.tpl, lib/eztemplate/classes/eztemplatemenufunction.php, extension/ezwebin/autoloads/ezpagedata.php