Add a header menu item
This page answers one question: how do I put another page into the header menu? It was worked out on the real
Fit & Healthy site that ships with Exponential 6.0.15+ (the media site theme, extension sevenx_themes_media).
Every screenshot was taken on a throwaway copy of that installation.
Contents
The short answer
The header menu is a list of node IDs in the setting [SiteInfo] MainMenuID[] of menu.ini, for the siteaccess
site. Each ID is one menu item; the item's text is the node's name and its link is the node's URL. To add a page:
- Find the node ID of the page (Find a node ID).
- Add it to
MainMenuID[]:- in the administration: Setup > Ini settings, file
menu.ini, siteaccesssite, Edit onMainMenuID[](step by step), or - in a terminal:
./console exp:ini add menu.ini/SiteInfo/MainMenuID[] 192 siteaccess:site(step by step).
- in the administration: Setup > Ini settings, file
- Clear the Template & content caches (the compiled menu template holds the list).
That is all. Adding "Showcase" (node 192) took ten actions in the administration (clicks, choices and one typed line) and two commands in the console (Measured steps and times).
Why the Layouts editor does not show the menu items
Open Layouts > Shared layouts > Header / Footer and you see blocks, not menu items: the header zone holds a
Template block whose template name is header.
A template block is a placeholder: it tells the page "render the template called header here". The menu inside that
template is not stored in the layout. It comes from menu.ini. So:
| You want to | Where |
|---|---|
| Add, remove or reorder header menu items | menu.ini [SiteInfo] MainMenuID[] (administration: Setup > Ini settings; console: exp:ini) |
| Rename a menu item | Rename the page (node) in the content tree; the item shows the node's name |
| Change the header's markup (logo, search, user menu) | The templates, see How the header is built |
| Put blocks above or below the header on every page | The Layouts editor, shared layout Header / Footer, zone header or post_header |
The full chain from the layout block to the menu template is on How the header is built.
The three ways
| Way | Tool | Who | Page |
|---|---|---|---|
| Administration | Setup > Ini settings | admin, website creator | Header menu in the administration |
| Command line | ./console exp:ini | admin, developer, hosting | Header menu by command line |
| Content tree | Rename, move or replace the page whose ID is listed | editor | Header menu and the content tree |
The order of the items is the order of the IDs. To move or take out an item, see Reorder or remove header menu items.
After the change
The menu template is compiled with the list of IDs in it, so a changed MainMenuID[] shows only after the template
cache is cleared. In the administration choose Template & content in the Clear cache box and press Clear; in
a terminal run ./console exp:cache clear --tag=template,content --allow-root-user. That also clears the page caches.
If the item still does not appear, work through Header menu troubleshooting.
Related pages
- How the header is built
- Footer menu items
- Two ways to build
- The layouts editor
- Free documentation: this page is free to copy, translate and improve under the GNU FDL 1.3.
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