I would like to request a rethink of the way the Main Menu works. It would be more than great if a developer could add custom links to the Main Menu while still allowing for the dynamic module links.

Content Structure is Critical to Good Usability

By now it should be no secret that structuring content in a way that makes sense to the end user is vital to the success of a web site.

It seems that in the case of XOOPS, it is assumed that the structure of content should directly correlate to the modules installed. In other words: the functionality of a module is treated as a category of content in the Main Menu.

Such a correlation is often appropriate, such as in the case of a forum or downloads, but in other cases it doesn't work at all.

For example, static information should usually be broken into appropriate categories so that users looking for a information about a particular subject can immediately narrow in on it. I know that many news and content modules do break information down by category, but there is no easy way to add a link to a specific category page or document directly to the Main Menu, except as a sub-menu.

I know that alternatively there are custom menu modules, but every menu item must be manually created - even menu links to modules. If I design a site for a client using a custom menu module and not the Main Menu, and the site doesn't have a forum installed but then the client decides to install it, that forum won't show up in the menu by default.

A Main Menu that can have custom links added would solve these issues.

Thanks!

That would be a good idea for sure.... Being able to control what was in the main menu has always been a concern of mine, but I have just grown to adjust to it.

At the moment you can add those custom links to the main menu template in the template administration. With this you keep the normal functionality when adding new modules. The only restriction is, that you can add custom links only above or below the normal module links generated by this menu and not between them.

I agree that the main menu needs to be improved, but this is a feature which belongs to the core and would probably break the complete structure as XOOPS is now. So I think this is not on the roadmap for XOOPS 2.2