Available Menu Content
Menu Content is the clay from which you mould a menu. There are many kinds, all of them have their use but not all should always be used. Menu content is grouped together into logical groups allowing you to quickly find the link you are looking for.
Dynamic vs Static Links
Links can broadly be categorised into two types: dynamic and static. Both appear in the menu builder structure overview as a single box that can be dragged and modified to your satisfaction. When these menu content are parsed into a menu, static menu content will appear as a single link where you place it. However, dynamic menu content will generally parse out into multiple links.
You can identify whether an item is static or dynamic in the Menu Structure Preview. The type of menu content is displayed in grey after the menu content name.
Automatic updating of menus
If you add or remove store content, dynamic menu content will reflect this. So if you add a hypothetical Christmas category to your Seasonal Department in your POS, the menu will pick this up and display it without you having to add the new category to your menu. Similarly, in January when you remove the category from your POS, the category will remove itself from your menu too.
Dynamic Menu Content and Children
Dynamic menu content may not have any children. It isn’t possible to add menu content at the next level down under dynamic menu content. This is because it is not possible for the interface to know how many levels deep a dynamic menu content will be.
Static menu content is not restricted in how many children it can have.
Example of a static menu content
Adding a static department to your menu will output a link to that department listing page in the menu.
Example of Dynamic Content
If you added a dynamic department, your menu would output the link to the department listing page but will also output links to that departments category and subcategory pages at the next two levels of the menu.
Department, Category and Subcategory Links
These are the bread and butter of a store menu. The various links will deposit your shopper on the various listing pages throughout your store. If these pages have content associated with them then the landing pages will include that content.
When adding store navigation links decide upfront whether you want those links to be static or dynamic. Subcategories cannot be dynamic.
Content
This lists the various content pages that you have created through the WSM Design & Content->Pages interface. You can add links to these pages from here.
Brands and Themes
This lists the various brand and theme pages that you have created through your POS or PAM interface. The linked listing pages will include any content you have entered into the WSM pages interface.
Blog Content
If you use the NitroSell blog features, you can add links to either blog categories or blog articles. Blog categories can be dynamic if you choose. This means that all articles in the linked category will be displayed at the next menu level down.
Miscellaneous
This catch all category contains some of the more interesting menu links.
Dynamic Store Nav
Including this in your menu is a short cut to adding all departments with all their categories and all their subcategories to your menu. This is dynamic menu content and therefore cannot have any children,
Text Title
This allows you to enter text into the menu that isn’t a link., It is useful when grouping various menu content together into logical groups. This can be used to replace the old navigation groups that were generated using Nsc PAM.
External Link
This does exactly what it says on the tin. In the menu content configuration panel is a special input called URL. Enter a URL to any URL on the web and the link will be displayed in your menu. Useful if you want to re-direct customers to another of your stores.
Remember to enter a Label or the link won’t have anything to display on the menu!
Product
You might want a special product to be easy to find, This menu content will create a link to a selected product on your store. When you add this to the menu use the Find Product button to locate an item on your store. The link will display the product name unless you add a Label. The Product Name, Product Code and Product ID fields will automatically complete when you use the Find Product button.
HTML Content
For the seriously good web designers that wish to make their menus as fancy as Amazon, this menu content will allow you to insert some HTML markup directly into a menu item <li>. This has the potential of breaking your store so ensure you test it VERY carefully when you use it.
The potential of HTML menu content is limitless but with great power comes great responsibility, be wise in your use of this.
Speaking of which, have you checked out our Amazon integration?