Project Properties

Allows you to specify the following properties and options for your loaded menu project:

• Preview Panel Settings
• Project Info Settings
• Compile Properties
  • Folders
  • Domain
  • Advanced Scripting

Compile Properties

To read more info on a "Compile Properties" topic, please click on its respective link below:

• Folders
• Domain
• Advanced Scripting

Folders

Here you specify the output folders and files to be created when compiling your menu tree project.

The Site_Root folder is the location where your web site (your main index page) is locally stored. It is also referred as the "Site Root" folder in other applications. It is very important that you specify the correct folder here, as it is used in both the compile process and in the <Link> item property for browsing the site pages.

The Compiled tree file name is the name of the javascript file that is generated when you compile the tree. It defaults to tree.js but you may as well change it to something else. Note that you can use multiple trees in the same website by having different projects compiling trees under different "Compiled tree file name" properties.

Once you setup your "Site_Root folder", you are able to edit the "Compiled subfolders" which include the following:

Tree file and library (ldmt.js) subfolder

Here you can specify a custom subfolder in your web site where your tree will be compiled. The default folder where the tree will be compiled is the Site Root of your web site. Note that a subfolder needs to exist prior to selecting it. When compiling your tree, a file called ldmt.js is also created under the same directory. This file is the "library" file that contains the code for generating the tree on the page.

Tree images subfolder

Here you can specify the subfolder where all images used by the tree are generated. If not uploaded, the tree will still display all items but without images (the missing image sign ("x") may also appear in place of those images).

Note: Compiled subfolders may also contain relative paths (eg: ../). If you do so, the subfolder location will be relative to the location of the compiled tree.js file.

Domain

Here you choose the domain where the compiled tree will be used. Initially you can only create trees for localhost (i.e. for the local environment). You need to have purchased licenses for online domains and apply the related License Key (found in your User Area) so that these purchased domains appear in the list.

Examples of domains:

• http://www.likno.com
• https://www.mysite.com
• http://subdomain.mysite.com

Advanced Scripting

In this Compile Property you can specify additional javascript code to be inserted into the tree.js file upon compilation of the tree.

This additional code will be executed every time the tree appears on page (i.e. every time the tree srcipt is running).

An experienced developer can integrate several javascript effects inside the tree.js file. You can imagine that this extends the functionality dramatically, since the tree.js may be running in all the pages of your web site.

Your scripts may produce javascript errors in the Preview pane if they rely on information located at your actual web pages. In this case it is recommended that you check the "Ignore script in Preview pane" so that they do not run at preview mode. The scripts *do* run on your actual web pages.

Note 1: Do not use the <script> & </script> tags. The tree.js is already a javascript file.

Note 2: This feature is for advanced users only! You may produce Javascript Errors if you do not include valid code here.

Preview Panel Settings

You can specify options for the Preview Panel, such as the Background Color, the text Encoding and if the menu is automatically refreshed when a change is made to a property.

Note: The "Automatically Refresh Preview" is not recommended if you have very large trees as it may slow you down when editing the tree properties.

Project Info Settings

Here you can specify settings for your tree project, such as:

• Author Name
• Author URL
• Project Description
• Design Notes

Link Compiled Tree to Web Page(s)

Links a compiled tree (.js file) to a selection of web pages.

At this stage, the application inserts the necessary tree link into the selected web pages. No DHTML or Javascript knowledge is required since the whole process is conducted by the application. The tree link is a few lines of code and can be easily identified inside the source code by a related comment.

The linking process requires only two pieces of information:

1. The compiled tree file (eg: tree.js)
2. The web page(s) where the tree link will be created.

Obviously, you need to upload the updated web pages on the server so that the tree can be viewed on-line. However, it is important that you also upload...

1. the compiled tree file (eg: tree.js).
2. the tree library ldmt.js
3. the images folder

...at the same directory structure where they reside locally.

See the Compile Tree command for more info on this issue.

To update the design of an already compiled tree you should first make the changes to its respective .awt file and then recompile it. Provided that you did not change the name or the directory of the compiled tree, you do not need to re-link the tree to the pages that already contain that link.

How does the tree-linking process work:

Let's say that you want to link a menu tree called "tree3.js" to a page. The process asks the following question and takes the respective action:

Does tree-linking code already exist for "tree3.js"?

Yes -> Replace the old tree-linking code with the new one

No -> Insert a new tree-linking code for "tree3.js" into the page

Notes:

Note about file extensions:

The link can be inserted in any kind of page, regardless of its extension. Just use the All Files (*.*) filter to select web pages that have an extension other than the typical .html or .htm one.

Note for Dreamweaver users:

If you like, you can also link the compiled menu to a template (.dwt) or a library (.lbi). Just select the related directory (Templates or Library) and use the All Files (*.*) filter so that you can view the template or library file.

The tree does not have to be compiled inside the Templates directory. On the contrary, we do not advise you to do so as you will have to upload the Templates directory on the server too.

Note for FrontPage users:

Similarly to Dreamweaver, you can link your menu into an include so that it can be used by all other pages.

Check for Updates

Checks if newer versions have been released since the last time you installed the Likno Drop-Down Menu Trees application. It is recommended that you check for updates frequently as we regularly release improved cross-browser support for your tree implementations.