Well it looks like I will not be able to add any new features to the menu builders, before I go back home to visit friends, so therefore I writing this post, to let you know what the future feature plans for CMB are.

• Vista/Apple menu builder
• More options for horizontal menu builder
• Direct menu linking
• Export features
• Multi level menu builder
• Site performance improvements

Below you can read a description of each of the features and if you feel like it, vote which should be done first.

Vista/Apple menu builder
I have been working on a vista styled menu builder for some time now, but I have still not finished it, mainly because I had some issues with finding a way to generate gaussian blur to the overlay of the menu. I tried to use PHP’s imageconvolution, but it did not give a big enough blur, so I wrote a function myself, but there are some problems with the transparency. Furthermore I would also like to add an Apple styled menu builder, so maybe I will be able to combine these two into one, which would be more practical.

More options for horizontal menu builder
Also in the works, have been the move of the horizontal menu builder, to the new menu builder core. Though I have still not started this, the task should not be as hard as it is time consuming, due to the 1500+ lines that need to be rewritten. Once this is done, more background options should be available and I would also be adding some more menu images.

Direct menu linking
Since early in the development, though early is about 2 months ago, it has been my idea to allow for direct linking to a menu. This would allow menu developers to send menus to each other for approval before downloading the menu, furthermore it would allow a user to bookmark the menu, so that they could return to continue development or recover the menu, should they have lost it.

Export features
Since I wrote the tutorial on how to implement the menu in WordPress, and I am currently working on one for Drupal, I thought it would be easier if the menu builders could just export the code directly. This would mean that the HTML code would output the complete PHP and HTML code for each enabled publishing system, so that you would not have to write any code, like it is now for the normal menus. Currently I have only thought about WordPress and Drupal, but would be added.

Multi level menus
Of course a multi level menu builder has also been the plan all along, but I have just been to scared to start development on it, as I know that it is going to drive me crazy. Also a new user interface would have to be created and limitations would have to be made, but which, it is very hard to decide. Furthermore I want them to be purely CSS, but I will need to look into if this is viable or if I should compromise by adding a small javascript to the menu. There is also the issue of building just one builder that can handle both horizontal and vertical menus or dividing them up.

Though I know that this would be a popular addition, you will probably have to wait a while longer, before I start development on this, as it will be very time consuming and since some other features will have to come first, to ease development on this.

Other stuff
I have also been trying out some different options for adding a caching engine to the site to enable faster loading. The issues concerning this have been how to properly store the cached files with language information and allowing for direct linking. There is also the issue of caching the generated images, so that they may load faster or at least the random images on the site. I have a few possible solution, but I have not had time to test them.

I have also been looking at different dedicated server solution to host the site on, as it is currently on a shared host. This would also improve performance, but here the issue of money comes in and that is something I will have to fix, before this becomes a reality. Funny how it always comes down to that.

Anyway
I hope that you now have something to look forward to. Below I have added a poll to allow you to show me which feature you would like first. There is one feature missing and that is the multi level menu builder as that is not something that can be done more or less quickly. You are also welcome to leave a comment with other features that I might not have thought about.

What would like first?

• More options for horizontal menus (45%, 5 Votes)
• Vista / Apple menu builder (36%, 4 Votes)
• Export to Wordpress, etc (18%, 2 Votes)
• Direct menu linking (0%, 0 Votes)
• None of the above (1%, 0 Votes)

Total Voters: 11

 Loading ...

Poll expires 16/10-2008