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<section id="navigation.menu.overview">
<title>Overview</title>
<para>
Navigation through a &product.longname; site is primarily handled by menus. A menu is a
nested hierarchy of links to content and other resources. Menus can contain several
different kinds of items:
</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>Action</term>
<listitem>
An action item is a link generated by the system representing features provided by
&product.name;, such as links to the Management pages, the Home page, Search
interface.
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Content</term>
<listitem>
A link to a content entry managed by &product.name;.
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Heading</term>
<listitem>
A heading within a menu is just a label; clicking on it does nothing. It is
primarily used to identify a group of menu items, but could also be used to provide
some visual separation between menu items.
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Link</term>
<listitem>
A link item is a labelled <acronym>URL</acronym> to another web page, either
within your site or elsewhere.
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Dynamic</term>
<listitem>
A dynamic menu item represents a list of items that is created for each page view.
Modules can provide their own dynamic menu items, but &product.name; provides
the following:
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<emphasis role="bold">Active User's Profile</emphasis> - this menu item
provides a link to the profile for the current user, if the user is logged
in, or no item at all if the user is not logged in.
</listitem>
<listitem>
<emphasis role="bold">Category Listing</emphasis> - this menu item provides
a list of the current categories. It is possible to select a starting point
within a category's hierarchy and to limit the number of entries presented.
</listitem>
<listitem>
<emphasis role="bold">Content Listing</emphasis> - this menu item provides
a list of the current content.
</listitem>
<listitem>
<emphasis role="bold">Login/Logout</emphasis> - this menu item presents a
Login form if the user has not yet logged in, or a link to logout the user
when they are logged in.
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
<section>
<title>Default Menus</title>
<para>
&product.name; provides several menus by default:
</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>Primary</term>
<listitem>
As its name indicates, this is a menu that intended to appear on most of your
site's pages. The themes provided with &product.name; use this menu to provide
the navigation links appearing at the top of all pages.
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Sidebar</term>
<listitem>
This menu is intended to be used within pages including a sidebar. Its default
configuration causes it to display categories.
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Footer</term>
<listitem>
This menu is intended to be used at the bottom of pages. This menu contains a
subset of the items in the <emphasis>Primary</emphasis> menu by default.
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Sitemap</term>
<listitem>
Many sites provide a <emphasis>sitemap</emphasis>, which is an overview of all
the content provided. It assists users to find content that might not be easy to
locate when they are unfamiliar with your site. Search engines also request a
sitemap file to assist in their site indexing processes.
&product.name; automatically generates the <filename>sitemap.xml</filename>
file, and provides a page that presents the contents of the Sitemap menu. Much
of the content you create for your site should be included in this menu,
although you may include or exclude any content to match your site's navigation
needs.
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Management Toolbar</term>
<listitem>
This menu populates the management toolbar, the primary interface to management
operations in &product.name;. During content editing, this menu is not exposed.
It is available for editing on the <emphasis role="screen">Manage
Content</emphasis>, but should normally be left alone.
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Management Footer</term>
<listitem>
This menu provides the navigation appearing in the footer of
&product.name; management pages.
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
</section>
</section>
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