Norcascade download time / position

Another automatic cascading menu for Actinic 5 onwards. This one allows more modern DHTML effects.
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aloebridge123
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2006 9:57 pm
Location: West Yorkshire
Contact:

Norcascade download time / position

Post by aloebridge123 »

Hi Norman,

Any chance you can help with the attached query - have posted at the actinic site as well.

Thanks to all your advise, I've been updating the site and re-introduced the norcascade menu. However it takes ages to download when you go onto the page and I was wondering if there was anyway I can speed it up?

Also... another forum user cheapprices4u advised that the menu may be moving around the page (It works fine for me) Can anyone tell me if this is happening when you open the site and also what I need to do to stop this.

I've tried to put in an anchor as explained in your guide, however when I do this the whole menu disappears - not sure if I'm doing it right?(well obviously not!)

I've also had the opportunity to finally put on the upsell module which i purchased from you ages and ages ago and that works great - thanks.

Thanks

Linda

http://www.aloevera-and-you.com
Regards
Linda Bridgestock
http://www.aloevera-and-you.com
norman
Site Admin
Posts: 1252
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2004 9:55 pm

Post by norman »

A couple of things are causing the slow display:

1) You have about 360 Sections on your site so that's a lot of data that needs to be loaded and processed. However it's only about 80Kb so isn't an unfeasible amount.

2) You've put the NorCascade code above the </body> tag rather than after the <body> tag so it is the very last thing to load.

As for the positioning. The Configuration ReadMe describes how to anchor the menu. However this requires you to put the code at end of the page so you're back to it loading last.
Norman
aloebridge123
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2006 9:57 pm
Location: West Yorkshire
Contact:

Post by aloebridge123 »

Thanks Norman, I've changed the placing of the code. Not sure it's speeded up though but I'll also look at the number of sections.

Can you please tell me if the menu is all over the place for you?

Thanks
Regards
Linda Bridgestock
http://www.aloevera-and-you.com
norman
Site Admin
Posts: 1252
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2004 9:55 pm

Post by norman »

I just spotted some extra unused code in your overall layout that may be slowing your site down. You don't need

Code: Select all

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript" SRC="acatalog/Act_section_tree.js" TYPE="text/javascript"></SCRIPT><SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript" TYPE="text/javascript">
<!--
function YahooSections(ar)
{
var strIDs = '';
for (var i=1;i<=ar.length;i++)
{
if (ar[i].sURL != null)
{
strIDs += '<a href="' + ar[i].sURL + '"><span class="actxxsmall"><b><font color="#000000">' + ar[i].sName + '</font></b></span></a><br>';
{
if (ar[i].pChild)
{
for (var j=1;j<=ar[i].pChild.length;j++)
{
if (ar[i].pChild[j].sURL != null)
{
strIDs += '<a href="' + ar[i].pChild[j].sURL + '"><span class="actxxsmall"><font color="#000000">' + ar[i].pChild[j].sName + '</font></span></a><br>';
}
}
}
}
strIDs += '<br>'
}
}
return strIDs
}
//-->
</SCRIPT>
I've copied this from your live site. The first line is probably a reference to an Actinic Layout or Variable in the Overall Layout. This will be asking Actinic to load a big JavaScript file.

As for the visible menu, it seems that you're using a negative offset from the page centre. However your layout, although centered isn't fixed width. Thus an offset from the centre won't work reliably.

Solutions would be to either:

1) Make your layout fixed width.

2) Left align your layout and align the menu from the left edge.

3) Align the menu to an named anchor. I believe you tried this and had problems. However it should work if done properly.
Norman
aloebridge123
Posts: 14
Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2006 9:57 pm
Location: West Yorkshire
Contact:

Post by aloebridge123 »

Hi Norman,

Thanks for your reply. I've fixed the widths of the templates now, would you mind loading the site to see if the menu looks aligned properly to you please?

Thanks for all your help.
Regards
Linda Bridgestock
http://www.aloevera-and-you.com
norman
Site Admin
Posts: 1252
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2004 9:55 pm

Post by norman »

The menu seems OK now unless the viewer has a very small screen (< 800 pixels) width. Such users will be resigned to not seeing all of a page anyway.
Norman
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