Cumulus Wiki

User Defined Menu

Introduction

When using the Website Generator the website comes with a standard menu. It is possible to expand this menu by adding items to it. It is not possible to modify the standard menu items or sub-items, it is possible though to remove some items from the main manu by using the parameters, some items cannot be removed. The About menu item cannot be removed nor changed.

There are two ways for modifying the menu:

  1. A user defined menu containing all user defined items. This part of the menu is displayed next to the standard menu (system 1).
  2. A user defined menu where items are added to standard menu and new items are created next to the standard menu (system 2).

Operation

System 1

In the website root there must exist a file CUsermenu.txt which contains the user defined menu. When the index.html is requested by a visitor the file CUsermenu.txt is read and the items in there form the User Defined Menu which is explained below. This menu is dynamically used by the website and NOT generated by CumulusUtils.

System 2

In the utils directory there must be a file CutilsMenu.def. If this file is not present you get the default menu. The contents of this file as delivered in the distribution is shown at the end of this page.

You recognize the standard menu of CumulusUtils. User items can be added to the standard menu as is indicated above. While generating the website this menu will be incorporated. The System 1 menu will be generated in addition to System 2 (i.e. those items will be on the rightmost side of the menu).

Items

Any menu topic named other than the standard item will create a new, user defined, main menu dropdown. For all drop downs items can be defined as follows: 

 Item <name> <type> <destination> EndItem

This Item definition line has space separated words.

The <name> is what you will see in the menu and may consist of one or more words. If <name> is a valid filespec on the seerver or a valid URL, it will display the contents of that filespec or URL. It is intended to be used as a specification for a small images to be displayed in the menu. It is the users responsibility to have a correct filespec or URL. No validation is done other than:

  1. <name> starts with './' OR '../'
  2. <name> starts with 'http' OR 'https'

In which cases the <name> is interpreted as an URL.

The Type can be of :

  1. External: The URL given as destination will be opened in a new window or new tab besides CUtils
  2. Internal: The URL given as destination will be opened in the ReportView, the large viewport on the right side of the dashboard. It is implemented as an Iframe which is generated to the standard demands of Cutils
  3. Report: Any UserReport of Cutils or any other legitimate HTML/Javascript file similar to the standard reports and charts. The destination is a fully specified text file name : filename.txt (so including the extension)
  4. Image: The URL for the image (e.g. a satellite image) will be shown in the ReportView
  5. Separator: No further arguments. Creates a thin horizontal line below the last item

<destination> is the URL of what you want to see. An URL can be a full specification or just a filename in which case the report must be present on the server in the webroot (produced by Cutils or by the user).

Example lines are shown at the bottom of this page and in the distribution file CutilsMenu-example-for-use.def

Both files for System 1 & 2 are available in the distribution. Both System 1 & 2 can be used concurrently.

Error recovery in case of errors is present. System 2 however cannot validate against the real world so while developing your menu: be precise or be prepared to rerun if your menu looks garbled. Garbage in is garbage out.

Output

There is no output of the user menu, only a visible appearance on the website.

System 2 however may produce menufiles on the server of the form: <main menu item><subitem number>.txt.

Inifile parameters

There are no inifile parameters involved

Inner working

The website is designed on the basis of the Bootstrap Toolkit. As a result, the menu is also within this toolkit. As the menu is not really very easy if you are not a HTML / Bootstrap programmer, System 2 for the menu is designed to deal with without knowledge of the Bootstrap menu system. On the basis of the keywords in System 2 CumulusUtils generates the menu for you.

Example of CUsermenu.txt (System 1)

Below is the contents of CUsermenu.txt of HansR. All possibilities are used in that file and you can copy the basic principle replacing the links by your own.

NOTE: Sub-menu within a drop down is not possible.

You can use the following possibilities:

  1. Create a direct link with a <a> tag. Use target="_blank" for a new tab or window otherwise your site will be overwritten
  2. Loading a site or report of yourself into the Report View Area using the CumulusUtils function LoadUtilsReport()
  3. Create a divider between menu items
 <li class='nav-item dropdown'>
  <!-- Just put a link on the UserMenu text                                                  -->
  <!-- a class='nav-link' href='http://google.com'>Google</a                                 -->

  <a class='nav-link dropdown-toggle' href='#' id='navbarDropdown' role='button' data-bs-toggle='dropdown' aria-haspopup='true' aria-expanded='false'>
    NL
  </a>
  <ul class='dropdown-menu' aria-labelledby='navbarDropdown'>
    <li class='nav-link' onclick="LoadUtilsReport('Waterstanden.txt');">Waterstanden</li>
    <li class='nav-link' onclick="LoadUtilsReport('TopoNL.txt');">TopoNL</li>
    <li class='nav-link' onclick="LoadUtilsReport('Ahn.txt');">Hoogtekaart</li>
    <li class='nav-link' onclick="LoadUtilsReport('Cropmap.txt');">Crop map</li>
    <!-- a class='nav-link' href="https://topotijdreis.nl" target="_blank">Topo NL</a -->
    <li><a class='nav-link' href="https://waterinfo.rws.nl/#!/kaart/waterhoogte-t-o-v-nap/">Waterstanden</a></li>
    <div class='dropdown-divider'></div>
  </ul>
</li>

<li class='nav-item dropdown'>
  <!-- Just put a link on the UserMenu text                                                  -->
  <!-- a class='nav-link' href='http://google.com'>Google</a                                 -->

  <a class='nav-link dropdown-toggle' href='#' id='navbarDropdown' role='button' data-bs-toggle='dropdown' aria-haspopup='true' aria-expanded='false'>
    Maps
  </a>
  <ul class='dropdown-menu' aria-labelledby='navbarDropdown'>
    <li class='nav-link' onclick="LoadUtilsReport('Effis.txt');">European Forest Fire Information System</li>
    <div class='dropdown-divider'></div>
    <!-- li> <a class='nav-link' href="https://www.windy.com/station/pws-f06f5696?53.259,6.932,8" target="_blank">Windy (excl)</a> </li -->
    <li class='nav-link' onclick="LoadUtilsReport('Windy.txt');">Windy</span>
    <li class='nav-link' onclick="LoadUtilsReport('GlobalWinds.txt');">Global Winds</li>
    <li class='nav-link' onclick="LoadUtilsReport('Sat24-infrarood.txt');">Sat24 IR</li>
    <li class='nav-link' onclick="LoadUtilsReport('Sat24-zonwolken.txt');">Sat24 Visual</li>
    <div class='dropdown-divider'></div>
    <li class='nav-link' onclick="LoadUtilsReport('Radar-regen.txt');">Radar-regen</span>
    <li class='nav-link' onclick="LoadUtilsReport('Blitzortnung.txt');">Blitzortnung</span>
    <li class='nav-link' onclick="LoadUtilsReport('MeteoAlarm.txt');">Meteo Alarm</span>
    <div class='dropdown-divider'></div>
    <li><a class='nav-link' href="https://wow.knmi.nl/#1211bb08-6c93-e911-80e7-0003ff59889d" target="_blank">KNMI WOW</a></li>
    <li><a class='nav-link' href="https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/IWAGEN6" target="_blank">WU iwagen6</a></li>
  </ul>
</li>

User report shown in the Report View Area

Any user report or external website can be shown in the Report View Area by simply loading the User Report in that area with the LoadUtilsReport function with a li-tag as below: 

 <li class='nav-link' onclick="LoadUtilsReport('User report name.txt');">Sateliet</li>

URL shown in the Report View Area

The Report View Area can contain reports but maybe you would like to see a website in that area. That can be accomplished by putting that URL in an IFrame text file and to load that IFrame with a call to the LoadUtilsReport function like e.g. for Windy below: 

 <li class='nav-link' onclick="LoadUtilsReport('Windy.txt');">Windy</li>

Where Windy.txt is a plain text file containing the following: 

 <iframe src="The Embedded URL given by Windy" width="100%" frameborder="0" style="border:0;height:75vh;"></iframe>

The width definition of the iFrame guarantees it won't fall beside the window, the height definition keeps most URLs within the given viewport. Some may get higher which happens often when you are using a tablet. Creating dynamic sizing within the available viewport is however a bit beyond the scope of this exercise as most site work fine like this. Of course you could experiment yourself with the IFrame parameters. Look on the map for examples how users create their menu's, some really do great things!

You need to read this post when wanting to use iFrame.

Example of CuserMenu.def (System 2)

The lines below are examples Lines starting with a semicolon (;) are treated as comment

CumulusUtils Menu definitions for Website- Part of CumulusUtils
Home
Reports

Graphs
  Item Extra Report extrasensorscharts.txt EndItem

Records
Extra
Misc
Maps

User
  Item ./wu.png External https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/IWAGEN6?cm_ven=localwx_pwsdash EndItem

NL
  Item Waterstanden External https://waterinfo.rws.nl/#!/kaart/waterhoogte/ EndItem
  Item TopoNL External https://topotijdreis.nl EndItem
  Item Hoogtekaart External https://ahn.arcgisonline.nl/ahnviewer/ EndItem
  Item CropMap External https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2018/05/Crop_map EndItem
  Item Separator EndItem
  Item Waterstanden (Int) Internal https://waterinfo.rws.nl/#!/kaart/waterhoogte/ EndItem
  Item TopoNL (Int) Internal https://topotijdreis.nl EndItem

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