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Menu, fills out in width, equal padding

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ThomasJSmart

ThomasJSmart

Programmer
Sep 16, 2002
634
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Hi

I am trying to put together a menu but it is proving difficult.

The situation is as follows:
I have a fixed space for the menu: 960pixels wide.
The number of menus is dynamic
The contents (menu titles) are dynamic

The menus have a graphic left and right, a content section and a pull-down menu on hover.

I am looking for a way to dynamically size the menus so they always fill out the available 960px nicely. Currently I am achieving this with static padding in the css file. But the menu falls apart when anything is changed. A CSS solution would be great but if it can only be done with JS then preferably a jQuery solution. I know it can be done with tables but i would prefer not to have to resort to that ;)


The following is a very simplified (JS and image free) version of the code that is enough to demonstrate this issue and hopefully find a solution. Note that even if you add 1 character to the menu titles the menu 6 wraps to the next line. And if you remove a character (or menu) then there is a big gap on the right.



html:
Code: 
<html>
<head>
<style>
.menuholder{
	height:37px; width:960px;
	background:#999;
	background-repeat:repeat-x;
	clear: both;
}
.menuitem{
	position:relative;
	float:left; _width: 0px;
	height:37px; top:0px;
}
.menuitem:hover{
	background-color:#CCC;
}
.menuitemleft, .menuitemright{
	width:1px; height:37px;
}
.menuitemright{
	background-color:#333;
}
.menuitemleft{
	background-color:#fff;	
}
.menuitemleft, .menuitemright, .menuitemmid{
	float:left;
}
.menuitemmid{
    text-align:center;
    height:25px;
	padding-top:12px;
	padding-left:60px;
	padding-right:60px;
}
.submenuholder{
	background-color:#CCC;
	position:absolute; top:36px;
	left:1px;right:1px;
	display:none;
}
.menuitem:hover .submenuholder{
	display:block;
}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<div class="menuholder">
  <div class="menuitem">
    <div class="menuitemleft"></div>
    <div class="menuitemmid">Title 1</div>
    <div class="menuitemright"></div>
    <div class="submenuholder">
      <ul>
        <li>Subitem 1-1</li>
        <li>Subitem 1-2</li>
        <li>Subitem 1-3</li>
      </ul>
    </div>
  </div>
  <div class="menuitem">
    <div class="menuitemleft"></div>
    <div class="menuitemmid">Title 2</div>
    <div class="menuitemright"></div>
    <div class="submenuholder">
      <ul>
        <li>Subitem 2-1</li>
        <li>Subitem 2-2</li>
        <li>Subitem 2-3</li>
      </ul>
    </div>
  </div>
  <div class="menuitem">
    <div class="menuitemleft"></div>
    <div class="menuitemmid">Title 3</div>
    <div class="menuitemright"></div>
    <div class="submenuholder">
      <ul>
        <li>Subitem 3-1</li>
        <li>Subitem 3-2</li>
        <li>Subitem 3-3</li>
      </ul>
    </div>
  </div>
  <div class="menuitem">
    <div class="menuitemleft"></div>
    <div class="menuitemmid">Title 4</div>
    <div class="menuitemright"></div>
    <div class="submenuholder">
      <ul>
        <li>Subitem 4-1</li>
        <li>Subitem 4-2</li>
        <li>Subitem 4-3</li>
      </ul>
    </div>
  </div>
  <div class="menuitem">
    <div class="menuitemleft"></div>
    <div class="menuitemmid">Title 5</div>
    <div class="menuitemright"></div>
    <div class="submenuholder">
      <ul>
        <li>Subitem 5-1</li>
        <li>Subitem 5-2</li>
        <li>Subitem 5-3</li>
      </ul>
    </div>
  </div>
  <div class="menuitem">
    <div class="menuitemleft"></div>
    <div class="menuitemmid">Title 6</div>
    <div class="menuitemright"></div>
    <div class="submenuholder">
      <ul>
        <li>Subitem 6-1</li>
        <li>Subitem 6-2</li>
        <li>Subitem 6-3</li>
      </ul>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>
</body>
</html>

Suggestions are most appreciated, thank you for your time. :)



site | blog | iphones |
 
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the contents will be managed by third parties and so out of my control. I cant have them calling me up every time they want to change a menu title or add/remove an item.

Infinite doesn't need to be supported but between 3 and 10 is realistic.


site | / blog |
 
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ps. the main issue isnt really the menu items, like you say its not infinite and for a realistic range i could easy put together an if/else kind of thing. The main issue is with the menu text, just adding 1 letter to any menu causes it all to break, too fragile :(


site | / blog |
 
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There are so many possibilities for content that you could never cover them all.

The only solution I can think of is to have a fixed number of menus items across the top of the page.

If more menu items are required, introduce a vertical menu down the side. The vertical menu could contain as many items as the user requires, giving them more flexibility.


Keith
 
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For now i have resorted to a JS fix, not the best option - it doesn't degrade very nicely, but it works.

i lowered the left/right padding in .menuitemmid{} to a minimum value of 10, added a first/last class for the first and last menu items with an additional 2 px padding left on first and right on last, and then (with jquery):

Code: 
// when dom is ready:
$(document).ready(function(){

// get the used width and total menus
var usedWidth=0; var totalMenus=0;
$('.menuitem').each(function(){
  usedWidth+=$(this).width();
  totalMenus++;
});

// calcualte the default padding value
var defaultPadding = (totalMenus*10)+4

// calculate the real remaining with (without default padding)
var remainingWidth = 958-usedWidth+defaultPadding;

// calculate the proper padding to fill it out nicely
var padding = Math.floor((remainingWidth/totalMenus)/2);

// "left-over" padding is applied the first and last menu item
var leftXpad = Math.ceil((remainingWidth-((padding*totalMenus)*2))/2);
var rightXpad = remainingWidth-((padding*totalMenus)*2)-leftXpad;

// apply padding to each menu item
$('.menuitem').each(function(){
  $(this).find('.menuitemmid').css('padding-left',padding).css('padding-right',padding);
});

// apply left-over padding to first/last menu items
$('.menuitemFirst').find('.menuitemmid').css('padding-left',(padding+leftXpad));
$('.menuitemLast').find('.menuitemmid').css('padding-right',(padding+rightXpad));
});


site | / blog |
 
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