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Author Topic: Menu entry dropdown positioning  (Read 2941 times)

springguy

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Menu entry dropdown positioning
« on: March 22, 2010, 04:27:01 AM »
I am using the NetTalk example 3 (browse/form with login) and integrating with static webpages - exactly the same webpage that Wolfgang Orth used in his webinar.  All is OK except the windows style chrome menubar's dropdown menu entries.  They appear vertically offset from the menu bar by about half the vertical distance of the web page.  In other words, instead of the menu entries appearing directly under the menu bar when you hover over the menu bar entry, they entries appear below the menu bar about 3 inches away!

Seems like a style sheet issue, but I don't see it.  Is there a way to tell the static web page to use a specific style sheet?  Also, isn't the chrome dropdown menu really controlled by the javascript that comes with nettalk?  Is this a javascript compatibility issue with the web page?

I have attached a zip file of the webserver application folder and it contains the nettalk app and the static web pages/style sheets/scripts, etc.  Any ideas?
Mike Springer

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Bruce

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Re: Menu entry dropdown positioning
« Reply #1 on: March 23, 2010, 10:55:17 PM »
Hi Mike,
 
I'm not sure you're gonna like the answer.
 
ok, firstly - what's happening is that the technique the Css script is using to determine the menu position is not working. This is because
on your page it's inside a div, which in turn is set with absolute: positioning.
I should mention that positioning in css in a topic that starts of simple but gets really really complex very very quickly.
The short summary though is that the css you've "hand-coded" (using the web site designer) and the css (and javascript) in the
chrome class are not friends.
 
I've tried your app in NetTalk 5, using the "double drop" menu type - and that does work, so that's one simple way to go. In the long
run this might be the best solution.
 
Another approach is to rethink the strategy of trying to embed lots of dynamic stuff in the static pages. That can be done of
course, but doing so will require at least _some_ understanding of the css which is being generated. ie static stuff is fine - but
then you need to know what sort of static stuff is being genrated. It's not impossible to learn by any means, but if you want to mix
things like this I think some knowledge will almost certainly be required.
 
If you approached it from the other side - ie not
"embed dynamic in static" but rather
"embed static in dynamic"
then you'll still need to be somewhat familiar with html, and css, but to a vastly lower degree. However this approach is ultimately
"less flexible" so you may need to change your design to match.
 
Cheers
Bruce