MODX 3 - Menu Design

[muzzwood]

Feature request

Summary

Different style of side menus for the manager. Slide out menus that cover the space of the resource tree would be more usable than the current style of menus.
The current ones suit dropping from the top like in 2.x but are awkward to use from the side.
Full height slide out menus would also allow for easy scrolling if lots of menu links are added.

Why is it needed?

At the moment the dropdown menus from 2.x have been modified to work on the side in 3.x
They are awkward to use and look a bit odd. Especially the user and settings menus right down the bottom.

Suggested solution(s)

Have full-height slide out menus that cover the space of the resource/elements/files tree when extended. They would swap when a different menu parent is selected.
I've made a quick mockup with my very limited design skills. Please ignore the colouring, font, spacing etc, It's just to get the idea across so that someone with skill in design could have a crack at it.
I left the tabs at the top showing so someone can quickly get back to one of the trees without having to close the menu first. Perhaps it's better to cover them as well and just have clicking outside the menu the trigger for closing it.

Are people happy the way the menu currently works or do you think this would be better?
I know it's very subjective.

Edit:
The animation would be along the lines of how the Fred sidebar slides out.

[Mark-H]

Many menus only have 2-5 items... making that take up the whole height of the screen seems like a waste of space. You mention keeping the tabs in view for easy clicks out of hte menu.. in the current system, there is a lot more still in view.

I get the inspiration from Fred for a (near) full height popout, but Fred typically has the entire height full (and then some) with big blocks, so that doesn't seem like the same use case as the core menu.

{insert not a designer disclaimer here}

[muzzwood]

My motivation for creating this issue is mostly the awkwardness of the top level parent placement (down the bottom) and how the sub-menus appear. The latter is also a problem in 2.x however slide out menus wouldn't have suited navigation along the top.
Precise mouse movements are required so the pop-ups don't close accidentally and force slow-down while working.
As for the parent placement down the bottom, some browsers (e.g. Firefox) have a preview tool-tip of the link hovered over in the bottom-left which appears when using the menu and obscures the bottom section.

I agree that having full height panels may seem like a waste of space but with a bit of reorganisation they don't have to be.
Sub-menus could be included in the slide out but differentiated by a collapsible link for example. (similar to resources.)

Some of the parent menu items could be merged saving space in the sidebar for custom links.
A slide out menu would also be easily scrollable removing the limit of menu items displayed.
A designer with flair :-) could probably section the slide out menu panels into easily digestible chunks so new users don't have such a hard time searching through all the menu items trying to find what they're after. The extra space would allow for this.

Anyone else have some thoughts on this?

[Ruslan-Aleev]

Personally, I like the idea that the size of the menu will be limited and a scroll will be added.
But to do this is not easy, you can try :)

There are technical limitations in the current menu implementation:

• The menu is added via js
• For nested menus position: absolute

These PRs show these limitations - #14935 and #14300