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Menu element

A menu element displays metadata and content from content items that match the search criteria of the menu element. The search criteria of a menu element can include matching site areas, authoring templates, categories and keywords. We can only use a menu element by creating a menu component. We cannot add a menu element to authoring templates, site areas or content items.

Menu search options

Menu element search options are defined in the Menu Component Query section of the menu element form. These search options define which content items from the site will be displayed in the menu element. Search options can include a combination of search parameters including searches based on authoring templates, categories and site areas.

Menus can search for the following in a website:

Between different criteria, menu searches are "and" searches, but within each search criteria, menu searches are "or" searches. For example, a menu element that searches for two different categories and an authoring template will display content items profiled with at least one of each profile type. Content that matches only one profile type are not displayed.

Menus will not display search results if we select a search criteria but do not enter any search parameters. For example, if the menu is configured to display results based on categories, but no categories are specified in the menu form, then no matches are displayed.


Menu sorting options

We can sort menu search results according to following criteria:

We can select a maximum of three sort options.


Menu paging options

WCM provides flexible paging options to enable you to display search results are generated by the menu element.

While a page navigation element is a convenient way of displaying and navigating a menu's search results, we can use the menu's paging options to display search results in other ways. For example, if we wanted to show the results in a 3-column table, we could create three menu elements with the same search criteria and then tailor the paging options of each menu to display different result sets:

Menu Results per page Start page Records displayed
Menu element 1: 5 1 1 to 5
Menu element 2: 5 2 6 to 10
Menu element 3: 5 3 11 to 15

The three menus could then be referenced within three different cells of a table row in a presentation template.


Parent: Use a menu element
Next topic: Menu element design examples

Related: Use a menu element