Generate Navigation

I'm having a difficult imagining that all admins will remember to go to "Settings/Generate Navigation" after making category changes, or having the tech staff to remember how to that after a global update of categories.

Why not have it auto regenerate after every category add/edit/delete?

For those that have admins using this new approach, are they remembering to go from adding/editing categories to "Settings" then "Generate Navigation"?

Static navigation is a great feature, but I urge you to rethink the usability issues. I wouldn't remember to do it and I can project that in an office with multiple admins, with turnover in admins, it's not going to happen.

We currently have 505 categories, we'll probably have 200 more. I just ran the "Generate Navigation" and it was very quick. At a minimum I would suggest that you move it next to the category admin links, even better make "Categories" a first level navigation and put all category related links under it. It's odd that "Shippers" and "Payments" are top level nav when they're rarely edited after setup and categories is stuck in a long list under products.

Another admin menu change that I'd recommend, because it took me an hour to figure out that it's set under "Manage Home Page", is to repeat turning on/off the display of Featured, New Arrivals, and Best Sellers in the "manage" pages for those features under "Marketing".

I like the static approach, because it avoids another round trip to the db, but I really urge you to re-consider how it's implemented. The more that people have to "remember" the more errors there'll be.

Putting a note on the page won't work because users don't read. Making them go to another section to run a function just isn't going to happen. Going to another section after an add/edit isn't necessary for any other add/edits so it's out of the normal flow and changing categories isn't a daily task. There's only so much that can be put into a P&P document before it becomes unusable, it's better to have intuitive processes and navigation.

Thanks for the link to the previous dynamic code, I'd already previously looked it over when I found it referenced in a previous discussion and am pondering options. Viewcategories.asp uses the db so it looks like only the site nav links are affected.

I've forgotten to generate the navigation after updating our site with new categories and products.  I by accident went back to the "generate navigation" link about a month later and then realized that my store basically hadn't been up to date.  I do not want to go back to dynamic because of its limitation.  What I would suggest is to have a message show up when updating the categories or when adding new products.  I know that can be annoying, but it would remind me.  Perhaps on top of the add category/product page in big letters.  "Remember to update navigation once done".   Not a pop up, because that would be to annoying.  I have to say it is not high on my request list for PC, but it was running in my mind when I updated the navigation.  Another option to think of would be a weekly reminder when you log into the back office to perhaps update the navigation.
Katharina

Maybe I'm being blind but I don't see that a LOT of pages would have to be changed, just the CRUD category and product pages, although why anyone would include products in their general navigation is a mystery to me. Leave "Generate Navigation" in the "Settings" folder, but make it purely a settings page. Categories is a small table with a small number of fields so adding some code to autogenerate the navigation s/b a small impact. Products table is larger but I'd rather the admins wait another second rather than have inaccurate navigation on the site. Running "Generate Navigation" on my localhost, very slow compared to online server, only takes 2 seconds. I'm generating 505 categories only no products.

Or, how about the CRUD category and product pages regenerate an XML page with all category/product info and then inc_CatsMenu.asp parses it depending on the Generate Navigation settings. That way "Generate Navigation" link would still belong under "Settings" because it is a settings page.

From what I see in header/footer pages there is already a trip to the db to check for Brands, and from a previous post I think some more will be added to check for Featured and Special Products, so for now I'm going with a dynamic generation of categories for use in the navigation area. I'd rather custom code one page for navigation that run around sticking notes on multiple pages or get deeply technical with setting up batch jobs on the server.

The static navigation a really good idea but the implementation needs some tweaking.

Think like a user, how many are even going to notice that quirk in the first place to make sure they add it to their training or custom code? Think about a 1 person shop and that person gets sick or dies, think about multiple admins with turnover. To me I've failed if I have to stick notes all over an interface because what I've developed doesn't run intuitively.