See also Menu Settings

The Members design page has four areas:

• Menu parameters - top left button
• Add a new item - bottom left
• Menu content and structure - left panel
• Member details - tabbed area to right

Menu Parameters are used as fall back parameters for any menu items that require a parameter that is not set for the item. This is useful for parameters that are common to all or many items.

They may also be used to pass values to the menu's Subject DSD that may not be passed by the calling process. If values are passed from the calling process they will override any values set here.

Enter parameters as Key/Value pairs, using the Function Builder to create the Value if required.

Menu members are added by clicking on the appropriate option in the area to the bottom left of the page. Only those options that are appropriate are shown. For example, if you haven't used index labels for any fDocs templates the fDocs Index option will not be shown.

The full list of possible options is:

• fDocs - specific fDocs template
• fSheets - specific fSheets template
• fSheets (DSD) - spreadsheet generated from a specific fData DSD
• Xml Data - download an Xml file with the data generated by a DSD
• fPanels - specific fPanels dashboard
• Menu - specific menu as a main menu (full page)
• fDocs Index - fDocs templates with selected indexes
• fPanels Index - fPanels dashboards with selected indexes
• fSheets Index - fDocs templates with selected indexes
• External Link - URL of an external web site
• Menu Group - a sub menu
• Menu Items - incorporate items from another menu
• Start - the fSeries Start page
• Break - a separator marker in the menu
• Logout - log the user out of fSeries

For each menu type, the Help tab in the details area gives more details of the options available.

Click on one of the new item options to add the item to the bottom of the menu and open the item editor in the details area to the right.

Click on any item to open its details and editor to the right.

Drag and drop items to arrange the menu sequence and structure. Menu groups give structure to the menu items, so drag item below the group item to place inside the group. As you drag, a grey are shows where the drop area is currently.

Any items that have incomplete entries are highlighted with a red border. The currently open item is highlighted with a blue border.

The area to the right of the designer has a number of tabs to access the menu item's properties, options, information and help information. Not all tabs are available for all types as they may not be relevant. The tabs are:

• Action - the options and settings specific to the type it menu item
• Display - how and whether the menu item is presented (e.g. name, colour, icon)
• Parameters - any parameters required for the item (e.g. external inputs for a dashboard)
• Navigation - set new navigation menus for top and side when the item is taken by the user
• Delete - remove the item
• Help - Information about menu item's type, including help on the item's action settings

fPanels, fDocs, fSheets, fSheets (DSD), Menu Page and Index item types have similar Action Options, including the following (not all apply to all entity types):

• Entity required - select using a drop down list or picker
• Select - indicates whether a Select page should be opened before the menu item is run (or always go straight to the item)
• External Inputs - a choice of whether to hide all entries or hide defaults if a Select page is shown
• Replace - replace the current page when the menu item is run
• Target - optional target browser window to show the menu item when run. By giving a name, other menu items with the same name appear in the same browser window.
• Formats - for fDocs only, the document formats to offer the user, or check none to offer all.

fDocs, fSheets and fPanels Index types let you select a group of entities based on their index labels. Click on the labels you wish to include and choose how to match them with the Match Index select list:

• Includes exactly these - only entities with exactly the labels selected will be included
• Includes some of these - include any entities that have at least one of the selected labels
• Includes all of these - include entities that have all of these labels, but may have more

Further options specify how the menu item should behave:

• Expand - the indexed entities will be included directly into the menu rather than as a sub-menu
• Open - if not expanded, pre-open the sub menu so that all indexed item are immediately on view, but can be closed

An external link item has the following action options:

• Url - the location of the external web site.
• Replace - replace the current page when the menu item is run
• Target - optional target browser window to show the menu item when run. By giving a name, other menu items with the same name appear in the same browser window.

The Url may be entered directly or using the Function Builder. It is not necessary to add query string parameters in the Url as they will be added from the Parameters tab (see below).

A menu group item creates a sub-menu into which you can drag and drop other items to give your menu structure. The options are as follows:

• Expand - the indexed entities will be included directly into the menu rather than as a sub-menu
• Open - if not expanded, pre-open the sub menu so that all indexed item are immediately on view, but can be closed
• Accordion - if checked, any sub-menus within the group will act as an accordion, having only one sub-menu open at a time

The content of a different menu is included in this menu. If the Expand option is checked the menu's items will be included directly into this menu rather than as a sub-menu

The Display tab that lets you specify how and whether the menu item will be displayed. For Break items only the Exclude option is available.

• Name - must be entered but will default to a selected entity's name. This is the text shown in the menu on which the user clicks to select
• Icon - use the Icon Picker or enter an icon code directly.
• Help - text to show as a tooltip for the item
• Check Permission - if checked, the entity's permissions are checked and if not permitted, the item is not displayed
• Disable - use the Function Builder to add a function to return “true” if the item is to be shown but disabled
• Exclude - use the Function Builder to add a function to return “true” if the item is to be excluded from the displayed menu

If the menu option requires parameters to be passed to the item, use the Parameters Tab to add key/value pairs. For each, use the Function Builder to build a value. Functions such as “Value” and ExternalInputs“ relate to the Subject DSD's data.

If the menu item is for an entity, any external inputs required by the entity will be listed above the list of key/value pairs. Click on each to add the corresponding key/value pair entries.

When the user clicks on a menu item, parameters are calculated from the following, in this order of hierarchy:

1. First from the parameters set for the menu item
2. Then from the parameters set for the menu that are not also set for the menu item

Menu items that result in an fSeries page being displayed (e.g. dashboard, main menu, or select page) will carry forward the current navigation (top/side menus) in operation. If you want to change the navigation, for example when opening a dashboard for a different section of outputs, use this tab to change or stop top and side menus.