Section Menu : the best solution for a big catalog ?

[BodyBits]

I would love to hear about all of you people regarding a problem I have on one of my sites : Here is the URL http://www.bijoux-piercing-france.com

It is set on the prime theme, and has the "yahoo" types of sections on the left side bar. It contains more than 9000 products, and is set on one product per page!

You understood right : The site is very slow to load and browse..

Could you let me know on what is best for a big catalog like that for the side menu section ? I would love to get something that is SEO Friendly, that collapse to show subsections and that Highlight the section the user is in. all this being faster that the "yahoo" type of section list ?

Any other idea to help the browsing other than these section ? I am open to any constructve critics!

[Duncan Rounding]

Norman's accordian menu might suit you. http://www.drillpine.biz/actinicstuff/index.html

[leehack]

If you go with any expanding menu, do not show more than 1 level into the site, ie TLS + subsection is all you should show, any more levels and you'll be into suicide html territory on a very large site IMO.

[BodyBits]

Thanks..

I agree with you Leehack. I have contacted Norman and he reassured me that his menus are search engine friendly and lighter that the 5.5MB Yahoo sections I have...!

Where I am concerned is that I am bringing here another modification that I will have to carry onto the next futures versions of Actinic, and am surprised we do not have any lighter options within Actinic ? I looked at the "Mega Menus" options within Actinic but they are only available to limited amount of themes, and my attempt to amend the css in another site project where unsuccessful, so I dropped the dream!

On the consumer point of view, will showing only the 2 first level be enough for them? And if not, Could I combine 2 sets of menu (mega menu for the top, and accordion on the left, both showing different types of organised sections, all this without getting too heavy ? I explain:
1- On the left column , I would have the type of products (rings, bananas, bars, barbells, etc..)
2- On top vertically in a mega menu, I would have sections of products per piercing types (Navel piercing, nose piercing, etc..)

I also tried to implement Gabriel's Menu without success...although it looked like it was fast and good looking.

Something's wrong with me and menus, they have always been a nightmare since V3 !

What's your thoughts?

[Duncan Rounding]

You could have a 'department' menu running horizontally, manually maintained, and then the menus on the left side only relavant to the chosen department. However to do that you will need to be able to split the left menu up which will require some coding.

Take a look at this site which has menus for the parent sections managed in text files and has a departmental type menu across the top. Simple but functional. http://goo.gl/I7f1L

It really depends on how you can arrange your sections and whether you can group your products in a logical manner that will be easy to create menus for.

[BodyBits]

Thanks Duncan,

I like the menu on the left and the Horizontal bar of departments...this is pretty much I have in mind and trying to achieve, but without the "manual " maintenance of the Horizontal bar..and you are right, it really depends how I can arrange the sections..and this is a kind of headache in my industry as there are 3 "main" types of searches people find their way through the products and they are :
- By Material (Gold, titanium, steel, bioflex, etc...)
- By Body Parts or piercings (Navel, Nose, tongue, eyebrow, etc..)
- By type of items (rings, barbells, banana, etc...)

I have been in body jewellery for 13 years, and believe me, this is a very short list, and the 9500+ products in that site are only representing a very small part of all the variants products we do..so a constant nightmare for communication with the customer..

So if I have a top horizontal bar, and a menu on the left, one of the main types of arranged sections will have to be ditched.

On the other hand, I have created in the Library an array of custom variables, with the Integer True/False and searchable, on all the products of the sections on the whole site. (yeah! lots of work!) So for each product and section, I have marked True or False every types, sizes, material types, piercing type, etc...

Could I make good use of this with the blockifs to create menus of the sections I want without cripling the site?

I thought at first making a jump drop down list of section for each type, but the design is not cool and I am afraid this will be also too heavy..I would rather use the mega menu on top. But not sure if I could customise the mega menu with blockifs like :

<actinic:block if="%3cactinic%3avariable%20name%3d%22Titane%22%20%2f%3e%20%3d%3d%20true" >
<actinic:variable name="SectionLink" />
</actinic:block>

for example, (not sure of what would trigger the Section list ..