Normenu

[TiggyPig]

I have no graphics except for a teeeeeeny weeeeeny little triangle gif file which is miniscule on my Normenu, but it still seems to take a while to generate for each page.

I have no background graphics at all, just colours... any ideas how to speed the load time up?

www.tiggypig.com

[pinbrook]

I think it is just the way that javascript menu systems work.

For this reason we haven't used normenu on any of our big sites, the extra load slows things down

[NormanRouxel]

The triangles repeatedly loading is an Internet Explorer bug. If you use Netscape then the triangle is only fetched onne and the others come, sensibly, from the cache. IE reloads each identcal image from the server.

If you turn off the Arrows (there's a setting for that) then things are Much faster.

I'll be looking at using a text character instead when I get some free time.

The only other thing that affects page load tinmes is the sizre of the Actinic generates sectiontree structures. You can see these in your Site1 folder for a guide.

Norman

[NormanRouxel]

I think I've a solution that GREATLY improves page load times for Catlog based sites.

The problem seems to be that the Actinic created section tree URL structure contains links like:-

http://www.mysite.com/cgi-bin/ss000001.pl?SECTIONID=Basic%5fProducts%2ehtml&NOLOGIN=1

Now these seem to make Internet Explorer think that it's loading a dynamically generated page with the result that EVERYTHING gets reloaded (even if you navigate back to the page you were already on!).

The solution is to set the (previously unused) Link Prefix field in the Nortree configuration program to the URL of your site's acatalog directory (including the trailing /). E.g.

http://www.mysite.com/acatalog/

Set it to suit your site and do Create Vars then Save Settings.

Now copy the attached nortree_menu_create.js into your Site folder.

This strips out everything but the page name from the section tree URL and prefixes it with the LinkPrefix. You are now navigating using normal URL's for your pages. If you leave Link Prefix blank then the URL's operate as before.

This way you are generating normal links to all the pages and the browser correctly loads these from the cache.

BTW. This isn't a NorTree thing as any use of the Actinic section tree structure will cause unnecessary page loads.

If you have a Business site then it may be necessary to use the previous cgi based searchscript method as I guess this checks for logins.
In this case just leave the Link Prefix field null and all will operate as before.

Norman

p.s. If anyone from Actinic is listening, could you explain why Catalog sites generate a cgi based list in Act_section_tree_URLs.js when normal URL's seem to be so much more efficient.

[NormanRouxel]

I've also updated the download site for NorTree which you can reach from www.rouxel.cwc.net/actinicstuff.html

Norman

[NormanRouxel]

Just fixed a buglet in the replacement routine. Use this instead.

Norman

[TiggyPig]

Cheers Norman, super star you are!

Seems to be loading a lot faster now, what do you think?

www.tiggypig.com



Mark

[NormanRouxel]

I just checked your site and you don't seem to be using the updated nortree_menu_create.js yet.

You can tell by turning your browsers status bar on and looking at the URL's displayed there when you use the menu. If they go through your cgi-bin then it;s the old slower way. If they are normal looking URL's then you're running the new faster version.

Norman

[TiggyPig]

Sorted,

Ta, Norman.