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Ask the Readers: How do you nav?

This edition of Ask the Readers comes via Twitter by Ryan Battles. Ryan asked:

What is your preferred method of #eecms navigation management? Nav-ee, Structure, Taxonomy, other? Researching for next project.
— Ryan Battles (@ryanbattles) March 4, 2012

Chime in via Twitter or in the comments with your thoughts, ideas and experience managing navigation.

Posted on Mar 04, 2012 by Ryan Irelan

Filed Under: Ask the Readers

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Taxonomy for me as well, very flexible.
Posted by Nuno on 2012-03-05 20:36:55 I haven't had a client that needed to change their navigation. Sites all have hard-coded navigation, but it's good to know there are multiple options should I need to provide dynamic navigation in the future
Posted by Sean on 2012-03-05 09:41:28 Taxonomy and Nav-ee have both been great for me. Taxonomy i like as i find it easier to tweak the code for the fringe cases that many sites ask for. Structure is great, just never really suited my workflow, and i am stubborn.
Posted by Nevsie on 2012-03-05 09:19:47 Steve, I never refer to specific addons when dealing with my clients. My clients see a pretty unified control panel thanks to Zoo Flexible admin (and before that, custom tabs), each section of the website has a menu item with the ability to Add/Edit an entry for that section, and if needed, to adjust the order. It's all pretty seamless. I really wouldn't call it "Hacking" just because I use several plugins to make the experience nice. Like most things in EE, it's just another way to accomplish the job.
Posted by James Buckley on 2012-03-05 08:31:01 I use NavEE which I like. It's very simple and straightforward to use and gives me exactly what I am looking for.
Posted by Euan on 2012-03-05 07:01:59 To create navigation (both menues and previous/next links) I use Entries List plugin. It has rich set of parameters and is very flexible.
Posted by Laisvunas on 2012-03-05 06:08:38 Yes as most of the time we refer to the addon name and clients would wonder why the same addon that controls ad hoc content is also controlling the site navigation.
Posted by Steven Hambleton on 2012-03-05 04:44:48 @steven Is that really your experience? My clients usually don't have any expectations, really (apart from being able to "manage content"). They don't know how a system works or can work, so whatever I tell them, they will just accept it as how it works. This is true for both nav as things like wysiwyg. In my experience, of course.
Posted by Lodewijk Schutte on 2012-03-05 03:40:35 James, sounds interesting but for clients, I don't want them to feel like they are leveraging (hacking) different add-ons to do one thing. They expect to edit and restructure their content and navigation from one area.
Posted by Steven Hambleton on 2012-03-04 22:48:14 Structure all the way
Posted by Steven Hambleton on 2012-03-04 21:55:39 Taxonomy all the way!
Posted by Jerry Gennaria on 2012-03-04 21:51:42 Oddly, as I noticed this question. I was putting the finishing touches on an article explaining how I used Low Reorder and pages to build a simple but flexible Navigation and site structure. Take a glance and let me know if you find it interesting! http://brightrocketdesign.com/blog/post/using-pages-and-low-reorder-for-flexible-navigation-and-site-structure
Posted by James Buckley on 2012-03-04 17:17:06 +1 for Structure.
Posted by Ryan on 2012-03-04 15:39:13

Ryan — 15:39 on 03.04.2012

+1 for Structure.

James Buckley — 17:17 on 03.04.2012

Oddly, as I noticed this question. I was putting the finishing touches on an article explaining how I used Low Reorder and pages to build a simple but flexible Navigation and site structure. Take a glance and let me know if you find it interesting!

http://brightrocketdesign.com/blog/post/using-pages-and-low-reorder-for-flexible-navigation-and-site-structure

Jerry Gennaria — 21:51 on 03.04.2012

Taxonomy all the way!

Steven Hambleton — 21:55 on 03.04.2012

Structure all the way

Steven Hambleton — 22:48 on 03.04.2012

James, sounds interesting but for clients, I don’t want them to feel like they are leveraging (hacking) different add-ons to do one thing.

They expect to edit and restructure their content and navigation from one area.

Lodewijk Schutte — 03:40 on 03.05.2012

@steven Is that really your experience? My clients usually don’t have any expectations, really (apart from being able to “manage content”). They don’t know how a system works or can work, so whatever I tell them, they will just accept it as how it works. This is true for both nav as things like wysiwyg. In my experience, of course.

Steven Hambleton — 04:44 on 03.05.2012

Yes as most of the time we refer to the addon name and clients would wonder why the same addon that controls ad hoc content is also controlling the site navigation.

Laisvunas — 06:08 on 03.05.2012

To create navigation (both menues and previous/next links) I use Entries List plugin. It has rich set of parameters and is very flexible.

Euan — 07:01 on 03.05.2012

I use NavEE which I like. It’s very simple and straightforward to use and gives me exactly what I am looking for.

James Buckley — 08:31 on 03.05.2012

Steve, I never refer to specific addons when dealing with my clients. My clients see a pretty unified control panel thanks to Zoo Flexible admin (and before that, custom tabs), each section of the website has a menu item with the ability to Add/Edit an entry for that section, and if needed, to adjust the order. It’s all pretty seamless. I really wouldn’t call it “Hacking” just because I use several plugins to make the experience nice. Like most things in EE, it’s just another way to accomplish the job.

Nevsie — 09:19 on 03.05.2012

Taxonomy and Nav-ee have both been great for me. Taxonomy i like as i find it easier to tweak the code for the fringe cases that many sites ask for.
Structure is great, just never really suited my workflow, and i am stubborn.

Sean — 09:41 on 03.05.2012

I haven’t had a client that needed to change their navigation. Sites all have hard-coded navigation, but it’s good to know there are multiple options should I need to provide dynamic navigation in the future

Nuno — 20:36 on 03.05.2012

Taxonomy for me as well, very flexible.

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