WebMenu Specifications

WebMenus are configurations for a menu, displayed on a toolbar or other client application, which is downloaded from a web site and used by web site users as an aid in navigation. These provide an easy and natural way of finding information or topics on a web site.

A WebMenu is XML that is part of a SiteInfo file. This document describes the layout of the WebMenu section. The target audience will be both people implementing a WebMenu on their site and those who are building the display of WebMenus into a client application.

Layout
Menu Elements
Restrictions and Security

Layout

A WebMenu contains two types of information.

The first type is domain description of information, such as domain name, button name, tooltip, and similar. There are just a few possible tags, and none are required.

The second type is the menu structure. This is defined by <menu> tags. Submenus are created by <menu> tags within the parent <menu> tag. Separators are <separator/> tags.

A typical, but very simple, siteinfo.xml file would look like this.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<siteinfo xmlns="http://a9.com/-/spec/siteinfo/1.0/">
  <webmenu>
    <name>Your Domain</name>
    <menu>
      <item>
        <text>Your Domain Home</text>
        <url>http://yourdomain.com</url>
      </item>
      <separator/>
      <item>
        <text>Search</text>
        <menu>
          <item>
            <text>Search for Dogs</text>
            <textSearch>Search for Dogs: [[:SEARCHTERMS:]]</text>
            <url>http://yourdomain.com/dogsearch</url>
            <urlSearch>http://yourdomain.com/dogsearch?q=[[:SEARCHTERMS:]]</urlSearch>
          </item>
          <item>
            <text>Search for Cats</text>
            <textSearch>Search for Cats: [[:SEARCHTERMS:]]</text>
            <url>http://yourdomain.com/catsearch</url>
            <urlSearch>http://yourdomain.com/catsearch?q=[[:SEARCHTERMS:]]</urlSearch>
          </item>
        </menu>
      </item>
    </menu>
  </webmenu>
</siteinfo>

Menu Elements

The following are the elements used in the webmenu section of the siteinfo.xml.

webmenu

definition	The root menu XML element.
subtag of	siteinfo
subtags	menu, domain, name, tooltip

domain

definition	The domain name associated with the menu. Mainly used to document the XML, but may be used by a client for display.
subtag of	webmenu

name

definition	A name that can be displayed on a button or other user interface element, usually a shorted version of the domain name. For example, www.frogslegs.net might use "Frogs Legs".
subtag of	webmenu

tooltip

definition	Text suitable for a tooltip for a button or menu.
subtag of	webmenu, item

menu

definition	Indicates that the contents are of a main menu (for the top most occurrence) or a new child menu is it is contained in an item.
subtag of	webmenu, item
subtags	item, separator

item

definition	A menu item.
subtag of	menu
subtags	menu, text, textSearch, url, urlsearch

text

definition	The text of the menu item. Used unless there is a `textSearch` element and a search term. Note that if there is no `url` or `urlSearch` element then the text appears disabled (usually grayed) and the menu item is also disabled.
subtag of	item

textSearch

definition	The text of the menu item if the search box has text in it. Any occurance of the string [[:SEARCHTERMS:]] in the value is replaced with the search box text. If there is no `text` element then this value is used with blank search terms. Note that if there is no `url` or `urlSearch` element then the text appears disabled (usually grayed) and the menu item is also disabled.
subtag of	item

url

definition	The url of the menu item. Used unless there is a `textSearch` element and a search url.
subtag of	item

urlsearch

definition	The url of the menu item if the search box has text in it. Used unless there is a `textSearch` element and a search url. Any occurance of the string [[:SEARCHTERMS:]] in the url is replaced with the search box text. If there is no `text` element then this value is used with blank search terms.
subtag of	item

separator

definition	Inserts a separator in the menu.
subtag of	menu
note	The separator tag does not have content, so usually appears as <separator/>

Restrictions and Security

All URL's in a webmenu must point to an external site and not involve a security risk. Acceptable URL's will be for HTTP, HTTPS, or FTP resources. Hence, only URL's starting with "http:", "https:", and "ftp:" will be navigated. Specifically, this means that "javascript:" or "file:" will be ignored. The A9 implementation greys these menu items, so they are visible, but can not be selected.

There are currently no imposed size or content restrictions on WebMenus. However, it is recommended that the size of the siteinfo.xml files should be in the order of 10k to 15k, and not exceed 100k.