We have talked about the HTML elements and the CSS for a common browser menu. It is now time to start talking about the script. There are four JavaScript functions that control the horizontal menu and its sub menus. In this part of the series, I give you the name of the functions and their roles. I also start discussing the details of one of the functions. Later on, I give you the complete code.
As I said above, there are four JavaScript functions that control the horizontal menu and its sub menus. These are the functions:
The dropDownMenu() Function
When you click a drop down button, this function is called. It displays a vertical sub menu below the main link preceding the drop down button you clicked. Before it does that, it removes any other drop down menus or sub menus that were on the web page.
The react() Function
The background color of a main menu item and that of a sub menu item is brown. For simplicity, in my design the background color of a main menu item (in the horizontal bar) never changes, even if the mouse pointer is over it. However, the background color of a sub menu item changes when the mouse pointer is over it.
When the mouse pointer goes over any sub menu item on a drop down menu, the background color of the table cell of the menu item changes from brown to firebrick. Only one bar in the firebrick color can be shown at a time on a sub menu. The react() function is responsible for all this.
A sub menu item may have another sub menu, which would come out of its side when the mouse pointer is over the item. If the sub menu is not in the last column on the right of the table, then its sub (sub-sub) menu will come out of its right side. If it is in the last column, then its sub (sub-sub) menu will come out of its left side. The react() function is also responsible for this. Remember that in our design, any sub menu item that can produce a sub menu has the ‘>’ character on its right.
Again, in menu parlance you do not really talk about sub-sub and sub-sub-sub menus. All sub menus, independent of their level lower down, are referred to simply as sub menus. You can use the phrase sub-sub or sub-sub-sub when you really want to be precise, but you will hardly have to use such phrases.
The react() function also makes sure that only the SPAN elements that are supposed to be displayed are displayed.
The toChoose(ID) Function
When a sub menu is displayed and you click outside the sub menu, the sub menu should disappear. This function sets a variable that is used for that control. We shall see the details later.
The removeSubMenu() Function
This function removes any sub menu (independent of the level) that is displayed. It uses the variable set above for this. We shall see the details for this function and the other three functions later.
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