Improve navigation widget

While the improved navigation widget is great in terms of customization for desktop when it comes to mobile/responsive it's not living up to current standards.

With responsive you've got two options, either a dropdown or a vertical li.

The dropdown option causes the page to render both a select and a ul/li and inserts an inline script. So essentially instead of 'minimizing' for mobile, we're bloating the page with two full working menu's and insert a blocking inline script to make the magic happen.

The vertical list option, keeps the markup clean yet it also inserts a inline script, making overriding the functionality once again a pain.

Next to basic functionality the default templates contain hard-coded references to 'Theme="Basic"' and resourcelinks to 'JQuery' and 'KendoWeb'. Causing us to jump through hoops once again in order to extend or style the widget as we desire.

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Instead of a 'formal' select  and thus double rendering out the menu, couldn't we perhaps make it a Kendo DropDownList by default and thus keep a single ul/li structure in tact?

Would it be possible for an advanced option which would enable us to remove the inline-script so we can either tweak it or manually insert it where best practices dictate? Which would also allow us to apply say a Bootstrap script or a Filament script instead of being stuck with an auto inserted one?

Given that themes shouldn't be part of item templates, can these references be removed, so reverting to default templates would actually give us a working template if we use a different theme?

And would it be possible to make jQuery & Kendo dependency (including the .css files) not part of an item template yet make it an option in the widget we can uncheck? That way people who know what they're doing or have loaded jQuery/Kendo in a different/more optimal way aren't punished or get surprises with resetted item templates conflicting with a site.

There's only an inline script if you leave it in there...yank it out to an external script, or the bottom of your page, or DELETE IT OUTRIGHT....non-issue, no bloat.  Menu won't be setup by a general user, its something we need to do anyway.

Re: References: ...then delete them just as above.  You're not tied to kendo there.  Hell put a link in your header to the latest cdn version, or use jquery UI or whatever you want.  They're just IN THERE right now so it'll drag\drop and work.

Kendo's next release will contain responsive mobile stylesheets\transformations anyway, so again, non-issue.

Seriously, the new "menu" renders UL\LIs...gut whatever you want then do whatever.  Just because they're IN the template doesn't mean they're REQUIRED by the template.

Steve

I'll yank and delete the lot no worries and no issue - i've posted it in suggestions no?

All I suggested was for Telerik to yank and delete it for us so that if someone who maintains the website (think company webmaster not the web agency that build the site) screws up an item template they CAN revert back to default without breaking a site and having to figure out what can and should be yanked and or deleted.

And if in your opinion a select dropdown+ul/li rendered menu with embedded themes, styles+js links in an item template is the best possible solution for a navigation widget and there's no room for out-of-the-box improvement then i'm glad we disagree...

So if they screw it up they can revert to default, or if you dont trust them make the template external where they can't touch it.  You're scenario is ridiculous...they can right now screw up EVERY template, not just the nav by reverting to default.  They should not be touching the nav menu template anyway...if they do, that's on them.

I said it's the most flexible solution as you can modify it however you WANT...would you prefer they make the script the initialize the kendo menu live in an embedded script you can't change, loaded with all the AXD files?  

If you don't want a dropdown+ul/li....THEN DON'T!  Render the ul\li and media query your version of the mobile menu. 

Seriously this is the most flexibly solution, they've included everything in the template for you to add\remove as needed and you're complaining about nothing.  What's better, render just the ul\lis and give them a documentation article on how to run the script?

Steve

Steve,

Yes, it's very flexible when you know what you're doing as I said before. 

But since a navigation widget is a cornerstone widget of every page and not an obscure or expert only widget it should be usable for people who don't fully understand the yanking and deleting of scripts and styles as you so eloquently described it.

There isn't a single template that involves themes+css+js in Sitefinity precisely for that reason. 
If someone changes something where they shouldn't, regardless of which template, they can revert to a default one.

Grab any widget and revert to a default template and while the widget may not look good, it doesn't break the page. When someone reverts the navigation widget to default it has the potential to break the page due to the JS and theming.

All I suggested is for Telerik is to remove the stuff that can break an entire page (and not just the widget).

Secondly I asked if it would be possible to not bloat a mobile page by marking up and rendering the entire same menu twice. Mobile is all about a small footprint. So while I'm yanking and deleting to use a more optimal solution each time, 
is it really that ridiculous to ask them to look at a better mobile suited approach out-of-the-box as well?

So again I'm not complaining, I'm not saying its a bug, I'm not saying they should.
I'm leaving it up to the Telerik team to decide if the suggestions are useful. 

Hi guys,

I want to thank you for the valuable feedback and the provided suggestions about the navigation widget. I have already forwarded this thread to our UX team and I am sure that it be very helpful to them in order to improve this widget in the future releases.

Regards,
Kaloyan
Telerik