Suckerfish Dropdowns CSS generator

PixoPoint is offering a two-levels support for CSS dropdown menus automatic generation, suitable for inclusion in custom web design projects and WordPress-based weblogs (through a plugin module). The lower level is a free, public available generator engine, which can be accessed through the PixoPoint’s web pages (just click here) and let users choose many customizations in order to produce a nice, CSS-compliant horizontal or vertical menu; the higher level is available for a $50.00 fee to “premium users”, and adds many interesting features to be customized during the menu’s generation process.

Your premium account is active only for 30 days, if you want to access the premium features again, you must purchase another licence. An extended/long term support is available through a direct connection with PixoPoint’s team.

Even with the free version, the customization level can be interesting for all those mid-range users who want to enhance their web site with a CSS standard compliant menu; WordPress users can take advantage from a plugin, which interfaces directly the automatic generation engine with the blog’s management system; this plugin allows users to input custom CSS code, or to paste PixoPoint’s CSS code generated by the free engine.

The implementation is very straightforward: the CSS above will work on any unordered list sporting a #suckerfishnav ID, such as:

<ul id="suckerfishnav">
<li><a href="">Tomato</a></li>
<li><a href="">Capsicum</a></li>
<li><a href="">Cucumber</a></li>
</ul>

Due to the inadequacies of older versions of Internet Explorer, it is advisable to download and integrate the “Suckerfish Javascript for Internet Explorer” code with your site. If you want your visitors to be able to access your menu with their keyboard, download the “Suckerfish Javascript for keyboard accessibility” code and include it too. Here’s is an example of the code used to include these two files into your web pages:

<script type="text/javascript" src="suckerfish_keyboard.js"></script>
<!--[if lte IE 6]>
<script type=”text/javascript” src=”suckerfish_ie.js”></script>
<![endif]–>

All this does not apply if you are using the WordPress plugin, which manages all the parameters with a visual interface. To make plugin’s generated CSS menu appear on the pages, just open your theme’s header.php file and add the following snippet where you want the meny to be included:

<?php if (function_exists('suckerfish')) {suckerfish();} ?>

Suckerfish solution is very good for users who want to customize their weblog in a CMS-like fashion, when the design sports many different menu levels. Perhaps a smaller premium fee would be a great bonus, to make this beautiful system more reachable even for non-profit projects.