Pages vs Structure vs Taxonomy vs NavEE (EE2)

Hi all,

What a great thread! Thought I’d give my 2 pence.

I think the person a navigator module should be aiming to please is the client (the person/people having the update and maintain the site after we (the web devs) have handed it over). We shouldn’t need these systems - we can understand how to create an unordered list with links out to pages. A nav module’s sole puropse should be to make it as easy as possible for the client to add new pages to the site.

The last 15 or so sites I’ve worked on have used the Navigator module (for 1.6X, by Cocoaholic). With this module (like NavEE), the nav structure is divorced from the content, and you can build a nav node using entries assigned a pages URI, using a regular URL, or by building a URL from a template and entry or a category. This works great as it’s so flexible, but is quite complex for clients to understand (if they want to add a new link), and with this system, you cannot create nested navigation.

I’ve also worked on 2 sites in which we’ve used structure, which I think is great for the client as it makes it so easy for them to create a new page (as this can be done straight from the nav tree). Also, it can create nested navigation. The downside though, is that, because it is based on the pages module you can no longer use categories within a structure site, as it cannot support the dynamic URLs categories uses. Also you cannot use a page more than once within a site structure and, if you need to create a listing in 2 places you’ll need to duplicate the weblog. These things I think, create worrying limitations. Also, as the navigation is tied in with the content, you can’t have a nav link going to an external URL.

One module I’m investigating which (I think) has the potential to strike the right balance between these two is NavEE. Visually, the nav nodes are represented as a navigation tree (similar to structure), so a client can easily understand how the navigation works, and the navigation nodes are seperate from the content, meaning you can create any kind of link using a nav node (external, category etc…).Also, you can link to an entry that has been built using a pages URI. When you go to create tne node, you are given the choice of using a free URL (with advanced options), or a pages URI. I think that, as a client I would find this very easy to grasp.

I’m definitely going to use NavEE on my next build. For me, I think it seems the best system for the client (and I think thatm looking at the templating options it’s got some great params too)