site structure + articles + DHTML dropdown menus

[tamara]

I am seeking clarification about the construction of a phpWCMS site using site structure and the articles that are added under each level/category in the site structure. I am working on adding a dropdown DHTML menu as my main nav menu. I have the site structure as:

Home -
About Us -
Article 1 (Welcome)
Article 2 (History)
Article 3 (Mission)
Jobs -
Article 1 (Intro)
Article 2 (Email form)
Job Descriptions -
Article 1 (Job 1)
Article 2 (Job 2)

I want the menu to disply:
Home
About Us
> sub Article 1
> sub Article 2
> sub Article 3
Jobs
> sub Article 1
> sub Article 2

But I only get:
Home
About Us
Jobs
> Job Descriptions

Obviously only levels set up in the site structure are displayed via the DHTML menu options. My question is - Why the redundant steps of having to create a site level for each page under About Us and then create an article and then add the content part?

There is a lot more work to build the site as:
Home -
About Us -
Welcome -
Article 1 (Welcome) + content
History -
Article 1 (History) + content
Mission -
Article 1 (Mission) + content

And I am worried that the redundant steps will confuse a common user. I'm supossed to turn the site over to a novice user for upkeep next week. I am not looking forward to explaining:
"Go to Admin, add a level for Welcome. Set all parameters.
Then go to Articles and add an Article named Welcome under the level Welcome. Set all parameters.
Then under the Article Welcome add the Content Part to hold your welcome text. And then set all parameters."

Do this 3 times and the user is frustrated. I'm frustrated. I have the site working in the simple manner, but I can't add a nav menu (dropdown via DHTML + CSS) that truly shows the structure. All this to get a dropdown menu to work?

I've tested RTs {VERT_DROPDOWN} and {DHTMLMENU}. Both only load the site structure. And RT {NAV_ROW} has a single start point. So is my only choice is to add a site structure level for each item under About Us and then also add an Article under each level under About Us? Am I missing a RT?

Thank you for the feedback. I'm only confusing myself.

Tamara

[lburgess17]

I, too, have this same dilemma. Does anyone have a streamlined way to design the structure/navigation of the site without so much repetition?

[marcus@localhorst]

i think that is not possible at the moment (but that feature would be cool, optionally), because the articles are only loaded if the right structure is called.
as i understand it right, the system loads the whole article structure in an array (write print_r($GLOBALS) in your page and it return all current available global variables incl. the structure) to reduce DB access.
if you have 100 news article, this is not funny to have it the navigation and to quere it every time from DB.
I think with some tweaking the code, it should be possible. but I don't know how .
marcus