=== EZY Nav Menu ===
Version 0.2
Contributors: acurran
Donate link: http://sww.co.nz/payments/
Tags: template tags, navigation, menu, nav menu, CMS, CMS enabling plugin, navigation links
Requires at least: 2.1
Tested up to: 2.7
Stable tag: 0.2

Makes use of WP's built in 'Edit Links' to create and manage a website navigation menu that can be displayed using a custom template tag.

== Description ==

As well as being the leading blogging platform, WordPress is also one of the most flexible and easy to use general purpose content management systems for a wide variety of websites. However, one important CMS feature that is missing in the 'out of the box' installation of WordPress is a navigation menu management interface. A number of attempts have been made at plugins to address this need but most have been overly complex or cumbersome in some way so I have always coded my own navigation systems into my website templates. 

After experimenting with a few different approaches for building navigation menus for a number of different websites, I discovered that WordPress actually does have an interface for managing navigation menus - well 'sorta'... I found the best way to create navigation menus that could be easily managed by my clients is to use WordPress's built in links management interface. All it takes is a few lines of PHP code in the header template file to utilise the links navagation interface for the purpose of managing the website navigation menu. I have used this approach for building single level and multiple level navigation menus. 

Now I have turned this approach to navigation menus into a simple plugin. This initial version adds the template tag 'show_nav()' which generates a single level navigation menu from the links contained in a 'nav' category. It is intended for use by users who create or edit their own templates. A multi-level version may follow.

== Change Log ==

Version 0.2 (23 Apr 2009)
>  Added before and after HTML snippet capability and the option to display menu as unordered list

Version 0.1  
>  Initial release - single level navigation only

== Installation ==

1. Upload the file `ezy-nav-menu.php` to the `/wp-content/plugins/` directory
2. Activate the plugin through the 'Plugins' menu in WordPress

If updating plugin please deactivate plugin and reactivate after uploading.

Usage:

* Create a links category called 'nav' and add all the links for the navigation menu to it. Use the rating to control the order (lower value appears first)
* In your theme template add the template tag 'show_nav()' at the point where you want the menu to appear (usually in the header template). This will generate the HTML output:

	    <div id="nav" class="nav">
	       <a href="{link web address}" 
	          [title="{link description (if specified)}"] 
	          [target="{link target (if specified)}"] 
	          [class="current"(when link matches current page)]>[Link name]</a>
	       ...
	       ...
	    </div>
* Style the navigation menu in any way you want in the CSS using the style hooks provided (i.e. div#nav, div#nav a, div#nav a.current, div#nav a:hover, etc.). 

Additional Usage Options:

* show_nav() takes 5 optional parameters: 
       
	    show_nav($nav_id, $css_class, $before_html, $after_html, $display_as_list)

	    $nav_id - change the id attribute on the outer container (default - 'nav')
	    $css_class - change the class attribute on the outer container (default - 'nav')
	    $before_html - add a HTML snippet in front of the link text
	    $after_html - add a HTML snippet after the link text
	    $display_as_list - boolean value; if set to true, outputs nav menu as unordered list (default - false)

       e.g. the following line,
       
	    show_nav("nav", "nav", "<div>", "</div>", true);
       
       would generate output such as the following:
       
	    <ul id="nav" class="nav">
	       <li><a href="link_url1"><div>Link Text 1</div></a></li>
	       <li><a href="link_url2" class="current"><div>Link Text 2</div></a></li>
	       ...
	       ...
	    </ul>       
       
== Frequently Asked Questions ==
= Is this plugin for me? =
If you create or modify your template (theme) files and know a little CSS - Yes. If you've never opened a template file - maybe not this version, but soon I may do a version suitable for 'non-template' editing people too. 


== Screenshots ==
1. No new interface!
 Just uses WP's existing
'Edit Links' interface. 
Simple!