Syncing Dynamic and Static Menus with Four-Level Navigation

[William Davis]

I am trying to synchronize the dynamic category menu with a static navigation set on my Miva Merchant site. I’ve noticed that the static navigation seems to support only three levels (Parent, Sub-Parent, and Sub-Sub-Parent) based on the official documentation. Is there any way to implement a fourth level or to work around this limitation? The site has over 200 categories, making manual updates impractical. Additionally, is there a method to keep the two menus in sync automatically? Any insights would be greatly appreciated!

[Nick]

William Davis To answer your first question about the navigation set levels the only workaround would be to nest another navigation set within the navigation set, but that could get really complicated.

As for the other question, I am not sure that I am following. What is the purpose of using two menus, could you just use the one menu and style it different?

[William Davis]

William Davis To answer your first question about the navigation set levels the only workaround would be to nest another navigation set within the navigation set, but that could get really complicated.

As for the other question, I am not sure that I am following. What is the purpose of using two menus, could you just use the one menu and style it different?

Great question, I really do not know the answer. I don't know if that was an oversight on our part when we customized Shadows RT back then.

[RTHOMASDESIGN]

Great question, I really do not know the answer. I don't know if that was an oversight on our part when we customized Shadows RT back then.

It was intentional. One nav set acts as a navigation bar, and the other as a slide-in menu (Amazon style). We did this because three levels of navigation for the slide-in were needed. It could've been done in one nav set if we could add additional levels, but we're currently restricted to three. That said, it's not recommended to go deeper than three levels anyway. You want to get customers in front of relevant product as quickly as possible without having to click through several pages to get where they need to go (which is why sites like Amazon only have two levels in the nav). That's where filters/facets typically come into play.

As stated in the other posts regarding a dynamic navigation... you could use the navigation tree in lieu of a nav set, but keep in mind that it can be handy to keep the two separate from a customization perspective.

" To answer your first question about the navigation set levels the only workaround would be to nest another navigation set within the navigation set, but that could get really complicated."
Ya.... No thank you.

-Ryan

[William Davis]

It was intentional. One nav set acts as a navigation bar, and the other as a slide-in menu (Amazon style). We did this because three levels of navigation for the slide-in were needed. It could've been done in one nav set if we could add additional levels, but we're currently restricted to three. That said, it's not recommended to go deeper than three levels anyway. You want to get customers in front of relevant product as quickly as possible without having to click through several pages to get where they need to go (which is why sites like Amazon only have two levels in the nav). That's where filters/facets typically come into play.

As stated in the other posts regarding a dynamic navigation... you could use the navigation tree in lieu of a nav set, but keep in mind that it can be handy to keep the two separate from a customization perspective.

" To answer your first question about the navigation set levels the only workaround would be to nest another navigation set within the navigation set, but that could get really complicated."
Ya.... No thank you.

-Ryan

Makes sense...