Hello,
Is there any options of extending SiteMap node attributes? I basically need a new link type drop down called - overlay. Can i get this added somewhere and also the corresponding markup details?
Thanks.
Unfortunately, there is no [supported] way of changing/extending the behaviour of the sitemap tool. You basically have to build your own if you want it to do anything different.
You can add your own child nodes and name them overlay. Then use the OOTB attributes to store whatever data you have.
When you build components that use the SM you need to ignore those nodes.
I did this for a site that had thumbnail images in the top navigation menu and it worked well and was quite easy.
Hi Andy,
Could you please explain how can i add it through the OOTB attributes? havent done this befre, so if you can just highlight the files and attributes, it would be helpful.
You have to use the OOTB attributes in the manner that you need. This is not something that can be done in a post or drawn on a whiteboard. One need to examine the requirements and see how you can massage the OOTB structure to make best use of it.
Maybe just saying it a different way.. nipper's suggestion doesn't use OOTB attributes. He's suggesting that you create nodes with "special meaning" in the tree, and to have you XSL treat those differently, as containers of extra information.
So you'll have to use your imagination a bit, and this also assumes that your business users can be trusted to follow a certain rigor with regards to the tree structure.
To follow up.
Make a child node called Attributes. Add children to that node, with a name and a value in the OOTB attributes.
Do this for all nodes and all custom attributes.
We've done out custom attributes a little differently. Instead of creating additional nodes in the site map we use the query string paramaters with a particular prefix (an exclaimation mark) so we know they are not to be used as query string parameters. This allows the property to be on the actual node itself.
However, I did put in a feature request in 2013, which Autonomy accepted and said they would implement in a future version, to support custom attributes on the site map nodes.
