Flashes Menu

Hot Flashes Menu is a WordPress menu plugin that combines the slideshow of images with WordPress menu and submenu items. Menus are available in WordPress since version 3. They are basically collections of menu items (weblinks) that connect parts of your site or links to the external resources.

Animations based on JavaScript libraries, such as jQuery are the future of web design. They will probably replace Flash-based animations completely. Although this plugin looks like a Flash-based animation, it’s not based on Adobe Flash. Therefore, it works perfectly on all platforms, even those that don’t support flash (such as Apple mobile devices).

The menus are available in WordPress since version 3. They are basically collections of menu items (web-links) that connect parts of your site (inbound links) or forward visitors to the external resources (outbound links). More details about WordPress menus can be found on the WordPress Codex.

WordPress menu plugin allows us to dedicate an image for each menu item from the first level. Those images should be named bg1.jpg, bg2.jpg, bg3.jpg, etc. The menu items from the first level are shown in a row that covers the images. The slideshow is divided into several equal parts. The number of the parts is determined by the number of the published menu items from the first level.

We can also handle deeper menu items with the WordPress menu plugin Hot Flashes. The menu items from the second level are shown above their parent menu item from the first level. The active menu item is selected by default and their children are also shown. When the user moves the pointer over another menu item (from the first level), the slideshow animation starts and shows the image for the selected menu item. The menu items of the second level also have background images. Those images are PNG type (they can be transparent) and they should be named as sub1.png, sub2.png, sub3.png, etc.

Finally, the menu items from the third level are shown when the user moves the pointer over the menu item from the second level that has children. The third-level menu items are shown in a pop-up balloon created by this WordPress menu plugin. The menu used for the Hot Flashes Menu can have menu items that are a maximum of 3 levels deep.

Parameters of the WordPress Menu Plugin

• SELECT MENU: Drop-down list shows all the menus available for WordPress menu plugin. Select one that will be used in the widget.
• IMAGES FOLDER URL: Specify the folder where images for the slide show are stored (relative to your WordPress root).
• WIDTH: Width of the widget in pixels.
• HEIGHT: Height of the widget in pixels.
• ROOT ITEMS TOP OFFSET: Distance between the top margin of the widget and the row that shows menu items from the first level (in pixels).
• ROOT ITEMS HEIGHT / TEXT COLOR / BG COLOR / TEXT HOVER COLOR / BG HOVER COLOR / FONT-SIZE: Various settings for the row that shows menu items from the first level. The height and font size are in pixels. Colors are selected from the integrated color picker.
• SUB ITEMS HEIGHT / TEXT COLOR / FONT SIZE / TEXT HOVER COLOR: Various settings for the second level of the menu items.