This release is presenting two great features and an important change. This aimed to be a stable version and candidate for getting DotNetNuke Reviewed Logo.
Let me start by introducing the two new gold features:
XML Data Source
Until version 1.6.1 it was only possible to show the tabs available at DotNetNuke tabs including their position. The only thing you could do was to select another start node so that the children of that start node would become root items. In addition, you could include or exclude items and use the "Show Start Level Only" option to hide all the child items and display root items only (very useful for creating short cuts).
Beside all the pros available there, one could still feel a lack of customisability. The con was that you were not able to select items from different trees and create a new extra tab only for being in that particular instance of the menu module.
In TheDNN.Menu.1.7.0 you can create an XML file and assign it as your source of tabs to the menu instance. The structure of the XML file is very easy and has been described in the place where you can use it. Here I show you a sample of an XML file that can be used for the menu data source:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<items>
<tab title="Hardware">
<tab title="Desktop" url="~/desktop.aspx">
<tab title="Complete Systems" url="~/systems.aspx" />
<tab title="Barebone Systems" url="~/barebones.aspx" />
<tab title="Accessories" url="~/accessories.aspx" />
</tab>
<tab title="Notebooks" url="~/notebook.aspx" />
</tab>
<tab title="Software">
<tab title="Windows" url="http://www.microsoft.com" />
<tab title="Office" url="http://office.microsoft.com" />
</tab>
<tab title="Sites" url="~/sites.aspx">
<tab title="Yahoo" url="http://www.yahoo.com" />
<tab title="Google" url="http://www.google.com" />
</tab>
</items>
As you can see the structure is very easy to understand. You have title and url in tags named tab and you can have as many tabs as you want in serial or parallel.
The only thing you should note is that you can only use it with module and not the skin object.
Additional Menu Skins
There has been added a button in Control Center where you can use it once to install 16 extra menu skins. This is a new ability where gives more default skin choices.
But, why these skins are not installed while the module is being installed?
First of all, not everyone needs those skins and they will use resources of your website. Furthermore, we have plans to provide APIs for mass skin producers and this is a look into future as well.
Beside above two great features there has been a very important change in our module, and that's about the licensing system. Due to reported bugs with medium trust level we decided to completely change the licensing system. Therefore, please be aware that your license for older versions will not support 1.7.0.
Those who have purchased early versions and want to upgrade to 1.7.0 need to download their new license file. In order to have your new license we have created a Licensing Center application. As a result, all you need to do is:
Please note that the new license file will not work on early versions.
So, I guess it's enough for a kind of overview for the new release. Please remember that we value your inputs. ;)