vosechu [vosechu]

Initial project upload

Ran this through coder and made a lot of the updates requested from the previous applicant. I'm also providing a patch so that it's hopefully easier to read.

Per recommendation from claar I've wrapped some lines to make them readable. Also added a README.txt with a brief description.

Comparison of modules:

Searching for 'drupal menu admin' did not reveal anything that looked like this module. I suspect that people don't often run into this problem except in the enterprise. Even then, Views can be used to create directories but some people really want to use the menu admin to create blocks using menu block or nice menus so this makes that possible.

The reason this is a module instead of a core patch:

This module does alter the look of the stock menu admin in a way that may not be necessary for all but the largest sites. If it turns out that people love it then it seems like a great thing to add to core, but for now it seems necessary to make it opt-in.

This also includes a non-core implementation of http://drupal.org/node/936046.

Ugh, coworker pointed out a subtle bug that prevented fields from being switched into textfields. Also that hidden fields would never work for non-js users even though it renders way faster.

Yeah, probably just going to use this as my CVS account for a little while. Did a couple performance enhancements and made it feel a little more drupaly in my eyes.

Kiamlaluno: Do I need to resubmit? I don't have access to edit my post.

Expanded motivation message:

Drupal's menu system is absolutely awesome at what it does, especially if you run it in a browser with a fast rendering engine like Webkit. But imagine if you will, a client that uses IE7 and loves to shove everything in the menu system; that table drag is starting to look pretty evil and your client keeps claiming their browser crashes when the hit the menu page!

Dmenu_admin reduces this burdon significantly by only displaying a few elements at a time so that the JS rendering engine has less to do. If you have over 1000 menu items in one list you should absolutely be using this module. If you have over 500 and your clients use IE (and actually use the menuing system I suppose) you should absolutely be using this module.

Dmenu_admin only does two things but they're very important. First, it uses textfields instead of select boxes which cuts down on page load time dramatically (http://drupal.org/node/936046). Secondly, it makes child elements of a menu item 'display: none;' until the expand link on the parent is clicked.

Comparison with other modules:
Not many people have run into this problem yet. Googling did not reveal any modules that do similar things. My guess is that the enterprise users that have run into this problem aren't releasing their modules.

How to use this module:
Turn it on with the Module admin or via drush. No settings are required to configure the module.

Stats:
Menu items: 1,506
Without dmenu_admin:
Load time (Drupal processing): 23 seconds
Render time (JS render/paint): 34 seconds

With dmenu_admin:
Load time (Drupal processing): 17 seconds
Render time (JS render/paint): 2 seconds

To see the admin in action check out 'Primary links.jpg'
To see the load/render times according to webkit check out the 'Load+Render*' jpgs.

Code updated regarding Grendzy's comments.

@kiamlaluno, expanded message posted. I've not been able to get a review of this, is it just too difficult to test accurately do you think? Or maybe too low effect?

Augh, damnit, you're right. Vestigial function. Attaching new version without the extra hook_menu. I feel like this is getting close to core-patch sized at this point but I know it's not going into core for a lot of reasons. Maybe it's time to do the same thing to the taxonomy admin.

Thanks for the fix zzolo and the advice. I think you're right about integrating with a larger module but I appreciate the CVS account.