Designing a dropdown menu with sub-menus that appear when hovered over

In my quest to design CSS that will dynamically display links in left-to-right divs, I am seeking a way for sub-menus to appear below the menu being rolled over. The challenge lies in the fact that these menus will be loaded from a WordPress database, meaning that hard-coded names are not feasible due to potential changes.

For example, consider the dynamic loading of menus from a WordPress database:

<? 
require('wordpress/wp-blog-header.php');
?>

<div class="access">
  <?php wp_nav_menu(); ?>
</div>

This code loads HTML like the following:

<div class="access">
  <div class="menu-papamenu-container"><ul id="menu-papamenu" class="menu"><li id="menu-item-45" class="menu-item menu-item-type-custom menu-item-object-custom menu-item-45"><a href="?p=love">Home</a>
<ul class="sub-menu">
    <li id="menu-item-46" class="menu-item menu-item-type-custom menu-item-object-custom menu-item-46"><a href="?p=Happy">Happy</a></li>
    <li id="menu-item-47" class="menu-item menu-item-type-custom menu-item-object-custom menu-item-47"><a href="?p=coolBeans">Cool Beans</a></li>
    <li id="menu-item-49" class="menu-item menu-item-type-custom menu-item-object-custom menu-item-49"><a href="?p=SoHappy">So Happy</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li id="menu-item-48" class="menu-item menu-item-type-custom menu-item-object-custom menu-item-48"><a href="?p=Contact">Contact Us</a>
<ul class="sub-menu">
    <li id="menu-item-50" class="menu-item menu-item-type-custom menu-item-object-custom menu-item-50"><a href="?p=Address">Address</a></li>
    <li id="menu-item-51" class="menu-item menu-item-type-custom menu-item-object-custom menu-item-51"><a href="?p=Phone">Phone</a></li>
    <li id="menu-item-52" class="menu-item menu-item-type-custom menu-item-object-custom menu-item-52"><a href="?p=Email">Email</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li id="menu-item-53" class="menu-item menu-item-type-custom menu-item-object-custom menu-item-53"><a href="?p=About">About Us</a>
<ul class="sub-menu">
    <li id="menu-item-54" class="menu-item menu-item-type-custom menu-item-object-custom menu-item-54"><a href="?p=Company">Company</a></li>
    <li id="menu-item-55" class="menu-item menu-item-type-custom menu-item-object-custom menu-item-55"><a href="?p=CompanyAddress">Company Address</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul></div></div>

I am now exploring CSS options to enhance the navigation drop-down functionality.

View the output without CSS here.

htmlcsswordpressdrop-down-menunavigation

Answer №1

My approach is to set the top level li's as inline-block elements and then convert the sub-menus into blocks. Using the css :hover selector and adjusting the absolute positioning of the sub-menus usually works well. I have created a fiddle for you to see it in action.

http://jsfiddle.net/jaredkhan/EuH8P/2

Answer №2

http://jsfiddle.net/UVkGG/

.menu{
    white-space:nowrap; /* Ensures menu items do not wrap if container is too small */
}
.menu>li{
    display:inline-block; /* Arranges menu items on a single line */
    height:20px; /* Sets default height for top level menu */
    width:200px;
    padding:5px;
    line-height:24px;
    background:#eee;
    vertical-align:top; /* Aligns menu li's to the top of page */
    list-style:none;
    cursor:pointer;
    overflow:hidden; /* Hides sub-menu */
}
.menu>li:hover{
    height:auto; /* Removes height limit to show sub-menu */
}
.sub-menu{
    margin:0; padding:0;
}
.sub-menu>li{
    display:block; /* Places sub-menu items on separate lines */
    padding:5px;
    margin:2px;
    background:#ccc;
    list-style:none;
    cursor:pointer;
}
.sub-menu>li:hover{
    background:#aaa;
}
.menu a{
    text-decoration:none;
    color:#111;
    font-weight:bold; 
    display:block; /* Makes entire highlighted block clickable, not just the text */
}

Similar questions

If you have not found the answer to your question or you are interested in this topic, then look at other similar questions below or use the search

What is causing the floated element to overlap the element below instead of vice versa?

div { background-color: #00FFFF; } p { width: 50px; height: 50px; border: 1px solid black; margin: 0px; } #p1 { background-color: red; float: left; } #p2 { background-color: green; } #p3 { background-color: orange; } #p4 { backgr ...

htmlcsscss-float

Continuous loop of images displayed in a slideshow (HTML/JavaScript)

Greetings everyone, I am currently working on creating an endless loop slideshow of images for my website. Despite researching several resources, I am still struggling to get the code right. The issue I am facing is that only the image set in the HTML code ...

javascripthtmlcss

Experiencing difficulty in retrieving the title of the latest post

In my current Wordpress project, I'm facing an issue where a link is supposed to play a wav file based on the title of the post. For example, if the post title is 'one', then it should play one.wav from the uploads folder. However, the sound ...

phpjqueryhtmlajaxwordpress

Swap out the HTML button element for text once the form is submitted

On the main page, I have a button that opens a modal when clicked. Inside the modal, there is a form with a submit button that closes the modal and returns to the main page. After closing the modal, I want to change the HTML button on the main page to plai ...

javascripthtmlcssbuttonmodal-dialog

Why is a <script> tag placed within a <noscript> tag?

Lately, I've been exploring various websites with unique designs and content by inspecting their source code. One site that caught my attention was Squarespace, which had blocks of <script> tags within a <noscript> tag: <!-- Page is at ...

javascripthtmlnoscript

What is a CSS image flush?

Want some help with a website I'm working on? Check it out here: I managed to align the product image with the green section using a negative padding-bottom value like this: img.img-with-animation { opacity: 0; position: relative; padding-bottom: -7 ...

css

The optimal method for designing a select menu to ensure it works smoothly on various web browsers

Recently, I encountered an issue with customizing a select menu using CSS and jQuery. After some work, I was able to achieve a result that I am quite pleased with: So far, the styling works perfectly in Mozilla, Opera, Chrome, and IE7+. Below is the curr ...

javascriptjqueryhtmlcss

Vertical button group within a Bootstrap 5 input group

How can I create an input-group for increasing or decreasing numbers? Below is the code I have: <div class="input-group input-group-sm"> <input type="text" class="form-control" placeholder="0.9"&g ...

htmlcssbootstrap-5

Steps to align the table to the left with the header

I created a webpage that includes a header and a table at this link Can anyone help me align the left border of the table with the left border of the header image? I'm not sure how to do it. Appreciate any assistance! ...

htmlalignment

Eliminate the gaps between the columns of the table

Is there a way to eliminate the gap between the day, month, and year columns in this table? <form action='goServlet' method='POST'> <table style="width:1000px" style="text-align:center"> <tr style="text-ali ...

htmlcssjsp

Unable to retrieve dropdown value using JavaScript and display it in a div

javaScript code: Retrieving data from a dropdown and displaying it in the inner HTML of a div. function showcost() { var days = document.getElementById("Ddays"); var Dudays = days.options[days.selectedIndex].text; var div = docu ...

javascriptjqueryhtmlcsslaravel-5

Where would you start looking if the right side of a table border is not visible?

Where should I start looking if the right side border of a table element in a div is not visible? ...

htmlcsscss-tables

Hover over the div to center an SVG inside it

Simply put, I am working on a design where a gradient bar moves above a specific element when hovered, creating a visual effect of a triangle. I am now looking for a way to center an SVG inside the element on hover, to create a similar triangular gradient ...

javascriptjqueryhtmlcsssvg

Encountering XMLHttpRequest errors when trying to make an AJAX POST request

I'm encountering an issue with a modal containing a form for submitting emails. Despite setting up the ajax post as usual, the submission is failing consistently. The console displays the following two errors: Setting XMLHttpRequest.withCredent ...

javascriptjqueryhtmlajaxasp.net-mvc-5

Express identifies the user, however, the username is displayed exclusively on one specific page. This situation may indicate a potential cookie problem

I am in the process of developing an express app integrated with MongoDB. The issue I am facing involves a pug template for the navigation bar where I aim to display the user's name at the top upon logging in. Strangely, it only works on the page that ...

javascripthtmlnode.jscookiespug

What is the highest value that AutoCompleteExtender can reach?

I am currently using an AutoCompleteExtender in my code with the following configuration: <ajaxToolkit:AutoCompleteExtender runat="server" ID="autoCompleteOrigem" TargetControlID="txtClienteOrigem" ServicePath="~/Cliente/Au ...

htmlajaxajaxcontroltoolkitascx

Splitting the string into individual characters using string.split("").map may cause layout issues on small devices

Shoutout to @pratik-wadekar for the amazing help in creating a working text animation. However, I encountered an issue when testing it on various screen sizes and mobile devices - the animated word plants breaks into pieces like PLA on one line and NTS on ...

javascripthtmlcssreactjstypescript

What is the best way to include a targeted href link within HTML code?

During the process of creating a website using bootstrap 4, I included the following snippet of HTML code: <form action="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQN-pnXPaVg" target="_blank"> <button>Start</button> </form> Despite li ...

htmlbootstrap-4hyperlink

Tips for stopping a flex:1 div from expanding to accommodate its abundant content

I'm facing a situation where I need to create two columns, one fixed at 150px and the other filling up the remaining space with scroll functionality for overflow content. Despite trying to use flexbox for this layout, the second column keeps expanding ...

htmlcssflexbox

Empty gap separating two side by side photos

Could someone assist me with removing the excessive white space between these two images? Each image is contained within its own respective div, with layer effects applied when hovered over. I've attempted changing the display to inline-block and sett ...

htmlcss