Menu Selection

coreBOS needs a better, more flexible menu system than what we inherited from vtiger CRM. So we set out to look for some options with some of these goals in mind:

  • Dropdown menu system fully configurable by the user
  • Multilevel sub-menus
  • Support for multiple types of menu actions: module, url, separator
  • Fast loading
  • CSS based, ideally responsive

SkeLa- has contributed three menu options for coreBOS. One based on KendoUI, anther based on JQuery and another based on pure HTML5/CSS following Lightning Design System guidelines.

I evaluated all three options and decided to incorporate the Lightning Design System menu. There were basically three main reasons for this decision:

  1. I really like how it looks: clean, simple, professional. LDS guidelines in general are VERY sane, very well thought out and I would like to recommend them in the whole application in due time, so seeing this menu system enforced my position on this point.
  2. I am currently in a mind set to stay away from libraries. I want to use pure HTML5, CSS and Javascript wherever possible
  3. Load timing. Being pure HTML5/CSS this menu just wins hands down on the other two.

** time in miliseconds to load the menu**

jquery LDS (1) KendoUI LDS (2)
108,8 38,55 425,5 59,3
73,3 15,05 413,5 20,6
42,5 66,14 384,5 35,9
72,9 43,84 436,8 14,46
58 44,94 399,5 39,47
92 35,58 413,2 13,7
84,36 12,83 511,1 43,7
38,97 36,24 408,5 24,7
135,28 27,9 415,2 20,3
96,46 59,46 438,3 51,34
Total: 802,57 380,53 4246,1 323,47
Average: 80,257 38,053 424,61 32,347

So, as of the end of December 2016, coreBOS now has an advanced menu system based on Lightning Design System.

Thank you SkeLa!
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