Drupal or Menu Firstchild issue? i think MFC.

Here are the differences:
- While SMI adds non-links placeholders, MFC does add link items that redirect to their first viewable child items. Thus MFC doesn't change the way Drupal menus work.
- SMI uses theme related functions to generate the nolink items. MFC uses link_alter functions.
- SMI continues to display parent items even when they are empty or when their children are not accessible. MFC hides parent items that don't contain any accessible child items.
- SMI might conflict with DHTML Menu. MFC supports it.

As English is not my native language, any help to explain these differences more clearly would be appreciated, to put them on the project page.
Thanks!

anrikun states: "- While SMI adds non-links placeholders, MFC does add link items that redirect to their first viewable child items. Thus MFC doesn't change the way Drupal menus work."

i'm relatively new to drupal, but i couldn't find a way to have a menu item have subitems (children) without MFC. i assumed that was the reason the MFC was written and that's why i installed it. if core drupal could do it, then my site could be smaller if i knew how. i will continue on the assumption that core drupal does NOT allow this function. besides, if MFC implements children of menu items, then it should work a certain way.

i know there has been at least one long and old thread about this issue, but at the end and 2 years later, the issue is still there.

it is my opinion that the parents of children menu items should NOT be clickable and should NOT go anywhere or do anything if clicked because (my) logic dictates that it is the right way to be. it makes no sense to me that, basically, a "category name" or "title" does anything at all but give some clue as to what's it contains.

i had another problem with it, but it turned out that it was my misunderstanding of how variables were passed via a URL. the problem i'm having now is that i have put "?action=..." on my URLs in my parent and child menu items and, drupal will not allow me to remove them. when i do and click Save, they come back. it's kinda wierd.

it's not causing me pain right now because they are what i need, though i don't understand it at all. when i first tried it, i didn't put the variable on the parent with "firstchild" in it because i assumed it wouldn't work, since that is not a URL and the variable was either not there on the first child's redirect page or it was there and equal to NULL. i can't recreate the situation because i cannot take off the variable.

if anyone disagrees that this is the way it SHOULD be, then please consider this a feature request. i personally think my site looks a little less professional when one can click on a parent menu item when it is clear that it should only be a place holder with a general name for category, the members of which are the subitems that really do something. it will probably also confuse users when some (or a lot) of sites have menus that require clicking on the parent in order to see the children (possibly core drupal?). i'm also using Nice Menus and hovering expands the parent.

thanks much,

mike wease

There is no bug here.
- First you should read Drupal's Menu module documentation: you can create sub-items without MFC but you need to give a path to each menu item.
- Use MFC only if you want to create parent menu items without any path, that link to their first accessible child.
- If you want to create parent items without any path nor link (only placeholders), then use SMI.
- You should also try DHTML Menu.

i didn't INSIST that it was a bug. i will never agree that it is proper to have a parent menu item do anything but expand to show its children (and from what i've read here, there are plenty of people who share this stance), whether some of other module, or whatever SMI is, does it or not. however, i DID leave open the possibility of you considering this a feature request. Could you do that?

by the way, i think your english is as good as mine, or better, and it's the only one i speak.

I cannot add the feature you want as the purpose of MFC is precisely to create a parent item *with* a link redirecting to the parent item's first accessible child (that's why it's called Menu Firstchild ;-).
So if you need to create a parent item *without* a link, then you just have to use SMI instead of MFC as it's the purpose of this module.
Hope this helps.

ok. thanks much. i guess i'm just confused about how i came to decide that MFC was what i needed. i distinctly remember coming across it, thinking that it might be what i'm looking for, downloading and enabling it and being happy with it, before i noticed that the parent link was clickable, also.

oh, well. chalk it up to another symptom of my CRS syndrome (Can't Rememer "Stuff").