JavaScript Drop-Down Menus – Free and Commercial
Today I was spending a little time looking for a simple, yet easy-to-use JavaScript drop-down menu code for my web app at work. I have a feeling that I'm going to need it with the number of pages we'll be writing, it's going to make sense to have something like we had back at my previous job. Actually, I want something a lot nicer than we had back there, so I started digging now.
What I found was a lot of JavaScript menu systems for sale. Now I can see the value of commercial software - I just didn't expect it to be this menu. One of the nicer free solutions was this guy I found. It's simple, seems to work just fine, and I should be able to make it work for what I need.
However, there are limitations. First, there's no multiple level menus. Second, the menu structure has to include a bit of JavaScript in it - not horrible, but not as clean as simple UL and LI list items. That's where this commercial offering really makes a difference.
This one takes nothing more than UL and LI lists, embedded within each other, and a few class tags, and builds a very nice menu. Very nice indeed. Different themes as well as different animation techniques makes it a very nice menu.
But it's $200. Not exactly inexpensive when all I really need will be served by the free alternative. I'm going to have to run this by the purchasing folks and see if they'll swing for it. If they do, that would be great. But I can certainly see their point if they say no. After all... the free alternative is fine for what we need.
We'll see what they say on Monday.