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Menu Categories

xAssets Configuration Guide
Menu Categories

Menu Categories

This page explains menu categories, which are the containers that organise menu items into logical groups within the xAssets interface. Every menu item must belong to exactly one menu category, and each menu category belongs to exactly one profile.

Prerequisites

You must have Configuration user group permissions to create or modify menu categories.

What Menu Categories Do

Menu categories serve two purposes:

  1. Organisation -- they group related menu items together under a named heading (e.g., "Asset Register", "Reports", "Admin").
  2. Placement -- the menu category's type determines where its menu items appear on the page (e.g., as a standard left-side menu, as query header/footer buttons, as dashboard content).

Managing Menu Categories

Navigate to Admin > Menus > Menu Categories to see the list:

Menu Categories list screen accessed from Admin > Menus > Menu Categories, showing tree with profiles and types on left

The tree on the left shows menu categories organised by profile and menu type. Use it to filter the list to categories in a specific profile or of a specific type.

From the menu categories list you can:

  • Create a new category using the New button button.
  • Edit a category by clicking its name, or by selecting it and clicking Edit button.
  • Find a category by clicking Edit button and searching in the Find dialog, then selecting it and clicking OK button.
  • Copy or move selected categories (including all their contained menus) to another profile.
  • Disable a category to hide it without deleting it. Use the "Also Show Disabled Categories" option to see disabled categories in the list.
  • Delete a category. This also deletes all menu items it contains.

Warning: Deleting a menu category permanently removes it and all its contained menu items. Consider disabling it instead if you may need to restore it later.

Viewing Menus Within a Category

To see the menu items inside a specific category:

  1. Select the category in the list.
  2. From the Menu Categories menu above the list, choose Show Menus in this Menu Category.

Show Menus in this Menu Category option from context menu

This filters the Menus list to show only items in the selected category:

TODO Screenshot (manual): Requires first selecting a category and choosing 'Show Menus in this Menu Catego

Alternatively, edit the category and use the Menus tab in the editor to view and manage its contained menus.

Menu Category Editor dialog showing fields: ID, Enabled, Profile, Sort Code, Menu Type, Name

Field Description
ID A unique number generated by the system. Cannot be changed.
Enabled Whether the category and its menus are visible. Disabled categories are hidden from users but retained in the database.
Profile The profile this category belongs to. Menu items in this category are only visible when the user is in this profile (unless assigned to the Global profile, which is visible in all profiles).
Sort Code A numeric value that controls the display order relative to other categories of the same type in the same profile. Lower values appear first.
Menu Type Determines where the category's menu items are displayed on the page. See the Menu Types table below.
Name The display name for the category. For Standard Menus and Query Header/Footer menus, this name appears as the group heading.

The menu type determines how and where a category's menu items are rendered:

Menu Type Where It Appears
Standard Menu The left-side navigation menu on the main page
Dashboard The dashboard content area for a profile's home page
Query Header Toolbar buttons above a query when it is displayed
Query Footer Toolbar buttons below a query when it is displayed
KPI The KPI row at the top of a dashboard page
Horizontal Menu A horizontal menu bar across the top of a dashboard

Creating a New Menu Category

  1. Navigate to Admin > Menus > Menu Categories.
  2. Click the New button.
  3. Select the Profile this category belongs to.
  4. Choose the Menu Type (Standard Menu, Dashboard, Query Header, etc.).
  5. Enter a Name for the category.
  6. Set the Sort Code to position it relative to other categories.
  7. Set Enabled to make it visible.
  8. Save.
  9. Add menu items to the category.

Note: A menu category will not be visible to users until it contains at least one enabled menu item, even if the category itself is enabled.

Tip: When building a new profile, copy an existing profile's menu categories rather than creating them from scratch. This gives you a working starting point that you can modify.

  • Menus — creating and editing the menu items within categories
  • Profiles — assigning categories to profiles
  • KPI Configuration — configuring KPI-type menu categories
  • Dashboards — configuring dashboard-type menu categories
  • Menu Access — controlling which user groups can access menus in a category