A plugin for creating and organizing the structure of online documentation, user guides, knowledge bases, and any informational or software product, goods, or application.

Menu by Parent Category for CMF Cotonti Siena v.0.9.26, PHP v.8.4+, MySQL v.8.0

This plugin allows you to create menu item lists in your online documentation section, knowledge base, or for any informational/software product you are developing, maintaining, or selling.

It works with the selected parent category and all its child categories, including the articles published in them. Menu by Parent Category for CMF Cotonti Siena version 0.9.26, PHP 8.4+, MySQL 8.0

Menu by Parent Category (cot-menubyparentcat)

Plugin for CMF Cotonti Siena 0.9.26+
Version: 2.2.8
License: BSD
Author:webitproff

GitHub: https://github.com/webitproff/cot-menubyparentcat

Purpose and solved tasks (in detail)

cot-menubyparentcat — a plugin for manually building menus based on a selected parent category of the Page module.

The cot-menubyparentcat plugin was created with one specific goal — to give theme developers, module and plugin authors, as well as site owners on Cotonti Siena a full-featured, convenient, and beautiful tool for creating online documentation, user guides, knowledge bases, or internal wikis for their products.

This is exactly the case when the standard auto-generated Cotonti menus (by category structure or by tags) are not suitable:

they do not allow control over the order of items
you cannot hide drafts or technical pages
it is impossible to rename sections to short and clear names in the menu
there is no way to move important pages (“Introduction”, “Installation”, “FAQ”) to the top of the list

cot-menubyparentcat solves all these problems at once.

Main use cases (real examples):

Documentation for a theme
Example: you released a premium theme for Cotonti.
You need a “Documentation” section with a clear structure:
Introduction → Installation → Configuration → Components → FAQ → Updates
With this plugin you create a root category theme-docs, add the necessary sections and pages in the required order — and get a perfect menu like https://adminlte.io/themes/v4/docs/
User guide for a plugin or module
You developed a complex plugin (e.g., shop, freelance marketplace, CRM).
Customers need detailed instructions.
cot-menubyparentcat allows you to create a menu like:
Overview → Registration → Creating a project → Payment → Disputes → API
While hiding pages that are still in development.
Knowledge base for a service / SaaS product
You have an online service built on Cotonti.
You need a separate “Help” menu with sections:
Tasks → Services → Wallet → Security → Rules
Each section has dozens of articles, but in the menu you show only the main ones and hide the rest until they are ready.
Technical documentation for a framework/library
You ported Bootstrap, Tailwind, or another UI kit to Cotonti.
You create documentation similar to the official one:
https://getbootstrap.com/docs/5.3/getting-started/introduction/
The plugin allows you to exactly replicate such structure and menu appearance.

What the plugin specifically provides for documentation:

Feature

Why it’s critical for documentation

Manual item ordering

Sections follow the exact learning logic: from simple to complex

Hiding pages without deletion

You can write drafts without showing them to users

Overriding titles

Long page title → short and clear title in the menu

Separators (category titles)

Clear visual separation of large content blocks

Direct links outside categories

Important pages “Introduction”, “Quick start” always at the top

Auto-highlighting of the active item

User always knows where they are

Accordion with article count

Modern UX like in official documentations

Real example of a documentation menu structure:

User Guide
├── Introduction
├── Quick Start
├── Registration and Profile
├── Tasks and Projects
│ ├── Creating a Task
│ ├── Choosing a Contractor
│ ├── Execution Stages
│ └── Disputes and Arbitration
├── Services
│ ├── Creating a Service
│ ├── Packages and Add-ons
│ └── Reviews
├── Payments and Wallet
│ ├── Top-up
│ ├── Withdrawal
│ └── Transaction History
├── Security
└── Frequently Asked Questions

All items above are either category separators or manually added pages.
Order, visibility, and titles are fully under your control.

Therefore, the key purpose is:

This is a specialized tool for creating professional online documentation for software or any other product. Using Cotonti + menubyparentcat you can easily create online documentation for your developments or products and organize the documentation menu so that the user can quickly and easily find the needed instruction.

menubyparentcat is not just “yet another menu”. For example, my other plugin Tree Cats Page Plugin for Cotonti Siena 0.9.26 — menubyparentcat is its evolution and has already become an essential component of any informational product. Without well-organized documentation and author support for users of your development(*), for example using the “forums” module on Cotonti CMF, it will be difficult for people to get acquainted with and master your product, whether it is paid or free. * — (plugin, module, theme, script, program, etc.)

Here are several examples of what can be achieved in terms of organizing your own online documentation:

The menubyparentcat plugin allows you to:

manually control the menu structure
sort categories and pages in any order
hide individual items without deleting them
override titles
add pages outside the category structure
use categories as header separators

Perfect for creating:

help sections
user guides
complex FAQs
menu groups with manually created structure

Compatibility and requirements

Cotonti: Siena 0.9.26+
PHP: 8.1+ (8.4 recommended)
MySQL: 8.0+
Page module: required

The plugin does not conflict with other menus and does not override standard Cotonti functions.

Installation

Download the archive: https://github.com/webitproff/cot-menubyparentcat
Unpack into plugins/
In admin panel go to: Plugins → Installation → menubyparentcat → Install
Immediately after installation:
Administration → Extensions → Menu by Parent Category → Configuration
set the code of the parent category to manage its content, for example user-guide

Configuration

In the admin panel you need to specify:

Parent category code (see screenshots)

For example:

user-guide
help
docs

This code is taken from the Pages → Code field in the Page module structure.

After saving, you can start adding menu items.

Admin panel: managing menu items

Each item has the following parameters:

Type

Category (cat) — menu section + automatic loading of pages inside it
Page (page) — direct link to an article

Fields:

Category code / Page ID — list depends on the selected type
Sorting order — integer number; the smaller the number, the higher the item appears
Overridden title — custom text if needed
Include in menu — allows hiding the item

Admin features

edit item
delete
change order using numeric values
no duplicates — a page will not appear twice

Displaying the menu on the site

In any site template (for example, sidebar.tpl):

If the category code is set in the plugin settings (recommended):

<!-- IF {PHP|cot_module_active('page')} AND {PHP|cot_plugin_active('menubyparentcat')} -->
{PHP|cot_menubyparentcat_build_tree()}
<!-- ENDIF -->

Second example:

<!-- IF {PHP|cot_module_active('page')} AND {PHP|cot_plugin_active('menubyparentcat')} -->
<div class="sidebar-menu">
 <h5>Help</h5>
 {PHP|cot_menubyparentcat_build_tree('user-guide')}
</div>
<!-- ENDIF -->

Template for rendering the tree of categories and articles

The plugin uses the file:
menubyparentcat.tree.tpl (source code)

The template implements:

Bootstrap 5 menu structure
collapsible submenus
alias (SEO-friendly URLs) support
active item highlighting
display of categories with subpages
display of direct pages

Features and advantages

full manual control over menu structure
overridable titles
support for hidden items
direct links to specific articles
automatic loading of all pages in a category
duplicate protection
correct URL formation
high performance (indexed queries)

Development and support

Repository: https://github.com/webitproff/cot-menubyparentcat
Issues: use for bug reports and feature requests
Pull Requests: welcome
The plugin is distributed free of charge under the BSD license

If the plugin was useful — please give it a ⭐ on GitHub!

Copyright

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Example / Placeholder Title

Menu by Parent Category with Structured Articles