Breadcrumb Links from PHPMaker or from Masino Extensions. Which One Would You Choose?

For those of you who have been using my Extensions that I created for PHPMaker version 9.2.0, then you might use the feature of Breadcrumb Links. I added this feature since there wasn't Breadcrumb Links feature in the page which is generated by PHPMaker 9. One of the advantages of the Breadcrumb Links that I created is that, you can define by yourself the parent of the breadcrumb without having to depend on the parent of the table in Master/Detail relationship. In other words, we can define the path of the Breadcrumb based on the hierarchical location of the pages in the Menus. Yes, we can define unlimited parent for the certain Breadcrumb item based on the Menu structures.

Since PHPMaker 10, the Breadcrumb Links feature had been added. Unfortunately, the built-in Breadcrumb Links have not supported to display based on our desired level. They can be only displayed based on the Master/Detail relationship. For example, the Breadcrumb Links that located in the List page of orderdetails which is the detail of the orders table, then it will always be displayed become:

Home » Orders » Order Details

even the hierarchical location of the Order Details page in the structure of the Menu is located under two parents, for example:

Categories 
 |
 -> Orders 
     |
     -> Order Details

By using the Breadcrumb Links I created via extension since PHPMaker 9.2.0 (and of course, I also created the same for PHPMaker 10), then we can now customize the Breadcrumb Links above become such the following:

Home » Categories » Orders » Order Details

In other words, by using the Breadcrumb Links that I provided in my Extensions, now we are able to define the Breadcrumb Links path dynamically without having to depend on Master/Detail relationship that generated by PHPMaker.

Just for the main comparison, the Breadcrumb Links that generated by PHPMaker will use the session in order to identify the path of the certain Breadcrumb of a page, whereas the Breadcrumb Links that I created via my Extensions will use a table to store all the Breadcrumb Links items. This is the main reason, why the Breadcrumb Links from PHPMaker will only identify the parent of itself based on the session of the Master/Detail relationship. They cannot be created based on the structure of the Menu which will be related to the pages.

Back to the Breadcrumb Links that I created, I have also provided four pages in order to manage the Breadcrumb Links easily and quickly on-the-fly (not only in development mode). You can add your new Breadcrumb item, check the full path of the certain Breadcrumb item, move the Breadcrumb item to another parent, or even delete the Breadcrumb item easily and quickly. All the changes in the certain Breadcrumb item will be automatically adjusted to the other Breadcrumb Links.

So, which kind of Breadcrumb Links would you choose? 🙂