I just installed the 4.8.3 security update to my live site and all my menus went blank. I could still login as host and was able to get to the site option from the control menu, but the main horizontal menu was blank. I stumbled on the fact that I could change the skin to one of the default skins for the host and get my menus back. This led me to look at the differences between the "DNN-Blue" skin where the "Horizontal Menu - Full Width" from the host selection works. When I compare the new code with a previous version of this same skin files from the portal, lo & behold, there are significant differences. The new ver 4.8.3 code includes this new code at the top of the htm file, from line 1 thru 5:
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<LINK ID="skin" REL="stylesheet" TYPE="text/css" HREF="skin.css" />
</HEAD>
<BODY>
and the menu itself is specified by this at line 23:
<TD width="100%" vAlign="middle" align="left" nowrap>[NAV]</TD>
The previous version of the htm file did not contain anything before the "TABLE ...> declaration line, and the menu itself is specified by this at line 18:
<TD width="100%" vAlign="middle" align="left" nowrap>[MENU]</TD>
Other than these differences, the files are identical.
The Horizontal Menu - Full Width.ascx also contains very significant differences at lines 4 and 32.
Line 4 of the new version reads:
<%@ Register TagPrefix="dnn" TagName="NAV" Src="~/Admin/Skins/Nav.ascx" %>
whereas the old version reads:
<%@ Register TagPrefix="dnn" TagName="MENU" Src="~/Admin/Skins/SolPartMenu.ascx" %>
Line 32 of the new version:
<TD width="100%" vAlign="middle" align="left" nowrap><dnn:NAV runat="server" id="dnnNAV" ProviderName="DNNMenuNavigationProvider" CSSControl="main_dnnmenu_bar" CSSContainerRoot="main_dnnmenu_container" CSSNode="main_dnnmenu_item" CSSNodeRoot="main_dnnmenu_rootitem" CSSIcon="main_dnnmenu_icon" CSSContainerSub="main_dnnmenu_submenu" CSSBreak="main_dnnmenu_break" CSSNodeHover="main_dnnmenu_itemhover" NodeLeftHTMLBreadCrumbRoot="<img alt="*" BORDER="0" src="breadcrumb.gif"/>" /></TD>
But line 32 of the old version is only:
<TD width="100%" vAlign="middle" align="left" nowrap><dnn:MENU runat="server" id="dnnMENU" /></TD>
From what I can tell by looking back at previous version of these files from earlier upgrades, it looks like the new NAV menu has replaced the SolPartMenu in the skins that are loaded into the _default (host) location, but those changes were never propagated or forced into existing sites. I am sure there are good reasons for these changes, but the update really had be on edge for a while, and it will take some work to get it all fixed. Somehow, this upgrade overwrote the file or dll that was supporting the SolPartMenu.
The upgrade process itself appeared to go right as rain from the dialog displayed on first access to my site, and all the log files look right as well.
Anyone know what has happened or why these changes were made? And why can't the old SolPartMenu co-exist with the new one? Or was something over-written that should not have been? What should I do about these menus now: abandon the SolPartMenu and convert all my skins to the new NAV menu? Or is there another option?