throw that theory out the window LOL. I put up a product rotator on my front page, clicked on that product and i still get the same result. Custom HTML vs BVs Product Rotator both still do it. I think its definetely in the category menu code. I'v eexhausted a lot of possibilities on my end.

Checking into this on my site. Seems like it may have somthing to do with a product being in multiple catagories. And how you got the the product, which trail took you there.

I have a product in Home>New Products.
It is also ing Home>Chassis Components>Spring Adjusters

When I get to the product from the New Products Catagory, then go to the home page. I then click on the recently view products and click to go to the product it references the New Products Catagory on the menu.
Now if i get to the product through Home>Chassis Components>Spring Adjusters, then go back to the home page and click the product from the recently viewed products the menu tree then displays that i'm in Home>Chassis Components>Spring Adjusters.

So seems like it has to do with how you got to the product as to which path is referenced the next time you visit that product.

I little more checking it out. That is odd. Seems like it is keeping the menu tree the same if you click on a product directly from the home page and don't follow it through the menu.

That is not right.

Ok i set my product to only be in one category and after clicking from the front page it still has this issue.

Brian, if you hide all but one category (hide, show title, etc.), and place one product in it, are you still getting this to happen? If so, it can't be in the basic code...there can't be such a bug.

I'd suggest taking a few big steps back and starting with the basic code again. Su'm got hosed.

UPDATE: for those keeping track here, I created a SP3.1 dev site on my local machine. No changes to code. Purely OOTB. The same thing happens. I'm getting so much heat from the site owners and I don't know what to say back because i have heard nothing offical from BV, and cant create a support ticket without the owners spending more money.

Mitch:

This is happening with the stock code. In testing i have seen it happen, on both a SP3.2 site and a SP2 site.

TO me it seems like it is recalling what ever the last menu tree displayed, its not updating the menu path. Iin my quick testing this only happend when using a direct link to a product from the home page (Top sellers, recently viewed, product rotator, etc). If you follow the menu to a product then all seems fine.

I thought maybe it had to do with a product being in multiple catagories, but i don't think that now, that doesn't seem to matter.

This does need to be fixed. If a customer follows a link from the home page then the i would think the menu should reflect your location. Shouldn't have to rely on the breadcrumbs.

Bryan I tried to get to your site to verify but I think you have it down to update. I ran your test on our site and can 100% confirm it with 3.1. Somone here had noticed it before but it's lower on our list of things to fix. As a whole I think the navigation is not well executed in this version. It's very easy for customers to get lost and not enough is done on the left column to highlight where they are in the first place.
If there is a simple fix hopefully BV releases it, our vote is that BV consults the userbase for a rewrite of the category module as it's pretty good but a little rough in some areas.

If you want to see it in action on our promo items site feel free. (do any of you sleep - I'm trying to do maintenance and you people are marauding around the site at 1230am :) )

My store was closed but now it is back open. I had Noah install a few goodies last night :)

MitchA: It is a bug with my issue: the cat menu not expanding to the product you click on from the front page. My site is not the only one. Its not a bad design on my part. As I posted before, I have troubleshooted this many different ways, with my own menu on the front page and with BVs. Currently i am leaving my own custom menu o nthe front page because BV's menu only has the roots or all exapanded. I am choosing to only show a few sub cats wuth my custom menu.

Other people are seeing it too.

It looks like this navigation issue is getting a lot of attention here. First, this is a complex problem because there are actually several different issues being reported. Some of them do indeed look like they could be bugs and others may be misunderstandings about how the menu control was designed. We are investigating all of these and working on solutions. Here is what we know at the moment based on carefully reviewing the thread and emails from customers.

1) There is a reported issue that when you visit the homepage after viewing a category, the menu tree continues to display the previously viewed category.

Here is an experimental fix. Add this line of code to your default.aspx.vb file inside the "Protected Sub Page_PreInit" block

This will reset the current category variable before the menu loads

2) There is a reported issue where the category tree is "one step behind" click. We are investigating.

3) There is a reported issue where the category tree is not showing "parents" when a product is clicked from the homepage directly. This is also the same issue that happens when the last category in the tree is selected. Currently, the menu control is not smart enough to realize that the this is the last category in the tree and should not only show one level above the current, but instead should show two levels above the current. Right now the control is designed with the assumption that one you reach a category below the root you should always expect children to render. We are working on a correction for this.