Jon I was wondering if you could comment on this question - i put it in the 'Extend!' forum and think it may need to go here -

http://www.dotnetnuke.com/Community/Forums/tabid/795/mid/2108/threadid/151550/scope/posts/Default.aspx#151572

I am wondering is there a way to not mess with the core and have a menu like solpart that can query other aspects of the environment to show/not show tabs

On page 23 of the document you posted a link to it has info about the custom datasource is that what you mean?

I  tried what you suggest - building a new  provider bassed on the solpart one but it didnt seem to work - i dont think i am 'installing' it right in the web.config - or using it in the site - 'something'

Sorry added the provider to the web.config but was not sure how it gets loded to the menu

could you show me an example of using it in the skin?

I get an error that value can not be null - not even sure what that really means

Here is what i did - I copied the solpart menu navigation provider nto a new project and linked up the dotnetnuke dll to it

then in the bind i put a simple test to see if this logic would work

For Each objNode In objNodes

                           If CheckNode(CType(objNode.ID, Integer)) = True Then

;;;;;;;Continue normal processing etc

Check node is a simple function that will check for a node of a certain known id and hide it if it come through