Unable to create menu in magento admin panel

Question

I need to create menu in the magento admin panel. I am not able to create menu in my admin panel. Here below is my xml code. The following code contains the adminhtml part using which I need to create the menu. Please provide possible reasons for it is not working.

<adminhtml>
<acl>
    <resources>
        <all>
            <title>Allow Everything</title>
        </all>
        <admin>
            <children>
                <pincode translate="title" module="pincode">
                    <title>Pincode</title>
                    <sort_order>1000</sort_order>
                    <children>
                        <pincodebackend translate="title">
                            <title>Pincode Import</title>
                        </pincodebackend>
                        <pincode translate="title">
                            <title>Manage Pincode</title>
                            <sort_order>0</sort_order>
                        </pincode>
                    </children>
                </pincode>
            </children>
        </admin>
    </resources>
</acl>
<layout>
    <updates>
        <pincode>
            <file>pincode.xml</file>
        </pincode>
    </updates>
</layout>
</adminhtml>

Answer 1

Your code is only declaring the ACL for the menu but not the menu itself.

Please add the following code right after the <adminhtml> tag:

<menu>
        <pincode translate="title" module="pincode">
            <title>Pincode</title>
            <sort_order>1000</sort_order>
            <children>
                <pincodebackend translate="title">
                    <title>Pincode Import</title>
                </pincodebackend>
                <pincode translate="title">
                    <title>Manage Pincode</title>
                    <sort_order>0</sort_order>
                    <action>adminhtml/namespace_module/action</action>
                </pincode>
            </children>
        </pincode>
</menu>

Answer 2

You need to add <menu> before <acl> like below :

<adminhtml>
<acl>
    <menu>
        <children>
            <pincode translate="title" module="pincode">
                <title>Pincode</title>
                <sort_order>1000</sort_order>
                <children>
                    <pincodebackend translate="title">
                        <title>Pincode Import</title>
                    </pincodebackend>
                    <pincode translate="title">
                        <title>Manage Pincode</title>
                        <sort_order>0</sort_order>
                        <action>adminhtml/namespace_module/action</action>
                    </pincode>
                </children>
            </pincode>
        </children>
    </menu>
    <resources>
        <all>
            <title>Allow Everything</title>
        </all>
        <admin>
            <children>
                <pincode translate="title" module="pincode">
                    <title>Pincode</title>
                    <sort_order>1000</sort_order>
                    <children>
                        <pincodebackend translate="title">
                            <title>Pincode Import</title>
                        </pincodebackend>
                        <pincode translate="title">
                            <title>Manage Pincode</title>
                            <sort_order>0</sort_order>
                        </pincode>
                    </children>
                </pincode>
            </children>
        </admin>
    </resources>
</acl>
<layout>
    <updates>
        <pincode>
            <file>pincode.xml</file>
        </pincode>
    </updates>
</layout>
</adminhtml>