Modify Main Site Navigation

There have been multiple requests that when there is one item in a folder, don’t make users have to use a “drop down” in the global navigation bar to reach it with the “home” link. There should not be a dropdown when there is only one item at the top level and it doesn't have any sub navigation.

Before we make the changes to the configuration on the website, there are some fundamental differences to understand about the drop-down menu.

PLOUD DEFAULT MAIN MENU FUNCTIONALITY

The top level of the main navigation is populated by Folders only and the content within those folders creates the drop-down menus. The 'default' item in the folder automatically gets set as the first link of the drop down with the Folder's Title and the text 'Home' appended to it. For example, if you have a Kids; Teens folder at the top level of your website and then set a page as the "default view", then the dropdown will get populated as seen below:

The rest of the menu will get populated with the names of other sub-folders. The default menu does not allow for single click menu items in the menu. All menus are drop-downs.

ALTERNATIVE MAIN MENU FUNCTIONALITY

There is an alternative main menu display. First, we will describe how this menu works.

When activating this alternative menu, menu items can be anything from folders to pages, news items, and files. The navigation, just like the default navigation, auto-populates with content created at the top level of the site. You may notice that when you activate this menu, you will have a lot more items populating the menu. You will have to hide any menu items from the navigation or move them to a sub-folder. WARNING: You will see items in the navigation that have not been published because as an administrator you have rights to see them. But, your website visitors will only see items in the navigation that have been published.

Here is how the Alternative Navigation works.

• If you have a folder at the top level of the site with a default view OR a single page at the top level, that item will show up in the top navigation as a single click item without a dropdown icon. Clicking on that item will take you directly to that object. In our example below, the Programs/Calendar link is a folder with a default view.
  
  Creating a Dropdown Menu: If you add pages to a top level folder, the drop-down icon and functionality will automatically work. However, there are some differences concerning how the menu structure works compared to the default menu.
  • First, once you place a page inside a folder, and the page is not a default view, you will no longer be able to click on the folder to go to that folder, you can only navigate to the items in that folder. The containing folder becomes a drop-down link.
  • When you want a folder to be a pull-down menu, you do not want to have a page set as a 'default view' of the folder. The reason is the folder is now a menu link and users will not be able to click or tap on the folder to get to see its default view.
    
    
• Activating the Alternative Main Menu Functionality
  • To activate the alternative main menu functionality, there needs to be a change in the Site Configurations. Click on your administrator tools button and select Site Configurations from the menu. (NOTE: the admin tools menu may look different depending on the site theme you have chosen:
  • Uncheck the box next to Use standard Ploud navigation and click the Apply button:
    
  • when navigating back to your homepage, you should see the changes mentioned in this article such as:
    • Seeing more items in the main menu.
    • You will see items in the menu that are not published because you are a content admin and can see non-published items.
      
      
  • Your next steps are to clean up the main menu by hiding certain items from the main menu by editing the item you want to hide and go to the Settings tab. Check the box next to 'Exclude from navigation' to hide the item from the main menu navigation.
    
    

A Popular Use Case

So why would you want to use this alternative menu scheme? Many libraries want to have a link to their library catalog on their main navigation that is just a single link. The link does not need to be a pull-down menu because there will never be anything inside this link. You can create a link from the 'Add new...' menu in the Green Edit Bar at the top level of your website and that link will appear in the main navigation as a single link, not a drop-down menu.

Note: When logged in and you select the Main Navigation item that is the link. You will be taken to the link object. This is so you as a site editor you can make changes to the link. To test the link to see if indeed it directs the user to the desired URL you must logout of Ploud.