The purpose of the navigation is to display site pages in hierarchical fashion so site users can easily navigate through the site. Most sites have basic navigations, but at times something more specific to a site’s unique content might be necessary. Some of WebGUI’s navigations will be displayed at the end of this chapter.

1. To begin managing your WebGUI site’s navigation, click on the Navigation icon in the New Content menu of the Admin Bar to open the “Add Navigation” screen.
   
   

2. Enter a title or heading for your navigation in the “Title” field.

3. The “Menu Title” is the title that will appear in the site navigation. You can leave this blank and WebGUI will insert the “Title” here.

4. The “URL” is the address of the navigation; again, you can leave this blank and WebGUI will fill it in for you.

5. Text placed in the “Description” field will appear as static content between the “Title” and navigation.

6. The tools for actually setting up your navigation are located at the bottom of the “Add Navigation” screen.

7. The first field to adjust is the “Start Point Type.” This is coupled with the “Start Point” field to determine the base page for your navigation.

1. Specific URL: you choose the URL that will be the beginning of your navigation. The rest of the settings then determine what pages are shown in the navigation based on this URL.

2. Relative to Current URL: the starting point of the navigation will change as you navigate throughout the site. The starting point will always be based on the page currently viewed.

3. Relative to Root: the start page will begin based on the actual Root of the site. (Note: for the purpose of this example, Relative to Root was chosen.)

8. The “Start Point” field in WebGUI determines the actual start page. So, the starting point of the navigation will be some function of /(0) to...(+9)pages from the “Start Point Type” chosen. Note: for the purpose of this example /0 was chosen; so, since “Relative to Root” was chosen as the Start Point Type, and no pages are being moved from it, the root will be the navigation start point.

9. The “Relatives to Include” field determines what other pages are shown in the navigation, based on the starting page. Click all that should be included.

1. Ancestors: includes those pages that come before the starting page in the page tree. This would be the page’s parents and grandparents.

2. Self: the starting page.

3. Siblings: pages that are at the same level in the page tree as the starting page.

4. Descendants: pages that are lower in the page tree than the starting page. These would be children and children’s children.

5. Pedigree: displays pages that fall into the categories of Ancestors, Siblings, and Descendants of the starting page. Note: for this example, Descendants, Siblings, and Self were chosen.

10. If the Descendants box is clicked in “Relatives to Include,” then the “End Point” should be established. This determines how many descendants should be displayed. You can choose a level, or simply choose Infinity to display all descendants. (A similar function is performed if Ancestors is checked in the “Relatives to Include” field.)

11. Display Tab:

1. Hide from navigation?: if toggled to Yes, the Menu Title will not appear in the navigation.

2. Open in new window?: if the link to this asset is clicked on in the site navigation, the asset will open in a new browser window. So in this case clicking on the navigation Menu Title will open the navigation in a new browser window.

3. Display the title?: If toggled to Yes, the title will be displayed as a heading to the navigation.

4. Style Template: determines the look and feel of the asset.

5. Printable Style: “strips down” the asset’s content by limiting graphics to make the asset more printer friendly.

6. Navigation Template: the navigation template controls the appearance of the navigation. WebGUI comes installed with many navigation templates. Test them out to see which best meets your needs; you can then make a copy of its code and update it to meet your specifications. Notes about individual navigation templates are at the end of this chapter.
   Note: WebGUI's navigation templates can be customized to meet your unique needs. Find a navigation template that is close to what you're looking for, then copy and update its code.

7. MIME Type: allows you to specify the MIME if you wish to serve CSS, plain text, Javascript, or other text files from this asset. This allows you more freedom with navigation use.

8. Show system pages: if toggled to Yes, then system pages such as the clipboard, trash, and Page Not Found will show up in the navigation for admins and content managers. Normally, this is set to No.

9. Show hidden pages: if toggled to Yes, then those pages marked as hidden on the “Page Layout” will still show up in the navigation. You must choose the groups you want to be able to see this by updating the navigation template.

10. Show unprivileged pages: if toggled to Yes, then logged in users will be able to see pages in the navigation that they don’t necessarily have access to view, based on the “Group to view?” setting of that page.

11. Reverse Page Loop: if toggled to Yes, this will reverse the order of all pages, while maintaining the hierarchy.

12. Security Tab:

1. Owner: the owner has full editing and viewing rights; this is usually the person who created the asset, and can only be changed by an administrator.

2. Who can view?: select the group who can view this asset. If you want all site users to be able to view the navigation, set this to Everyone.

3. Who can edit?: choose the group who can edit this asset; this group also can always view the asset.

13. The Metadata tab is the standard Metadata screen common amongst all assets. If you need to handle metadata for the purposes of content profiling you can do so here.

14. Click save to create the navigation and display it on the page.

Navigation Examples

Before choosing a navigation template, determine what will best serve your site users. Do you want all pages on the site displayed, or would a more streamlined approach be more user-friendly? Once you’ve determined your needs you can explore WebGUI’s navigation templates to find the one that best fits your needs.

WebGUI comes installed with numerous navigation templates. Make sure you take a minute to become familiar with them. Below are some examples, along with best-use scenarios. The bulleted information are properties displayed in the examples.

Crumb Trail: the Crumb Trail is effective for displaying the path a user took to arrive to the page currently viewed. However, the Crumb Trail is not good for a main menu because it will not display subpages in the main menu, which may prevent some users from fully navigating within a site.

• Start Point Type: Relative to Current URL

• Start Point: ./0

• Relatives to Include: Self and Ancestors (to view past pages)

Bullet List: the Bullet List displays a simple bulleted list of items in the nav.

• Start Point Type: Relative to Root

• Start Point: /(0)

• Relatives to Include: Pedigree

From the homepage of the site, the navigation will display all the children of the homepage.

Tabs: this formats displays the site navigation as a series of tabs.

• Start Point Type: Relative to Root

• Start Point: /(0)

• Relatives to Include: pedigree

DropMenu: displays items in the navigation as a dropdown menu from which to select a location.

• Start Point Type: Relative to Root

• Start Point: /(0)

• Relatives to Include: pedigree