3.1 Customizing the main navigation

Latest revision as of 08:43, 20 June 2025

Overview

The main navigation is the main (left) sidebar in the desktop view of the wiki. The contents of this navigation bar apply to the entire wiki and cannot be created for specific namespaces.

Links can be added to this navigation using the menu editor. To keep the main navigation from becoming too extensive, it's a good idea to add links to the most important topics and to related portal pages.

By default, some links are provided as entry points to the wiki. Wiki administrators can deactivate these links. In addition, you can also add new links below the entrypoints (admin permissions required). Please note that no hierarchical links can be created. Therefore, it makes sense to mainly set up links to the most important topics and to portal pages that contain additional links or page lists.

Deactivating entrypoint links

In a new wiki, some standard links are displayed under the heading "Entrypoints." These may vary depending on the BlueSpice version and can be enabled or disabled via the configuration manager menu item Skinning.

Choosing a menu type for the main navigation

In the configuration manager, you can choose between four menu settings:

MediaWiki sidebar: A simple list of links to wiki pages (often to portal pages) and is the standard view of the sidebar. If you need a more flexible menu, switch to the Enhanced MediaWiki sidebar.

Namespace main page list: automatically displays the Main Page of each content namespace in the wiki. So every page using the syntax namespace prefix:mainpage (e.g., QM:mainpage)is displayed. No combination with other menu elements is possible.
Subpage tree (context-sensitive): automatically shows the subpages of a page if that page has subpages. Multi-level subpages are supported. Useful in a wiki that primarily structures pages using subpages. No combination with other menu elements is possible.

Enhanced MediaWiki sidebar: a fully customizable multi-hierarchical menu. Pages can be displayed with their sub-page structure in expandable form.

Editing the main navigation

If you have set your navigation type to MediaWiki Sidebar or Extended MediaWiki Sidebar, your custom navigation links are created using the menu editor. A new wiki installation may already have some links created. You can delete these using the menu editor.

View instructions on the menu editor help page.

Related info

PDF exclude - start

To submit feedback about this documentation, visit our community forum.

PDF exclude - end

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{DISPLAYTITLE:Main navigation}}
-<bookshelf src="Book:Admin manual" />
 ==Overview==
-By default, some links are provided as entry points to the wiki. Wiki administrators can deactivate these links in the [[Manual:Extension/BlueSpiceConfigManager|configuration manager]] if needed. In addition, you can also add new links below the entrypoints (admin permissions required). Please note that no hierarchical links can be created. Therefore, it makes sense to mainly set up links to the most important topics and to  portal pages that contain additional links or page lists.
+The main navigation is the main (left) sidebar in the desktop view of the wiki. The contents of this navigation bar apply to the entire wiki and cannot be created for specific [[Manual:The concept of namespaces|namespaces]].
-<gallery widths="250" heights="350">
+Links can be added to this navigation using the [[Manual:Extension/MenuEditor|menu editor]]. To keep the main navigation from becoming too extensive, it's a good idea to add links to the most important topics and to related [[Manual:Startpage templates|portal pages]].
-File:Manual:main nav 4-4.png|Main navigation BlueSpice 4.4+
-File:Manual:skin-discovery-hauptnavigation-EN.png|Main navigation BlueSpice -4.3
-</gallery>
-== Deactivating entrypoint links ==
+By default, some links are provided as entry points to the wiki. Wiki administrators can deactivate these links. In addition, you can also add new links below the entrypoints (admin permissions required). Please note that no hierarchical links can be created. Therefore, it makes sense to mainly set up links to the most important topics and to  portal pages that contain additional links or page lists.
+[[File:Manual:main_nav_4-4.png|alt=Entry points, custom links and link to sidebar edit|center|thumb|512x512px|Main navigation and link to sidebar edit]]
+== Deactivating entrypoint links ==
 In a new wiki, some standard links are displayed under the heading "Entrypoints." These may vary depending on the BlueSpice version and can be enabled or disabled via the [[Manual:Extension/BlueSpiceConfigManager|configuration manager]] menu item ''Skinning.''
-== Choosing a menu type ==
+== Choosing a menu type for the main navigation ==
 In the configuration manager, you can choose between four menu settings:
-# [[Manual:Extension/BlueSpiceDiscovery/Main navigation#MediaWiki sidebar|MediaWiki sidebar]]: A simple list of links to wiki pages (often to portal pages). A hierarchical navigation structure is not supported.
+* '''[[Manual:Extension/MenuEditor#MediaWiki sidebar|MediaWiki sidebar]]:''' A simple list of links to wiki pages (often to portal pages) and is the standard view of the sidebar. If you need a more flexible menu, switch to the Enhanced MediaWiki sidebar.
-# Namespace main page list: Automatically creates links to all pages in the wiki using the syntax namespace prefix:mainpage (e.g., QM:mainpage).
-# Subpage tree: Useful in a wiki that primarily structures pages using subpages.
-# [[Manual:Extension/BlueSpiceDiscovery/Main navigation#Enhanced MediaWiki sidebar|Enhanced MediaWiki sidebar]]: A list of links to wiki pages. A hierarchical navigation structure is supported. Pages can be displayed with their subpage structure expanded.
-== Editing the main navigation ==
-'''To open the menu editor:'''
-# '''Click''' E''dit sidebar'' at the bottom of the navigation menu. If the page does not exist yet, you will see a notice on the page.
+* '''Namespace main page list''': automatically displays the Main Page of each content namespace in the wiki. So every page using the syntax namespace prefix:mainpage (e.g., QM:mainpage)is displayed. No combination with other menu elements is possible.
+* '''Subpage tree''' (context-sensitive): automatically shows the [[Manual:Subpage|subpages]]  of a page if that page has subpages. Multi-level subpages are supported. Useful in a wiki that primarily structures pages using subpages. No combination with other menu elements is possible.
-===Mediawiki sidebar===
+* '''[[Manual:Extension/MenuEditor#Enhanced MediaWiki sidebar|Enhanced MediaWiki sidebar]]''': a fully customizable multi-hierarchical menu. Pages can be displayed with their sub-page structure in expandable form.
-{{BSVersion|bsvFrom=4.2|bsvTo=|bsvFeature=Visual menu editor}}
-'''To add a new menu header using the menu editor:'''
+== Editing the main navigation ==
+If you have set your navigation type to ''MediaWiki Sidebar'' or ''Extended MediaWiki Sidebar'', your custom navigation links are created using the menu editor. A new wiki installation may already have some links created. You can delete these using the menu editor.
-#'''Click''' ''Add new element'' to create a new menu header.[[File:Main navigation add element.png|alt=Add a new menu heading|center|thumb|200x200px|Add a new menu heading]]
+[[File:Main navigation Getting started.png|alt=Getting Started menu with four default links|center|thumb|200x200px|Standard custom links in the main navigation]]
-#'''Enter''' the text for your menu header. In a multilingual wiki, you can also enter a [[mediawikiwiki:Help:System_message|message key]].[[File:Main navigation edit element.png|alt=Enter a heading name|center|thumb|450x450px|Enter a heading name]]
-#'''Click''' Done.
-'''To add links:'''
-#'''Select''' ''Add new subitem''  from the dropdown menu of the menu header.[[File:Main navigation 1667828722138.png|alt=add a link|none|thumb|add a link as a new subitem]]
-#Enter the page name as the link target and the label that you want to show:[[File:Main navigation 1667828849101.png|alt=enter link info|none|thumb|enter link info]]
-#'''Click''' ''Done.''
-#'''Repeat''' steps 1-3.
-#'''Click''' ''Save changes''.
-{{Messagebox|boxtype=note|icon=|Note text=If you use the parser function <code><nowiki>{{#ifingroup:...</nowiki> </code> to display navigation elements in the source code, you must always edit the main navigation in the source code. In visual editing mode, saving removes any parser function or semantic queries.|bgcolor=}}
-==== Source edit mode ====
-'''To add new links:'''
-#'''Change''' to source editing mode.
-#'''Create''' one or more navigation links (with or without section heading).  The following example shows a link to the page "Company" with the label "Our company" and an external link to the BlueSpice website with the label "Website". The links are grouped together under the section heading "Quicklinks":<syntaxhighlight lang="text">
-*Quicklinks
-**Company|Our company
-**https//www.bluespice.com/de|Website
-</syntaxhighlight>
-#'''Save''' the page. The links are now shown in the main navigation.<br />
-<span class="ve-pasteProtect">Link labels may collide with system messages. If this is the case, simply append the HTML-code for an empty space to the description:</span><syntaxhighlight lang="text">
-**Portal|Portal&#160;
-</syntaxhighlight>
-=== Enhanced MediaWiki sidebar ===
-If you have enabled "Enhanced MediaWiki sidebar" in the configuration manager, you can create a hierarchical menu. Here, you edit the MediaWiki:Sidebar.json page. It has the basic functionality of the standard MediaWiki sidebar. But it also distinguishes between the following subelements (=node types):
-=== Internal Link ===
-Simply specify a link to a wiki page with an additional link label. Both the page name and label can be created using a parser function.
-=== External Link ===
-Identical to an internal link, but you must specify a full URL to an external website.
-=== Subpage tree ===
-You can specify the name of a page that has one or more sub-page levels. You can set the depth to 6 levels, with the parent page being the first level. This means that if you want to display the first level of the subpages, you would choose a depth of 2.
-{{Textbox|boxtype=important|header=|text=It is not possible to use the same label multiple times in different subpage trees, as this will break the display of the subpages.|icon=yes}}
-It is not possible to change the node type (=element type) after creation. Instead, create a new element as needed and delete the unwanted element.
-==== Visibility for groups ====
-You can also restrict the visibility of a menu item to specific wiki groups. Enter a comma-separated list of existing wiki groups in the "Show for groups" field.
-==== CSS classes====
+[[Manual:Extension/MenuEditor|View instructions on the menu editor help page.]]
-You can also apply CSS classes to any element to get custom style options. The styles must be defined in  ''MediaWiki:Common.css'' (knowledge of CSS required).
-==Additional customizations==
+{{Box Links-en
-*[[Manual:Extension/BlueSpiceDiscovery/Main navigation/Long link labels|Alignment for navigation with long link labels]]
+|Topic1=[[Manual:Extension/MenuEditor|Menu Editor]]
-*[[Manual:Extension/MenuEditor/Icons|Display icons with navigation links]]
+|Topic2=[[Manual:Extension/BlueSpiceDiscovery|Layout]]
-*[[Manual:Extension/BlueSpiceDiscovery/Main navigation/Language support|Multi-language navigation]]
+|Topic3=[[Manual:Extension/BlueSpiceDiscovery/Main navigation/Long link labels|Alignment for navigation with long link labels]]
+|Topic4=[[Manual:Extension/BlueSpiceDiscovery/Main navigation/Icons|Display icons with navigation links]]
+|Topic5=[[Manual:Extension/BlueSpiceDiscovery/Main navigation/Language support|Multi-language navigation]]}}
-{{Box Links-en|Topic1=[[Manual:Extension/BlueSpiceCustomMenu|Custom menu]]|Topic2=[[Manual:Extension/BlueSpiceUserSidebar|User menu]]}}
 [[Category:Administration]]
 [[Category:Customization]]