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

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@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-<bookshelf src="Book:Admin manual" />
+{{DISPLAYTITLE:Main navigation}}
-==How does the main navigation work?==
+==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, custom links can be added here. 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]].
-[[File:Manual:skin-discovery-hauptnavigation-EN.png|alt=Main navigation|center|thumb|402x402px|Main navigation]]
-==Adding links==
+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]].
+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]]
-'''To add new links:'''
+== 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.''
-#'''Open''' the page ''MediaWiki:Sidebar'' from the browser's address bar.
+== Choosing a menu type for the main navigation ==
-#'''Change''' to edit mode.
+In the configuration manager, you can choose between four menu settings:
-#'''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.
-{{Messagebox|boxtype=note|icon=|Note text=As soon as you have created at least one additional link, a direct edit link to the ''MediaWiki:Sidebar'' page is displayed when you move the mouse over such a link (see screenshot above).|bgcolor=}}
+* '''[[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.
-<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51)">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>
-==Deacivating standard links==
-The standard links can be deactivated in the  [[Manual:Extension/BlueSpiceConfigManager|configuration manager]]. The following settings are available under ''Feature > Skinning'':
+* '''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.
-BlueSpiceBookshelf:
+* '''[[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.
-* Show entrypoint "Bookshelf"
+== 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.
+[[File:Main navigation Getting started.png|alt=Getting Started menu with four default links|center|thumb|200x200px|Standard custom links in the main navigation]]
-BlueSpiceDiscovery:
+[[Manual:Extension/MenuEditor|View instructions on the menu editor help page.]]
-*Show entrypoint "Mainpage"
+{{Box Links-en
-*Show entrypoint "All pages"
+|Topic1=[[Manual:Extension/MenuEditor|Menu Editor]]
-*Show entrypoint "Recent changes"
+|Topic2=[[Manual:Extension/BlueSpiceDiscovery|Layout]]
+|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]]}}
-BlueSpiceSocial:
-*Show entrypoint "Timeline"
-BlueSpiceSocialBlog:
-*Show entrypoint "Blog"
-==Group-specific navigation==
-<span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51)">It is possible to show navigation elements for specific user groups only. Please note that the pipe symbol (|) between the page name and its label has to be escaped as</span> <code><nowiki>{{!}}</nowiki></code> <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51)">within this function.</span>
-This syntax is defined in the extension [[Reference:UserFunctions|UserFunctions]].<syntaxhighlight lang="text">
-{{#ifingroup:sysop,widgeteditor |
-*Test2
-**somepage{{!}}Some page
-|}}
-</syntaxhighlight>
-==Additional customizations==
-*[[Manual:Extension/BlueSpiceDiscovery/Main navigation/Icons|Display icons with navigation links]]
-*[[Manual:Extension/BlueSpiceDiscovery/Main navigation/Language support|Multi-language navigation]]
-<br />
 [[Category:Administration]]
 [[Category:Customization]]