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RWD Navigation Sidebar Tab (Content Sub-tab)
The Navigation Sidebar is one of the most important features of the Rapid Web Designer. The ability to situate page-specific and other navigation links in a highly visible and constant area on a web page is elemental to good web design. The Navigation Sidebar controls in the RWDe Admin form give the RWDe Site Administrator the power to influence the style (format), as well as the content (the actual links) in all of the sites that are governed by that form.
1) Navigation Sidebar Broadcast Behavior
The functionality of the Broadcast control for the Navigation Sidebar links is identical to that of the Header/Footer Links Bars and the Information Sidebar although each may be set independently.
Unlike the Header/Footer Links bars, new links in the Navigation Sidebar appear below each other which means that the RWDe Administrator can add certain links to all pages in a site without fear of causing the links to appear too crowded (remember that new links on the Header Links bar appear beside each other and the width of the web page is not flexible, running the risk of having links crowd into each other). Also, because the Navigation Sidebar essentially encapsulates* links in groups, based on the Headline field, Global links set by the RWDe Administrator can be segregated from the local user's links.
* By encapsulation, we mean that each time RWD encounters a link where the Headline field is checked, it inserts a space before that link, effectively breaking the link away from the previous link. The next links will remain in the same group as the initial headline link until RWD encounters another Headline, where the group is broken and a new group starts.
2) Roll-Up Links into Headlines
RWD lets you hide links until a web user clicks on the Headline for the invisible group. Once clicked, the list of regular links 'rolls down' and becomes visible. This field has three options: 1) no collapsible menus 2) ONLY global links in the Nav Sidebar will have their regular links rolled up; local users pages will not share in the behavior of the administrator form when this option is selected 3) Force the behavior for all pages - everyone gets hidden links unless the web user clicks on a headline.
3) Header Links – Add, Remove, Insert Rows
These buttons allow you to manage the links that will appear in this section.
Add New Row: Creates a blank row after the last existing row
Remove Selected Row: Deletes the rows that is currently selected
Insert New Row: Creates a new row above the currently selected row. To Insert a row, click in the row below where you want the inserted row to appear and then click on the Insert New Row button.
Note: It may appear that the feature is functioning properly at when you insert rows at first but once you click into the other rows or close the RWD form and re-open it, the rows will appear properly.
4) Navigation Sidebar – Headline Checkbox
A Headline can be formatted differently than a regular link - a different font, background, color, etc. can be set to make it stand out. The Headline feature also separates groups of links - RWD will automatically separate and 'encapsulate' a group of links each time a link is found with the Headline field checked ON. See the image at right for an example of the grouping effect of links in the Navigation Sidebar based on the Headline setting. Some sites use only Headlines, some use no Headlines but most use both. This is entirely up to the user.
5) Navigation Sidebar – Display Text
The displayed text for the link should be kept to a reasonable length due to the limited width of the page and the fact that the Navigation Sidebar will automatically expand to fit the longest string of text.
6) Navigation Sidebar – Image Path / File Name
If desired, an image can be inserted into a row of the Navigation Sidebar instead of text. The image can link to some other place when clicked, just as a text link can. Be aware that the Navigation Sidebar will expand to fit whatever image is referred to so make sure that the original image, which will be uploaded to the user's site, should be pre-sized to the right pixel dimensions.
7) Navigation Sidebar – Link to URL
As in all other cases in the administrator form, links should be in the full internet syntax unless they are directed to objects that are in the local site. RWDe Site Administrator links should always use full syntax to avoid broken links.
8) Navigation Sidebar – Link Open Behavior
Some links (particularly links that lead to other web-sites) can be made to open in a new browser window so that the web user does not drift away from the core site. Other links can open in the same window.
9) Navigation Sidebar – Link Special Format
As in the Header / Footer Links Bars, The Navigation Sidebar contains a feature that creates a different kind of page when displaying FirstClass content such as Calendar items, Conference Items, Documents that are NOT web pages, etc. If the destination of the link is a FirstClass object, this control tells RWD to keep the Header Section, Navigation Sidebar, Header Links, Information Sidebar, etc. all in place and replace the Body content with the object that is being linked to. If linking to another Web page or a location within the existing page, select none. See table below for a description of all of the options and their use.
Select the appropriate item from the list to set the link to open the way you want:
Setting |
Purpose /Effect |
none |
The default value which is used for all links that are NOT FirstClass container objects (calendars, folders, conferences, etc) unless the conference or folder being opened contains a web page. Links to other pages in the site, markers in pages, or other, external websites should be set to none. This is BY FAR the most common setting |
FirstClass Object |
Use FirstClass Object to open folders or conferences in a list view. DO NOT use this setting to open a web page itself because this setting causes a frame to be created that is meant to be filled with FirstClass documents of messages. You could use this setting if you wanted to display an external website in the Page Body area of your RWD page however. DO NOT OPEN ANY LINKS WITH THIS SETTING IN A NEW WINDOW (leave checkbox unchecked) |
Calendar Monthly View |
Use this setting to open a calendar in a Month view inside a frame that will replace the page body content of the current page. Users can switch between views when viewing the calendar on the web. DO NOT OPEN ANY LINKS WITH THIS SETTING IN A NEW WINDOW (leave checkbox unchecked) |
Calendar Weekly View |
Use this setting to open a calendar in a Week view inside a frame that will replace the page body content of the current page. DO NOT OPEN ANY LINKS WITH THIS SETTING IN A NEW WINDOW (leave checkbox unchecked) |
Calendar Daily View |
Use this setting to open a calendar in a Month view inside a frame that will replace the page body content of the current page. DO NOT OPEN ANY LINKS WITH THIS SETTING IN A NEW WINDOW (leave checkbox unchecked) |
RWD Nav Left |
Almost exactly the same as the FirstClass Object setting, use this to open folders or conferences in a list view. The difference with this setting is that any subconferences or subfolders in the container being opened up will appear down the left side of the frame as opposed to at the top of the frame.
Again, DO NOT use this setting to open a web page itself because this setting causes a frame to be created that is meant to be filled with FirstClass documents of messages. You could use this setting if you wanted to display an external website in the Page Body area of your RWD page however. DO NOT OPEN ANY LINKS WITH THIS SETTING IN A NEW WINDOW (leave checkbox unchecked) |
RWD Nav Top |
This setting currently functions exactly in the same way as the FirstClass Object setting but may change a little in a future release of RWD. Essentially it is only slightly different than the RWD Nav Left setting because in the RWD Nav Top setting, subfolders and conferences and calendars are all listed horizontally above the list view of the conference being opened DO NOT OPEN ANY LINKS WITH THIS SETTING IN A NEW WINDOW (leave checkbox unchecked) |
FC Templates |
These templates access the full FirstClass templates. This link is generally only used with the '/login' link to enable you to allow users to log in to FirstClass without leaving your RWD site. Instead of opening a new browser window and effectively 'leaving' the RWD site, using this template produces the result that whatever object you open (folder, conference, calendar, or your FirstClass desktop) will open with the full FirstClass templates in a frame on the current page. DO NOT OPEN ANY LINKS WITH THIS SETTING IN A NEW
WINDOW (leave checkbox unchecked) |
FC Templates (600 px height) |
This setting may be required in some circumstances when the FirstClass Template being called contains active content (for example, a chat room) where some browsers will not display the window with appropriate height. Using this setting instead of FC Templates will force the framed window displaying the called template (or template set) to render at 600 pixels high - which is appropriate in most browsers for a good user experience. DO NOT OPEN ANY LINKS WITH THIS SETTING IN A NEW WINDOW (leave checkbox unchecked) |
Message Blog |
This setting displays the contents of a folder or conference in a Blog view. The container being opened must have the Preview feature activated to operate fully. DO NOT OPEN ANY LINKS WITH THIS SETTING IN A NEW WINDOW (leave checkbox unchecked) |
Fixed Height |
Similar to the FC Templates and RWD Nav left and Top settings, this setting forces the framed area to remain 600 pixels high, regardless of how many or how few items are in the conference or folder that you are opening. This rectifies a problem faced when a list of documents was opened with only a few items in the list. It also fixes the problem some users experienced when opening PDF or Word files inside the frame where the document would open in a very short window. DO NOT OPEN ANY LINKS WITH THIS SETTING IN A NEW WINDOW
(leave checkbox unchecked) |
Podcast |
FirstClass Podcasts have been added to the pickers in RWD and if you wish to have a link to a Podcast, use this setting as the special format for the link. DO NOT OPEN ANY LINKS WITH THIS SETTING IN A NEW WINDOW (leave checkbox unchecked) |
Embed Today's Events |
New in RWD version 3 is the ability to embed calendars and conferences or folders right in the Navigation Sidebar. This setting embeds a list view of a specific calendar (must be named in the Link To field) for today's events only. Clicking on the event will open the named calendar to that specific event. DO NOT OPEN ANY LINKS WITH THIS SETTING IN A NEW WINDOW (leave checkbox unchecked) |
Embed Monthly Calendar |
This setting embeds a Month view of a specific calendar (must be named in the Link To field) which will show days with events in them as bold. Hovering a mouse over any day with events in it will pop up a window showing the events for that day listed. Clicking on a specific event opens the calendar to that event and clicking anywhere other than on a specific event opens the calendar to that specific day. The Month Name and year will display as a Headline. DO NOT OPEN ANY LINKS WITH THIS SETTING IN A NEW WINDOW (leave checkbox
unchecked) |
Embed Container |
The content of conferences and folders can be displayed in the Navigation Sidebar as a list. The list will show up to the 6 most recent items (most recent at the top) but the Headline will indicate how many items are in the container. Hoving the mouse over any item will pop up a window with a preview of the underlying content and clicking on an item in the will open that item to display the whole contents of the document / message. DO NOT OPEN ANY LINKS WITH THIS SETTING IN A NEW WINDOW (leave checkbox unchecked) |
Embed Container Scrolling |
This is the same format as the Embed Container above except that it displays all items (not just the first 6) in the conference in a scrolling format. DO NOT OPEN ANY LINKS WITH THIS SETTING IN A NEW WINDOW (leave checkbox unchecked) |
Embed Custom Object |
DO NOT OPEN ANY LINKS WITH THIS SETTING IN A NEW WINDOW (leave checkbox unchecked) |
Insert a blank Row |
This creates a blank row in the Navigation Sidebar ONLY. The height of the blank row can be changed by putting the pixel size you want the space to be in the Display Text field of the form. If no value is entered, a regular return will be generated at the font size as dictated in the page builder form or the .sitepref form. Click on image at right for an example:  |
Super Important Feature!: Release 4.5 of RWD has a feature that is very useful.
The situation up until this release was that if a builder made a link to a calendar or conference or folder (an object) using the special formats above, the object would open up in a frame in the current page. While this was not a significant problem for end node sites such as a teacher site, it could be very confusing if the link was put in the RWD Site Administrators Form (.sitepref) where the link would appear on all pages. The confusing part is that a visitor to the website could be on a page that was called 'athletics' for example but if they clicked on a link to the district calendar or district news, these objects would just open up. Unless the web visitor was aware of what had happened, they might believe that, because the page name and title was 'Athletics', that they were looking at the Athletics News or
Athletics Calendar.
The remedy for this was some significantly complex code that had to be put in the Link field in the RWD form in order to take the web visitor to another page, say a page called 'Calendar' and then open the object.
Now the good news:
Using the new syntax, you can tell RWD to open an object (Calendar, Conference or folder) using any of the above special formats that are appropriate:
FirstClass Object
Calendar Monthly View
Calendar Weekly View
Calendar Daily View
RWD Nav Left
RWD Nav Top
FC Templates - use at your own risk - test lots
Message Blog
Fixed Height
Podcast
Syntax for opening an object on a different page than the current page:
Object path and name:Page path and name (Set one of the appropriate special formats above in the special format field)
Example: to open a monthly calendar called "District_Calendar", located in the root of the site in a special calendar title page called "Calendars", also in the root of the site, the syntax would be:
/District_Calendar:/Calendars (and the special format would be set to 'Calendar Monthly View')
In the RWD form (.sitepref or the page builder form, Navigation Sidebar or Header Links Bar), the link above would look like:
Navigation Sidebar Tab Shown in above example
Custom Plugin Embed Feature Explained
The following images (click to expand each image) demonstrate the use of the Embed Custom Object feature - the example below is a plugin we created for one of our portal sites in order to display the logged in user's name in the Navigation Sidebar.
RWD Navigation Sidebar Tab (Modify Colors and Fonts Sub-tab)
1) Navigation Sidebar – Section Background
The Navigation Sidebar can be formatted to have a different background than the rest of the web page if desired. Simply set the background color by selecting it from the color selection list.
2) Image Path / File Name
A tiled image can also serve as the background for the Navigation Sidebar. As always, the image must be uploaded to the images folder and correctly pathed. Remember that the RWDe Administrator needs to put the slash (/) character in front of the images folder name so that the local pages will look for the root images folder, not the local user's images folder.
3) Width
RWD allows you to set a fixed width for the Navigation Sidebar. This replaces the older method of uploading an image of the correct width and entering that image as the first rows of the Nav Sidebar, thereby 'punching out' the side of the Navigation Sidebar the size of the graphic in order to achieve a fixed width.
4) Navigation Sidebar - Padding
In order that graphics may be used more predictably in RWD, the Padding control allows you to predetermine the amount of space between the Navigation Sidebar and the object above it (depending on the Object layout of the Header section, this object could be the Banner Image, the Header Title Section, The Scrolling Message, or the Header Links Bar). If set to 0, the Navigation Sidebar will butt right up against the section above which will allow for graphics to appear to be continuous between these sections if desired.
5) Transparency Settings
 RWD allows for several options with regard to the formatting of the Navigation Sidebar. The options allow you to set any combination of the Headlines and Links backgrounds to transparent.
The default value in the field behaves exactly as RWD version 1 to ensure backward compatibility. New settings allow you to set the entire object to transparent which will result in your Headlines and Links appearing over top of either the Navigation Sidebar background color (item 1 above) or on top of the background image (see items 3-4 below). Alternatively, you may choose to make only one of either the Headlines or the Links backgrounds transparent.
6) Navigation Sidebar – Headline Format
As discussed in the content section, the Headline feature in the Navigation Sidebar is a very powerful formatting feature. Headlines can have attributes that are independent from the Regular Links. Use these controls to set the font, font attributes, background color etc. for the Headlines in your Navigation Sidebar.
7) Navigation Sidebar – Headline Bullet
While you can use a graphic for the entire row (Headline or Regular Link) in the Navigation sidebar, you can also just use a small image as a bullet for your Headline. Upload a small image (as high as your font in pixels, and not very wide) to your site and enter the path and filename of that image in this field. Remember that the Navigation Sidebar will expand to fit any image so make sure to pre-size your images.
Bullets can be used to cause text to be indented in the Navigation Sidebar by using a transparent image (.gif or .png) that does not appear on the page but moves text to the right.
8) Navigation Sidebar – Link Format
In exactly the same fashion as for Headlines, you can format Regular Links. Set the values you want in these controls.
9) Navigation Sidebar – Link Bullet
Regular Links can have a graphical bullet precede them as well as Headlines. Enter the path and file name here. See 7) above for more information.
10) Navigation Sidebar – Hover Format
Most web browsers support the functionality that 'knows' where your mouse cursor is on the screen. RWD supports a different formatting of the font in both Headlines and Regular Links when the web user's mouse cursor is resting on top of a link. Hover Links font color will show itself in both Headlines and Regular Links, but the font size attribute only affects the Regular links. Using a different font size than the Regular Link font size can achieve interesting effects but is not generally advised since it often makes the page 'jump' as objects on the page quickly re-arrange themselves to accommodate the change in size of the Navigation Sidebar (remember that the Nav Sidebar re-sizes itself to fit the widest object on it). Note: you can avoid a jumpy page in this scenario by inserting
a graphic in one of the rows of the Navigation sidebar that is wider (in pixels) than the widest text link will be at the largest font setting.
In RWD 2 you can also set the background of Headlines and Links to change when the link is hovered over (provided you have not set these areas to be transparent in (5) above.
11) Navigation Sidebar – Visited Links Format
When users click on links in your pages, the browser can remember which links have been and have not been visited in the current web session. Use these controls to change the attributes of the text links that have been visited.
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