919065 - Enable writers to specify that a nav section should be open by default.

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(developer.mozilla.org Graveyard :: General, defect)

Description

[Will Bamberg [:wbamberg]]

What problems would this solve?
===============================
For important pages that are likely to be useful to lots of people, I'd like users to be able to reach them in one click from the landing page. For example, I'd like the reference pages for developer tools (for example, https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Tools/Page_Inspector) to be reachable in one click from the landing page.

It would make sense, I think, to have a section in the navbar like "Reference", that contains links to these pages (alongside other items like, perhaps, "Tutorials" and "Screencasts") and I'd like a way to specify that this section should be open by default. Then the initial navbar appearance could be like this:

* Tutorials
* Screencasts
* Reference
  ** Inspector
  ** Debugger
  ** ...

I could replicate this structure on every page, then a user would only need 1 click to get to the reference, wherever they are, and they wouldn't have to go hunting around inside menus.

Who would use this?
===================
Users.

What would users see?
=====================
navbar, or quick links, like this:

* Tutorials
* Screencasts
* Reference
  ** Inspector
  ** Debugger
  ** ...

rather than this:

* Tutorials
* Screencasts
* Reference


What would users do? What would happen as a result?
===================================================
Users would know where to find a reference page for a particular tool.

Is there anything else we should know?
======================================

Comment 1

[Will Bamberg [:wbamberg]]

This bug needs to be fixed before we can finish porting the SDK docs to the MDN wiki.

Comment 2

[David Walsh :davidwalsh]

Would it be reasonable to ask you to add a "data-default='true'" on a main item?  If you'll do that, I can make this happen as soon as Monday.

Comment 3

[Will Bamberg [:wbamberg]]

Yes, I'm pretty sure that would be perfect!

Comment 4

[Florian Scholz (Open Web Docs)]

(In reply to David Walsh :davidwalsh from comment #2)
> Would it be reasonable to ask you to add a "data-default='true'" on a main
> item?  If you'll do that, I can make this happen as soon as Monday.

I've added the attribute in the JSRef macro now:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Template:JSRef

In action:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Number

Comment 5

[Jean-Yves Perrier [:teoli]]

Though we often want them open by default, we also have cases where we don't want this to be done. Example: the whole CSS Reference at the bottom of the CSS Quick links should be, so we must be able to toggle the default (with a class for example) E.g. no class = open, class="closed" closed by default.

Comment 6

[Jean-Yves Perrier [:teoli]]

I don't think we should block the launch with this, unless the SDK is required (but I don't think so). But it is something we really want.

Will can you confirm? Before I hand this out to Ali for the decision (on blocking).

Comment 7

[Will Bamberg [:wbamberg]]

Jean-Yves: I can confirm that this is a blocker for

Comment 8

[Will Bamberg [:wbamberg]]

... the SDK docs to be added to MDN.

I don't think the SDK docs being in MDN is a blocker for the redesign launch. So I'm basically neutral on whether this should be a redesign launch blocker.

But I really want to get the SDK docs into MDN, so it's important to me all the same.

Comment 9

[Jean-Yves Perrier [:teoli]]

David, would it be technically possible (in a reasonable amount of time) to:
- have quicklinks folders opened by default
- have a folder closed by default if it has a specific class (so that writers can control it)

Also adding habber for feedback here.

Comment 10

[David Walsh :davidwalsh]

As I suggested above, adding the following to a menu item would allow me to know if I should automagically open it:

data-default='true'

I'm up for other ideas though.

Are we trying to do the exact same thing as the subnav though, where we try to match the current page URL with the the link in the quick links?

Anyways, tell me what to do and I'll do it.

Comment 11

[Jean-Yves Perrier [:teoli]]

David, a data- attribute looks good to me.

I would prefer data-default-state="open" (with a closed state if not present). The name change would allow to have other default in the future (we never know, though I have nothing in mind). The default for open is that most of the time we want them open, as they are quicklinks.

David: could you confirm this, so that I can put [impl-ready] in the whiteboard, if holly approves?

Ali: I think this is not a hard-blocker, but we should block because we are close to be implementation ready and David is efficient enough to be able to fix this quickly, making it a low-hanging fruit. The benefits of having this is big for writers.

Adding dev-doc-needed as this will be needed to be documented in the Project:MDN zone (or whatever it will be called)

Comment 12

[David Walsh :davidwalsh]

"data-default-state" works for me.

Comment 13

[ali spivak]

Agree with this being a launch blocker

Comment 14

[David Walsh :davidwalsh]

So this needs to be done within both the "Quick Links" and the Zone subnav?  Just want to be sure.

Comment 15

[Will Bamberg [:wbamberg]]

For the SDK, no, because the SDK docs live inside the Add-ons zone and aren't themselves a zone. But I think it would be a useful thing t have in the Zone subnav too.

Comment 16

[Florian Scholz (Open Web Docs)]

This would be extremely useful for both. I really look forward to have this in my JS reference quick links navigation, too.

Comment 17

[Jean-Yves Perrier [:teoli]]

For Quicklinks, definitively. I've not used zone nav for the moment, so I'm not 100% sure there.

Comment 18

[David Walsh :davidwalsh]

Lastly, do you want to add `data-default-state="open"` to the A element or the LI element for the menu toggle?

Comment 19

[Eric Shepherd [:sheppy]]

(In reply to Jean-Yves Perrier [:teoli] from comment #17)
> For Quicklinks, definitively. I've not used zone nav for the moment, so I'm
> not 100% sure there.

It would definitely be useful for both, but right now I find it more urgent for quicklinks (if we have to treat them as separate jobs).

I think putting the info on the <li> would be more convenient. But we'll have to add UI for this eventually anyway.

Comment 20

[Jean-Yves Perrier [:teoli]]

I have no strong feelings about <a> and <li>. I just note that, in JSRef, Florian put it on the <a>, but this is easy to fix). I think <li> would be better (as we are not sure to want an <a> there)

Comment 21

[[github robot]]

Commits pushed to master at https://github.com/mozilla/kuma

https://github.com/mozilla/kuma/commit/d8a5b82b1ca4234f0660b3ef69e7f99b98697584
fix bug 919065 - Allow attribute for auto-opening a quicklink menu

https://github.com/mozilla/kuma/commit/4b0041060385dc4ddee9314a897142bc5831a7b5
Merge pull request #1634 from darkwing/default-open-919065

fix bug 919065 - Allow attribute for auto-opening a quicklink menu