Custom sidebar sections being tested on meta

[Lilly (Lillian)]

the Discourse team is amazing - the custom links will work for published public pages once the relevant pr fix is applied. great work.

[gormus (Osman Gormus)]

Feature request: Would it be possible to add another textfield to each row for the tooltip?

This would help with accessibility too.

[awesomerobot (Kris)]

Can you describe the case you had in mind for this? What kind of links are you thinking could use a longer description?

Also how would this be useful for accessibility purposes? In a case where someone is using a screen reader for example, they’d have just as much information about a link in the sidebar that a sighted user would.

[Luke_Cousins]

@mcwumbly

@tgxworld and @kris.kotlarek do you think there’s a straightforward fix to make here? Or is it something that you think might take a bit more of a deeper dive to chart out our desired path forward first?

We’re still having trouble with this. If there any chance this could be looked at? Thank you

[rahim123]

Hi there, lots of good progress thus far, but so far @shyguy’s sidebarMod: Add/Remove Sidebar Links and Sections is working better for my needs. Two limitations for me with the Discourse core solution:

It appears that custom permalinks aren’t accepted in custom sidebar links. For example, I have a custom permalink for /other-resources that leads to a topic like /t/bla-bla-bla-123 and I frequently refer users to it by copying the link from the sidebar, and I like the more manageable and memorable /other-resources permalink.

Another thing would be the possibility to have sections and/or individual links specifically for or hidden from anonymous users or users, similar to what is offered in sidebarMod: Add/Remove Sidebar Links and Sections and Navigation Menu (Sidebar) Modifier.

Thanks again.

[Firepup650 (Firepup Sixfifty)]

@rahim123

For example, I have a custom permalink for /other-resources that leads to a topic like /t/bla-bla-bla-123 and I frequently refer users to it by copying the link from the sidebar, and I like the more manageable and memorable /other-resources permalink.

As a temporary workaround, you could change the sidebar link to /t/../other-resources. This will match the format the sidebar expects, and it will still link to your other-resources page.

[pfaffman (Jay Pfaffman)]

@Firepup650

This will match the format the sidebar expects, and it will still link to your other-resources page

Have you tested this? Last I knew permalinks work only before ember loads and don’t work for internal links. I might have missed something, though.

[Firepup650 (Firepup Sixfifty)]

Just double checked, opening in a new tab is fine, but if you open the link in already loaded discourse (EX: sidebar), you have to refresh before it works. It does link correctly however.

[gormus (Osman Gormus)]

@awesomerobot

Can you describe the case you had in mind for this? What kind of links are you thinking could use a longer description?

For instance, the Review link… It already has a title value and I cannot change it as same as the icon, name and link.
Only via js.sidebar.sections.community.links.review.title variable in Customize > Text.

But if I want to specify a custom link, I cannot specify any title value, not even in Customize > Text area.

[Lilly (Lillian)]

ok i see now that the community header has been removed (as discussed in other places).

so how do admins edit that section of the navigation menu now?

[JammyDodger]

It’s now here:

I’m guessing some of your custom CSS may be hiding it from you.

[Lilly (Lillian)]

yes i hid that more section because i do not like it. ugh

i will need to remove that option from my TC as well.

[Lilly (Lillian)]

i don’t like this change because it takes away the css control of that more section and it also disables the collapsing functionality of that section in desktop view. i really like the collapsing sections feature for all the sections.

[mcwumbly (Dave McClure)]

More details about the change are over here in case others are looking for that topic: Maybe just remove the "Community" header in the sidebar? (A plea!)

If there’s more feedback about the change, let’s continue the discussion over there.

[Dante_Dante]

The new customization setting for (the community and more) is hidden, adds another layer of complexity, and not in ligne with the rest of the menu bar. You need to start to search where it is located.
The same problem is presented when it comes to the log out (people get confused when an essential component is hidden)

[awesomerobot (Kris)]

Yes, the inconsistency with the customize button location isn’t great. We’re still planning on further improvements to this.

[Dante_Dante]

@awesomerobot is there a possibility to bring back the “community” header and make it customizable too like it was before and give the user the choice to have it or not? because it is a drastic change of deleting it completely.

[Lilly (Lillian)]

it seems we have now lost the ability to collapse the Channels and Personal Chat sections in desktop view.

i was sort of hoping the collapsing sections features would appear in the mobile navigation menu but i think the dev team may be moving to phase out collapsing sections altogether?

[mcwumbly (Dave McClure)]

That smells like a bug to me.

Keeping the “main” section at the top in place is intentional. We don’t intend to bring back the collapsible heading there.

But we do not intend to remove the ability to collapse any of the other sections. We’ll get that fixed up soon.