Using multiple sidebar links to the Docs page

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nolo shares a setup for creating multiple sidebar links to the Docs page with various filters. The goal is to offer shortcuts to specific sections of the Docs page. However, simply using plain URLs with tags and categories can produce confusing and dead-end effects, such as intersecting filters and empty Docs pages.

To make multiple direct links work, nolo suggests including intersection parameters in each URL. If a link should not intersect, this must be stated explicitly. The correct format for URLs is:

  • docs?category=&tags=issue
  • docs?category=&tags=resource
  • docs?category=&tags=manual
  • docs?category=4&tags=
  • docs?category=2&tags=

This approach allows for functional and non-intersecting links to the Docs page.

1

Took me a while to figure this out in detail, so briefly sharing the setup how to make this work. The idea is to offer various shortcuts to the Docs page on a custom sidebar section. E.g. here I use three tag filters (issue, resource and manual) and I also added two category filters to the default categories General and Site Feedback:

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Now plain urls for these links would look like that:

/docs?tags=issue
/docs?tags=resource
/docs?tags=manual
/docs?category=4
/docs?category=2

Stating links like that will produce some some confusing and even dead-end effects though:

  • Links will replace tags for tags and categories for categories. But they will intersect tags and categories.
  • They will intersect filters that have no intersection. Then you will end up on an empty docs page stating “No Docs topics yet”.
  • There is no way to reset intersections, once both a tag and a category had been selected

:point_right:t4: So how to make multiple direct links to the Docs page work?

You have to give the url with intersection on every link. If the link should actually not intersect, you have to state that explicitly. E.g.:

docs?category=&tags=issue
docs?category=&tags=resource
docs?category=&tags=manual
docs?category=4&tags=
docs?category=2&tags=
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