Using the Discourse sidebar

[Discourse]

This is a comprehensive guide explaining the various features and functionalities of the Discourse sidebar, including how to customize it for your needs.

Required user level: All users

The sidebar in Discourse provides quick access to various forum features and allows for easy navigation. This guide will walk you through the different sections of the sidebar and how to use them effectively.

Community section

The community section contains essential navigation links. It is divided into primary links shown directly, and secondary links accessible under More.

Primary links:

• Topics: Shows the latest posts on your forum.
• My Posts: Takes you to your activity page. When you have drafts, this link dynamically changes to show “My Drafts” and takes you to your drafts instead.
• My Messages: Takes you to your personal messages (visible if you can send private messages).
• Invite: Allows you to quickly invite others to the forum (visible if you have permission to invite).

Staff members will also see Review (for moderation) and Admin (for site management) options.

Secondary links (under More):

• Users: Shows the user directory.
• About: Provides information about your forum.
• FAQ: Links to your forum’s FAQ page.
• Groups: Takes you to the groups page.
• Badges: Displays the badge gallery.
• Filter: Opens the advanced topic filter page.

Administrators can customize the community section by clicking More and then Customize this section to add, remove, or reorder links for all users.

There may be additional buttons if you have plugins installed. For example, if you have Cakeday installed on your forum, Anniversaries and Birthdays will appear in your sidebar.

Categories and tags

This section displays categories and tags for easy access. To customize:

1. Click on the pencil icon next to the section header to edit your categories or tags.
2. Use the modal to add or remove categories and tags.
3. Click on All categories or All tags to view the complete list.

Administrators can set which categories and tags appear by default for all users via the default navigation menu categories and default navigation menu tags site settings.

Chat

If your forum has Chat enabled, Chat appears as a separate panel in the sidebar. You can switch between the main forum panel and the Chat panel using the panel switcher buttons.

The Chat panel includes:

• My Threads: View threads you’re participating in
• Starred Channels: Quick access to channels you’ve starred
• Channels: Browse and access public chat channels (if enabled)
• Direct Messages: Access your personal chats

To start a new direct message, click the + button in the Direct Messages section.

Customizing your sidebar

You can adjust how navigation items behave in your user preferences:

1. Go to your user preferences.
2. Find the Navigation Menu section.
3. Adjust settings for how new and unread topics are displayed (link to filtered list, show count of new items).

To customize which categories and tags appear in your sidebar, use the pencil icon directly on the Categories or Tags sections in the sidebar itself.

Creating custom sidebar sections

To add a custom section:

1. Click the + button at the bottom of the sidebar.
2. In the modal, customize the icon, name, and links for your new section.

This feature allows you to create personalized navigation options to improve your productivity. Administrators can also create global sidebar sections visible to all forum members by toggling the Public option when creating a section.

Mobile access

To open the sidebar on mobile devices, tap the hamburger menu icon in the top right corner, next to your profile picture.

Additional notes

• The sidebar layout and available options may vary depending on your forum’s settings and installed plugins.
• Administrators can customize the community section links for all users and create global sidebar sections.

This document was originally written by @twofoursixeight.

Last edited by @lindsey 2025-01-17T12:57:19Z

Last checked by @hugh 2024-10-29T00:35:45Z

Check document

Perform check on document:

[twofoursixeight]

I’ve just noticed a brand new sidebar, and some changes to the sidebar here on Meta. The guide uses an older version of the sidebar.

[Firepup650 (Firepup Sixfifty)]

@twofoursixeight

That’s the experiment one:

New sidebar experiment (Sidebar Feng Shui)

We are running an experiment on meta that applies some tweaks to the sidebar design to create a more spacious and serene layout. By increasing the spacing between elements, and optimising padding and margins, we’re aiming for a cleaner and more organised appearance, however at the cost of more elements potentially disappearing beneath the fold. Before [image] After [CleanShot 2024-08-07 at 11.53.46@2x] Nothing functional has changed, only visually you might need a minute to adjust.

@twofoursixeight

That’s the documentation sidebar:

Better documentation navigation with a new sidebar

This week, we published a significant improvement to Discourse documentation - a new sidebar! This feature is designed to make navigating and accessing our documentation easier and more intuitive than ever before. What’s new? The new sidebar shows up on all documentation categories and topics, making it easier to navigate their content. Here’s what you can expect: Improved navigation: With a clear, hierarchical structure, moving between different topics is now faster and more straigh…

[twofoursixeight]

Interesting, can’t wait to see more changes to the forum being made and how this forum becomes more and more modern by the day.

[pHneutre]

Things must have changed because there is no sidebar tab in my user Preferences. Instead there’s navigation menu and it doesn’t allow me to customize the side bar, the only options available are:

Navigation

When a topic list in the navigation menu has new or unread items…
Link to the filtered list
Show a count of the new items

• How can a user customize the sidebar now?
• Is there a way to customize the sidebar’s first part (Topics, My posts…)?
• Is there a way to customize the sidebar at an admin level for everyone?

[Lilly]

navigation menu is the sidebar

[Moin]

@pHneutre

How can a user customize the sidebar now?

By using the edit buttons at the sections and the + to add a custom section.

@pHneutre

Is there a way to customize the sidebar’s first part (Topics, My posts…)?

Admins can add and remove links by clicking “more” and “customize this section.”

@pHneutre

Is there a way to customize the sidebar at an admin level for everyone?

Changing the first section changes it for everyone. When you create a new section, you can choose to show it for everyone. The default tags and categories can be configured in the site settings. You can search for default navigation menu to find them.

[markschmucker (Mark S)]

The sidebar on meta seems to be context-sensitive, for example if I’m in an AI topic, other admin or AI links are shown in the sidebar. I don’t see how to configure this. Is it experimental?

[Overgrow]

That’s a sidebar for documentation:

Better documentation navigation with a new sidebar

This week, we published a significant improvement to Discourse documentation - a new sidebar! This feature is designed to make navigating and accessing our documentation easier and more intuitive than ever before. What’s new? The new sidebar shows up on all documentation categories and topics, making it easier to navigate their content. Here’s what you can expect: Improved navigation: With a clear, hierarchical structure, moving between different topics is now faster and more straigh…

[Moin]

@Discourse

My Drafts: Displays dynamically when you have a draft topic or reply.

After latest updates on 01/18/2025, "My Posts" menu option missing in left panel

We have restored the sidebar link for “My Posts” back to how it was previously: https://github.com/discourse/discourse/commit/294ed87a6f5548ab031d31b85e4f559dcc8c8cdb If you have added any additional custom links as a workaround to access the “My Posts” page, such as /my/activity/ (ie. with the trailing slash) then you may want to remove the custom url to prevent duplicate links.

[twofoursixeight]

There’s been more changes lately to the sidebar, that I wish to address, these include the “My messages” button which takes you to your messages, and an Invite button used to quickly invite others? (Upcoming events and docs are part of plugins.)

This also includes the 2024 redesign of the sidebar.

On Meta, there’s also a filter button and a button taking you to your drafts.

I forgot to mention the Messages section was replaced by the trusty “My messages” button on the top of the sidebar, this is what it used to look like:

Now it’s just this:

[NateDhaliwal]

@Discourse

Customizing your sidebar

You can personalize your sidebar experience:

1. Go to your user preferences.
2. Find the “Sidebar” section.
3. Adjust settings for categories, tags, and how new posts are displayed.

This doesn’t seem to exist anymore; the guide should probably be updated.

[Iury_Batista_Araujo]

Hello everyone

I’m customizing my Discourse forum and noticed that the sidebar appears open by default whenever a user accesses the page.

What I’d like is for the sidebar to be closed by default and only appear when the user clicks the hamburger icon.

What I’ve already tried

• I’ve adjusted user preferences and theme settings related to the sidebar.

• I’ve tried using CSS (display: none) and JavaScript (onclick on the hamburger button).

• The sidebar does hide, but I haven’t been able to integrate it in a way that works like Discourse’s native behavior (opening/closing without breaking the layout).

[Jagster (Jakke Flemming)]

Mine here, and in every forum I use, is always closed. It should remeber its state. Saved in a cookie, I guess.

But if you force them use mobile layout, it is always closed.

I don’t totally understand why you wouldn`t let users decide what they want.

[Moin]

In this topic Can I default to a hidden sidebar? a theme component was shared that closes the sidebar by default. It was created 2 years ago, so I don’t know if it still works but you could try. Even if it no longer works, it may be helpful to take a look at the approach.

GitHub - VaperinaDEV/closed-sidebar-by-default