Certain sites have sidebar navigation in their pages that list the navigation of the page structure in varying ways, usually located to the left of the page. This is accomplished with the Site Navigation Portlet, which unlike other Portlet types, is added to the Pageset (the overall layout of the site) instead of the content areas of a specific page.
Occasionally, a User may accidentally delete the Site Navigation Portlet, causing all Child pages (sub-pages) of the Home Page to lose their sidebar navigation. To replace this feature, use the following steps:
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Navigate to a Child page. Any page will do as long as the page’s layout includes the pageset space for a sidebar navigation. The homepage does not normally have this pageset space.
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Switch to Design Mode by clicking the toggle at the far left of the toolbar beside the words Design Mode.
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In the Sidebar Navigation Area (usually on the left of the page), click Add Portlet to pageset. If you do not see that link, then you must find another page to use, because this one will not work.
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In the next screen, you’ll need to select the Category and sub-Category in the Select a Category drop-down menus. Then, the list of Portlets will appear below, and you’ll need to check the box for the appropriate one.
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Choose Portlet Library for the first drop-down, and Content Management for the second.
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Then check the box for Site Navigation, which is the Portlet that you want to add here.
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Click the Update Page button to proceed.
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Back on the child page, you will now see that in the sidebar, there is a Site Navigation portlet, showing the locations of the pages for navigation purposes. You will also see this on any other child page that has room for a sidebar navigation.
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Keep in mind that this may look quite different from the example below, and it may look wrong to you, or not how you would like it to look. Proceed to the next step for more options.
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If you need to make changes to the pages that display in the navigation, or to the way that the Site Navigation Portlet looks, then while still on the child page, flip to Design Mode.
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Click the pencil icon in the Site Navigation Portlet.
There are two tabs on the next screen – Hierarchy and Look & Feel. You will be defaulted to Hierarchy. Here, you can select which pages appear in the navigation.
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Home Page, Current Page, and Child or Sibling Pages is a common setting (seen below), but you can check the boxes that you wish to have displayed.
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Parent Page: The page that is the direct ancestor of the current page. For example, if all the teacher pages of a school were published under the Staff Directory page, the Parent Page for those teacher pages would be the Staff Directory page.
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Sibling Page: A page that is available on the same hierarchical tier as your current page. Let’s continue the example used in the Parent Page above. If all the teacher pages are listed under the Staff Directory, then those teacher pages will be referenced as Sibling Pages to one another.
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Child Page: A subpage published under your current page. Therefore, in this scenario, all the teacher pages will be considered Child Pages in reference to the Staff Directory Page.
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Home Page: The topmost page of the site.
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Top-Level Pages: These are the pages that appear at the top of the horizontal menu on your site (with the exception of the home page).
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All Ancestors: In addition to showing the parent page of the current page, this option will also so the parent's parent page (i.e. the grandparent page), the great-grandparent page, etc).
If you want to further change the Portlet to display only what that User is allowed to view:
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Select the Only display pages the user can view (Read Privileges) checkbox.
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Once you have made all necessary changes, click Submit. The page you are on will briefly refresh. If you want to see the changes, you will have to manually navigate back to a child page.
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Click on the Look & Feel tab to modify the way that the Portlet looks if desired. Currently, the best and most common Style to choose here is Inside Nav 2015, as it works with most templates and when you choose to Hide Section on pages, it is the most successful at reflecting the changes regardless of site template. The other Styles may or may not function as needed, depending on your site templates/themes. Contact SchoolMessenger Solutions support if you have questions about this.
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Click Submit if you have made any changes. If you want to see the changes, you will need to manually navigate back to a child page.