XF 2.1 Adding New Navigation / Forum List

[JDobbsy1987]

Hi,

How do i add a new navigation that would show different forum categories/nodes?

I created a new top level navigation tab but when i click on it i dont know how to get new forums to show in there.

Regards,
Jamie

 

[xydrine]

Are you talking about the navigation menu at the top of the forum, like:



You basically want to have a few items such as categories/sections in there show up (as opposed to the chat-related items in the above screenshot - this was just an example)? Is that what you mean?

There's also something like this:



^ The above is a premium addon which is pretty damn cool might I add, available here: https://www.customizexf.com/resources/cxf-mega-menu.84/

But, if you are talking about something like the first example, let us know some details of what you would like to do with it (i.e. do you want ALL categories/sections/etc to show up there, automatically, or just a few items as specified by you) and I'm sure we'll be able to help you out with some instructions to do that.

Depending again on what you want to do, there are also alternatives like having a list of nodes inside a widget such as with this addon: https://xenforo.com/community/resources/xenbros-node-list-sidebar-widget.6977/

 

[JDobbsy1987]

Thank you for your reply, i think i need the top option more.

The top bar to show "IT Service Desk" which i have


But then i'm not too sure about the required fields here:



I did originally put

{{ link('service-desk') }}

in the Link field but not sure if thats right? i just guessed from an existing nav menu format but when i click the link i get this:



I guess because /service-desk doesn't actually exist.

I want that page so show specific nodes (i.e. i want some forums on this page but not the main forums page).

Regards,
Jamie

 

[xydrine]

Sure thing!

Okay, gotcha.

So what you want to do is... for example, here's how my Chat navigation tab is setup:



The screenshot I posted in my previous post is what the above settingswould look like if you view it on the live forum, obviously.

You are close - basically, what you want to do is something like this:



Be sure to select "IT Service Desk" for your parent navigation entry, and configure the other options where the red arrows above are. The main takeaway is to select the Node as the type, and then in the new list that appears, select under "Node:" whatever section/node/whatever that you want to display in the dropdown menu.

You can play around with the other settings (i.e. the other checkboxes shown above) depending on how many categories/subcategories/subnodes/etc you want to show for that specific dropdown as well.

Is that what you're looking for?

 

[JDobbsy1987]

Thank you for your help but still struggling with the parent sorry, the parent navigation shows "IT Service desk" but when i click it i get


How do i configure the parent to show a valid page with another set of forums?

I already have a forum category and forum ready to show on the new page



Sorry if im missing something really simple.

 

[xydrine]

It's no problem!

Can you show me a screenshot of the navigation tab entry you have that generated those entries - i.e. the page similar to my red arrows screenshot - the child entry for your "IT Service Desk" entry?

Also if you don't mind linking your forum URL (if it's public) that would be helpful too.

 

[JDobbsy1987]

Unfortunately the forum is restricted by IP as it's an internal forum, i appreciate your help.

This is the parent navigation which i am linking to the General IT Support category which has a sub forum called "Incidents"


I told a lie early sorry, with the above setup, when i click IT Service Desk in the navigation it goes to /#general-it-support.61 but just displays the main forum page.




If i click Incidents then it takes me to a valid pages and highlights the IT Service Desk navigation




But i would expect when clicking IT Service Desk for it to take me to a page showing Just that one category and forum and that category/forum not show under the main Forums.

 

[xydrine]

That's interesting. Let me create a test navigation tab on my forum and see what behavior it does - looking at your settings it should operate properly. Will post back shortly.

 

[JDobbsy1987]

Much appreciated

 

[xydrine]

Okay, I just tested this on our forum and it works properly.



The above points to our "General" category node and the main tab works as well as all child nodes when using the tab.

I am actually wondering if it has something to do with the way you have your URLs setup (or with how your server handles URL anchors)... it looks like the URL you gave as an example which resulted in the 404 "oops" page is trying to visit an HTML anchor instead of the node itself.

Can you right click the "IT Service Desk" nav tab and copy/paste the URL for it (you can strip out the IP, just leave everything else in it - but, do the right click copy/paste method, not by clicking the nav tab and copy/pasting the resulting URL from your browser URL bar)...

...and can you also visit the actual "General IT Support" category... actually, scratch that. Let's try something.

Can you go to your admin panel, then Options -> Node & forum list... then the bottom option where it says "Create pages for categories" - check this box and save.

Then refresh your forum main page try clicking the navigation tab for IT Service Desk again. Does that result in it working properly?

That will help me debug what I was talking about above regarding HTML anchors.

 

[JDobbsy1987]

Can you go to your admin panel, then Options -> Node & forum list... then the bottom option where it says "Create pages for categories" - check this box and save.

This was it thank you! i didn't have this checked.

Thank you so much for your help!

Regards,
Jamie

 

[xydrine]

This was it thank you! i didn't have this checked.

Thank you so much for your help!

Regards,
Jamie

Sweet, yeah that option basically just changes how categories get their own page instead of the HTML anchor stuff when it is unchecked, which would require slight modification of the URL strategy (probably best handled using an addon/some setting I don't recall off the top of my head that may or may not exist/or using .htaccess or server redirection strategy).

Let me know if you need a hand with anything else regarding this.