side navigation using the menu proxy

[yonatanlehman]

I see there are some threads on this, but they started years ago before Madcap had side navigation, so I thought I'd open a new thread which will be fully up to date (for now...)

Problem:
I want a side navigation that works like the side navigation skin - but using a menu proxy in a master file and no skin (since my site provides the overall page wrapping)
Is this possible ?
I tried to set the skin of the menu proxy via the dialog - but it didn't show the side navigation skin (although it's there in the Skins folder).
I tried to force it to point to the side navigation skin by adding
data-mc-skin="/Project/Skins/HTML 5 Menu.flskn"
but that caused a run time error in the madcap javascript

has anyone solved this?
Thanks

[NorthEast]

A menu proxy can only use a menu component skin - you can't use a side nav skin with a menu proxy.

MadCap have not produced a menu proxy skin that works like the side nav, where you can expand/collapse items in the menu.

The threads that started years ago by myself and straygoat were discussing how to style a menu proxy to produce an accordion menu which can expand/collapse.
Since then, I've not seen any more posts or ideas on this subject.

[yonatanlehman]

Thanks, Dave
Can you suggest a way forward? What is the bottom line of the past thread? is it still valid today?

[NorthEast]

Thanks, Dave
Can you suggest a way forward? What is the bottom line of the past thread? is it still valid today?

It's hard to say because I don't know what layout you're trying to achieve with your site.

If it was me, I'd probably start by using the side nav skin, and then see if I could modify that output to fit the layout that I wanted.
The whole layout of the side nav skin is handled using a flex grid, so in theory shouldn't be too difficult to make some adjustments to the layout using CSS.

The old threads on customising the menu proxy to make an accordion menu are still valid. But the side nav skin now provides this type of control, which will be fine for most people that just need the simple layout provided by the side nav (i.e. a Tripane replacement without using frames). You'd probably only need to use the menu proxy approach if you need more flexibility - e.g. different position and layout, multiple menus, or need to specify different/particular TOCs.

[ArdisRamey]

If menu proxies truly cannot be used with the Side Navigation skin, what options are there for getting a list of headers (that don't need to accordion expand, rather simply display the list of headers or contain links to additional pages) opposite the Side Navigation panel?

[NorthEast]

If menu proxies truly cannot be used with the Side Navigation skin, what options are there for getting a list of headers (that don't need to accordion expand, rather simply display the list of headers or contain links to additional pages) opposite the Side Navigation panel?

Menu proxies can be used with side navigation.

Not sure you understood the thread above. My answer to the question was whether a side navigation skin can be used to with a menu proxy - and it can't, you need to use a menu skin to style a menu proxy.

[yonatanlehman]

. You'd probably only need to use the menu proxy approach if you need more flexibility - e.g. different position and layout, multiple menus, or need to specify different/particular TOCs.

That is indeed the case, My page is only part of a website, and the page "skin" (header/footer) comes from the website designers.
So I use a master file to put them in the proper place and then add in the side menu , topic menu, search and bread crumbs using the proxies.

The good news is that I managed to use Craigs/straygoats project to adapt my project to use the Foundation accordion menu.
I will write up here the additional changes I made to get it to work for me as soon as I get a chance.

[NorthEast]

. You'd probably only need to use the menu proxy approach if you need more flexibility - e.g. different position and layout, multiple menus, or need to specify different/particular TOCs.

That is indeed the case, My page is only part of a website, and the page "skin" (header/footer) comes from the website designers.
So I use a master file to put them in the proper place and then add in the side menu , topic menu, search and bread crumbs using the proxies.

The good news is that I managed to use Craigs/straygoats project to adapt my project to use the Foundation accordion menu.
I will write up here the additional changes I made to get it to work for me as soon as I get a chance.

One interesting thing that I did notice is that when you generate a HTML output using the top nav skin, the side nav navigation control is actually included in the output - it is hidden, but it appears to work!

To see it, try using developer tools and look for <div class="sidenav-wrapper"> - if you set this to display: block, you can see the side nav navigation control.

It might be an interesting shortcut to generate the accordion navigation control.