Loading...
 
Skip to main content

Suggestions for improving autotoc (in-page navigation)

Status
Open
Subject
Suggestions for improving autotoc (in-page navigation)
Version
27.x
28.x
Category
  • Feature request
Feature
Wiki (page view, edit, history, rename, etc)
Resolution status
New
Submitted by
Gary Cunningham-Lee
Lastmod by
Gary Cunningham-Lee
Rating
(0)
Description

After checking out in-page navigation outside of Tiki and doing some searching for best practices, I'd like to make a few suggestions for improvement.

First of all, about the current situation of autotoc in master (to be Tiki 27), I came across these bugs, that I think are known already, plus some recommendations:

  • Autotoc plugin
    • Parameters don't work (bugs):
      • title (nothing displays)
      • levels (only the top level displays)
    • The terminology could be improved IMO (suggestions):
      • "inline" should be "sticky-top" or "fixed-top" . I think one of these would be more descriptive; I've always been kind of confused by "inline" here.
      • "activity" should be "active" . This would be a more standard term.


• Autotoc feature itself (suggestions for improvement):

    • No need for the page name to be a link as the page name/title is already elsewhere on the page. Presumably the first link of the page content is at the top of the content so the page name isn't needed for clicking in autotoc to get back to the page top.
    • Instead, autotoc should have a title like "On this page" to let readers know these aren't links to other pages. (Apparently people sometimes mistake in-page navigation links for links to outside the page.) When the title parameter bug is fixed, the page editor can add "On this page" manually, of course, but maybe it should be default text unless replaced,
    • The full list/outline of links should display on page load to give the reader an idea of the page content. I'm recommending this because of articles I came across saying how one main function of in-page navigation is to provide a complete outline of the page content.
    • Instead, currently in Tiki 26, only the top-level links display initially, and the display of subsection links seems kind of erratic. Actually I wonder if hiding and displaying lower-level links is needed. Maybe just keep them all visible all the time. See https://getbootstrap.com/docs/5.3/components/scrollspy/

.** If the autotoc is longer than the viewport height, then either make dropdowns for lower-level links like a vertical menu, so there are visual cues (dropdown arrows) that they are there, or put the whole nav in a div with overflow-y:scroll. But actually I think the whole thing should display, and the reader can scroll the page if the toc extends down out of sight.

Importance
8
Easy to solve?
5
Priority
40
Demonstrate Bug on Tiki 19+
Demonstrate Bug (older Tiki versions)
Ticket ID
8604
Created
Tuesday 12 March, 2024 13:22:51 UTC
by Gary Cunningham-Lee
LastModif
Tuesday 12 March, 2024 13:26:03 UTC


Show PHP error messages