BindTuning Themes' Navigation Provider

We’ve replaced the native navigation provider for modern pages with our own. Our main goal with this change was to be able to provide additional functionality, flexibility and getting complete control over styling and structure so as to create a more robust solution than we were able to previously. We’ve exploited this advantage by refactoring our BindMENU 2.0 engine and including it in the package, along with a new UI to interact with it.

 

New and old: differences?

One of the first things you’ll notice is that the menu is now one of the first elements to load on the page. We’ve been focusing on performance for the past few months, replacing providers for the logo and page title. This change provided a noticeable difference in loading times and the new navigation provider is no different.

Our previous approach was to style the default SharePoint provider. Now, with a different source of navigation data, we’re able to provide an extended version of the default navigation items. We’ve added a “Recent Items” sub-menu, where we can find all the places recently visited and a “Recycle Bin” menu item that links us to our Site Collection’s recycle bin (available for Team Sites only). If you don’t need any of these new items, you can just turn them off in the panel.

Beyond this, we’ve added the ability to specify a term set to feed the navigation. You might have noticed that when a modern site inherits a parent navigation that is generated by a term set the results may be inconsistent. To get around this, we give you the ability to cut out the middle man and go straight for the raw term set. To do this, you will need to provide the Term Store ID and the Term Set ID. In the future we will add a convenient listing of all the available term sets, to make this process easier.

If you still prefer using the SharePoint provider, you can select the Legacy option on the panel and everything will be as it has been until now.

 

What new features were made available with this change?

If you’re using a BindTuning theme on Classic SharePoint you’re already using BindMENU 2.0. It’s been available for the past 2 years and we’re porting almost all of its functionality, with the exception of the quick launch settings, which for modern pages aren’t available due to the fact that it is against Microsoft’s good standards and practices to directly affect the quick launch in the Modern environment.

So, in practice, this means you can do things like:

  • Use mega menus
  • Fine tune fade-in sub-menu animations
  • Set sub-menu dimensions
  • Set the maximum number of mega menu columns
  • Limit the amount of first level menu items, grouping the remaining ones in their own sub-menu

 

How can I edit navigation items using the new provider?

Just the same as before. You’ll see an edit button at the end of the navigation which will open SharePoint’s default edit panel. If you’re using a term set navigation, this button will redirect you to the term store management page of your site collection;

Have more questions? Submit a request

Comments

BindTuning logo
Copyright Ⓒ 2021 Bind.
All rights reserved.
Privacy Policy
Cookie Policy
BindTuning
              Linkedin BindTuning Twitter BindTuning YouTube BindTuning Instagram BindTuning
              Facebook
Powered by Zendesk