Showing Sections in the Site Navigation

Site Studio converts each section in the site hierarchy into a hyperlink on a navigation menu (created by a navigation fragment) on your site. This is done automatically when you include a section in the site navigation.

By default, new sections are not included in the site navigation and therefore are not automatically added as links to the Web site. In the Site Hierarchy pane, the sections with the blank folder icon (Figure) are not included in the site navigation, and the sections with the colored folder icon (Figure) are included in the site navigation.

Blank Folders - Not Included in SIte Navigation

Colored Folders - Included in SIte Navigation

To show a section in the site navigation, perform these tasks:

1. In the Site Hierarchy pane, right-click the desired section and click Include Section in Navigation.

2. Click the Update Navigation icon (Figure) on the Site toolbar to add a link to this section in the site navigation.

Update Navigation icon

You can also update the site navigation by clicking Yes when prompted to regenerate the navigation.js file when previewing a page template.

You can also specify whether a section is included in the site navigation by using the Properties pane (see Viewing and Editing Web Site and Section Properties).

Some navigation fragments in the Toolbox were designed to show only second or third-level sections in the hierarchy (for example, see Nav Plain Vertical). If you use one of these fragments but do not have a hierarchy two or three levels deep, you may not see your sections in the navigation menu.

Reasons You May Not Want a Section in Your Site Navigation

There are a few reasons why you wouldn't include a section in your site navigation. Here are a few examples:

• When adding a search feature to your site, you must add a search box (see Search Box Plain) to your page templates, and you must designate a search results page template, which contains the search results (see Search Result Plain). The search results page should be in a section that is not included in your site navigation; otherwise, users would be able to click a link in your site navigation and go directly to the search results page, which would be empty.

• When creating a custom error page, you create a section in the site hierarchy that serves as a custom error handler (see Designating a Section as an Error Handler). Then you create a page template in that section that displays the custom error message. This section should not be included in the site navigation because users would be able to click a link in your site navigation and go directly to the custom error page, which wouldn't make sense to the user.

• When introducing new features or page templates, you may choose to put them in a section that is not included in the site navigation so that others do not see your unfinished work. You can continue testing them until the features or page template and related site assets are ready. Then you can include that section in the site navigation.

As an alternative to not including a section in the site navigation, you can create a contributor-only section so that the section displays only in contribution mode.