Understanding the Default Breadcrumb Behavior

Breadcrumbs refer to the collective sequence of items that appear above the content area when you navigate to transaction pages or navigation pages. The breadcrumbs display the path you took to get to where you are—that is, the page you are on.

The PeopleSoft application dynamically generates the individual items in the breadcrumb list using the following criteria:

• The first item in the sequence is always the Main Menu.

• The intermediate items in the sequence are the names of each item that you click to access the resource; menu items and component names appear in the order that you click them.

• The last item in the sequence is:

  • The component label when you access a transaction page.

  • The folder label when you access a navigation page.

  • The WorkCenter or dashboard label when you access the WorkCenter or dashboard.

  • The value of the focus node when you access a SmartNavigation page.

Breadcrumbs can reveal both the navigational path to your current location and the hierarchical or parent-child relationships that exist among the items in the breadcrumb sequence.

The following example illustrates how breadcrumbs are constructed for a transaction page, and how those breadcrumbs are updated when you navigate to additional pages:

1. Access the User Profile page (select PeopleTools, Security, User Profiles, User Profiles).

   Image: Breadcrumb example on the User Profiles component

   The breadcrumbs display Main Menu > PeopleTools > Security > User Profiles > User Profiles as shown in this example:

   

2. Select a user profile—for example, PSADMIN.

3. Go to the Roles page.

   Note: No breadcrumb update occurs because the Roles page is within the User Profiles component.

4. Click the View Definition link for a specific role—for example, for PeopleSoft User.

   Image: Breadcrumb example after navigating to the Roles component

   The breadcrumbs are updated to append the new component at the end of the list. The breadcrumbs display Main Menu > PeopleTools > Security > User Profiles > User Profiles > Roles as shown in this example:

   

5. Go to the Permission Lists page.

   Note: No breadcrumb update occurs because the Permission Lists page is within the Roles component.

6. Click the View Definition link for a specific permission list—for example, for PTPT1000.

   Image: Breadcrumb example after navigating to the Permission Lists component

   The breadcrumbs are updated to append the new component at the end of the list. The breadcrumbs display Main Menu > PeopleTools > Security > User Profiles > User Profiles > Roles > Permission Lists as shown in this example:

   

7. Click Roles in the breadcrumbs.

   The breadcrumbs are updated to remove Permission Lists and display the role definition for the selected role.

See Navigating Breadcrumbs for more information on working with breadcrumbs. This topic includes a list of limitations on when the breadcrumbs are not updated.

However, there might be situations in which you do not want the default breadcrumb behavior—that is, to append the next item to the breadcrumb list. In these situations, you can use either of two methodologies to modify the default, PeopleTools breadcrumb behavior:

• Use the CreateBreadcrumb built-in function to append a breadcrumb element containing application-specific data to the user’s list of breadcrumbs. This function can be included in any PeopleCode event so an application-specific breadcrumb can be added whenever it is needed. See CreateBreadcrumb in PeopleTools: PeopleCode Language Reference for more information.

• Add content reference attributes to override the default breadcrumb behavior whenever the content reference is the target—that is, whenever it is navigated to. SeeOverriding Default Breadcrumbs Using Content Reference Attributes for more information.