Quick Nav
The Quick Nav appears at the top of the site, and allows you to have a space for custom links on every page of your site. It is a good place to include one, or a very small number of utility links.
Your determining question whether to use quick links or not is this:
Will a large number of my site visitors find it useful that this link / these links are here for them throughout the site?
If the answer is yes, follow the guidelines below.
Guidelines
To use the Quick Nav effectively, follow these guidelines.
- Only use Quick Links for useful and frequently accessed links. Otherwise, you will create content clutter.
- Quick Nav links should not take the place of main navigation pages.
- Quick Nav links should represent utilities or frequently used bookmarks.
- Do not use more than 5 Quick Links in total.
- Link text should not exceed 25 characters in length.
You have options to show a button each for "Navigate SBU" and "More Links". The former will show the SBU main navigation when clicked, and the latter will show the "kitchen sink" of Stony Brook utility links.
- Only use the "Navigate SBU" option where it makes sense in site heirarchy. For example, let's say your site is an Academic department, and we determine that users of your site have a possible content pathway to the main Academics pages. In this case, include the "Navigate SBU" option, so that users can quickly jump to the main SBU Academics page.
- Only use "More Links" where it is useful for your site audience to have access to the SBU utility links.
Configuring the Quick Nav
Settings for the Quick Nav are found in your site's config.pcf file.
QUICK NAV TYPE
Defines whether to show the Quick Nav, and if so, the type of Quick Nav to use.
You can choose to either use a default (Global) quicknav, which has a predefined list of links, or you can choose Site, which will allow you to customize the quicknav links for this site.
|
Option |
File Path |
Description |
|---|---|---|
|
Site |
/site/_includes/quick-nav.inc |
Can customize site-specific links |
|
Global |
/_resources/inc/quick-nav.inc |
Pre-defined, default SBU links |
Global
When Global is selected, defined list of links will be used. This list is maintained in the global quick-nav.inc file in a single place but can be used across many sites, as appropriate.
If you need to change any of these, you must use the Site option and create the list of links yourself.
Site
You can customize the links in this file:
→ /your-site/_includes/quick-nav.pcf
Use a standard list of links to set this up:
- Navigate to the /_includes/ folder of the site you are working on.
- Check out quick-nav.pcf, open Properties and update the list of links.
QUICK NAV DISPLAY MODE
You can have the Quick Nav display desktop only, mobile only, or always.
MORE LINKS
Defines if the More Links button should show in the Quick Nav.
Selecting Show will create a “More Links” button in the Quick Nav:
Note: these are not customizable. Either Show or Do not show.
NAVIGATE SBU
Defines if a button for the main SBU navigation should show in the quicknav.