|
Subwebs On The Quick Launch |
This Web Part has been burning a hole in my TODO list since I put out the beta bits to several dozen people on December 2, 2005 (in fact, I've was working on this solution since before TechEd 2005 and during PDC last year). I've gotten tons of positive feedback on this and my updated
Search Web Part and thus far I have no bug reports. I just haven't had the wherewithal to put the finishing touches that I personally want to add before releasing the Web Part (several desirable, if minor, enhancements are listed below). But, I must face the fact that I will not have time to individually implement all these enhancements myself. So, rather than waiting another few months before releasing this, I thought I would just post what I have and see if the community can help me complete this task. You can download the zipped Subwebs On The Quick Launch DWP from the
Mindsharp Premium Content page.
As I'm sure you know, navigation in SharePoint 2003 Team Sites (WSS Webs with a Quick Launch bar) is challenging. The biggest contributor to this challenge is the fact that the subwebs of a given Web are not intuitive to find. There are a half dozen ways to navigate to them but they all require at least two unintuitive clicks from the home page. Novice SharePoint users typically cannot find these subwebs, even moments after they create one. The navigation I like to use (least clicks and scrolling) is Site Settings > Manage sites and workspaces. From this page I can see a categorized list of all the immediate subwebs I have access to (one of the few things in WSS that is security trimmed).
So, I set about finding a way to put this list of subwebs on the home page where they can easily be discovered. I tried all sorts of approaches to this problem including AJAXian calls to SharePoint's own Web Services. But "no joy". Then, about a three quarters of a year ago I had an epiphany; since I always know the address of the page that does show the list I want to display, why not use a hidden iframe and just pull the pieces that I need out? It worked!
I wanted to add the subwebs to the Quick Launch bar in a way that would be intuitive and consistent with the links that are already there. Since everybody loves a choice, I gave the Subwebs On Quick Launch Web Part lots of options too. The default is a very basic, security trimmed, alphabetically sorted listing of the immediate subwebs. But you can choose to add sections, icons, tooltips, change the sort order; you can even add a menu I call "Down To" to the right of the "Up To" link on the top nav. These setting are managed by setting variables near the top of the embedded code. Also, I've tried to keep all the literals in variables so that Internationalization (I18N) and Localization (L10N) to another language should be relatively easy.
Here is the list of additional enhancements that I'd like to see made to this component followed by a few screen shots of the Web Part in action:
- Since this data doesn't change often, I'd like to implement a JavaScript call to just retrieve the HEAD of the page in the iframe. If the content length (stored in a cookie) is the same as it was before I'd like to just use the HTML previous generated (also stored in a cookie). Estimate: 3-6 hours.
- Add a SECTIONS_ONLY option: No subwebs would be shown, only section headers with links to the Manage Subwebs page.
- Add a LIMIT_DISPLAY_NUMBER option: After this many subwebs have been iterated, a More... link to the Manage Subwebs page would show. This would help where there are tons of Subwebs to a given parent Web.
- Add a SLIDE_QUICK_LAUNCH option: The top nav with the "Down To" menu would still show but the entire Quick Launch would be mostly hidden. It would just have the right edge showing and when the user placed their mouse over the edge, the entire Quick Launch would slide out long enough for the user to make a selection. However, if they moved their mouse off of the Quick Launch without making a selection, it would slide back to the left with just the right edge showing.
- Add a QUICK_LAUNCH_TOP_NAV option: Using the same technique I've used to place the subwebs into the "Down To" menu in the top nav; this option would take all five sections of the default Quick Launch and move them into the top nav (probably just under the Home link). The entire Quick Launch would then be hidden but all the options would still be available. I started this one so it might look something like this.
Please let me know if you are interested in helping me add any of these enhancements.
Remember, you can get your free copy of this Web Part from the Mindsharp Premium Content page.
What follows are some screenshots of the Web Part in action.
The basic modified Quick Launch:
The modified quick launch with a few options enabled:
The modified top nav Up To link with a "Down To" menu option:
The modified top nav Down To menu with a few options enabled:
What other features would you like to see added to this Web Part?
Get the Subwebs On the Quick Launch DWP and deploy it to one of your Team Sites (or Document Workspaces, it is not intended to work with SPS Areas - they have their own navigational scheme) to see what it is like. If you like what you see but want to use it more widely across your SharePoint farm, be sure to check out my Guidelines to Centralize SharePoint Style/Script Customizations.