Preventing Navigation Block from Opening Too Much | Moodle v.2.3.1

Preventing Navigation Block from Opening Too Much | Moodle v.2.3.1

by Francois Evans -
Number of replies: 9

I've a Moodle installation with quite a few courses.

When I navigate to a deep course, my Navigation menu automatically opens out vertically to list all courses at that level (the little triangle opens out). This tends to extend the height of my web page uncomfortably.

Is there a way of preventing the Navigation menu from opening up, or from opening up so far, when one clicks down to one of many, individual courses?

Thanks again for your help.

Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Francois Evans

Re: Preventing Navigation Block from Opening Too Much | Moodle v.2.3.1

by Itamar Tzadok -

I've developed a navigation block plugin that displays only the section links of the course. For my purposes I don't display the global navigation at all in the course level, and this block offers a convenient navigation between course sections. I'll release it in a few days.

Please vote for MDL-35655 which could make this plugin even simpler than it already is.

smile

Attachment sections_navigation.png
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Itamar Tzadok

Re: Preventing Navigation Block from Opening Too Much | Moodle v.2.3.1

by Francois Evans -

That would be great. - Have voted for you.

François.

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Francois Evans

Re: Preventing Navigation Block from Opening Too Much | Moodle v.2.3.1

by Itamar Tzadok -

An preliminary block should be available at  itamart/moodle-block_course_navigation. I've made it display only the sections. The configuration of the block allows you to set a hierarchy in the custom menu style

First section|sid
- Sub section|sid
-- Sub sub section|sid
Another section|sid
- etc.|sid
- etc.|sid

(the sid stands for the section id of each section in the list. Must not be removed)

The hierarchy can include any subset of the available sections in which case in subsequent editing of the block configuration the sections which are not included in the hierarchy are added below it "commented out"

First section
- Sub section
-- Sub sub section
Another section
- etc.
- etc.
# Section not in the hierarchy
# Another such section

You can also add non-section labels prefixed with l: (lowercase L + colon), with or without a link

l: Some label|http://some.link

anywhere in the hierarchy.

The hierarchy can be enabled/disabled by a setting in the configuration.

Two more settings allow you to apply changes to the section names and order from the block configuration.

Feedback would be appreciated. smile

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In reply to Itamar Tzadok

Re: Preventing Navigation Block from Opening Too Much | Moodle v.2.3.1

by Rosario Carcò -

Dear Itamar, as we developed similar things, we should perhaps distinguish things as follows:

  • siteNavigation: should be hierarchically constructed either with collapsible/expansible folders or triangles, to navigate the whole categories and course structure, as intended by my own siteNavigation. With admin-config-options you can specify whether users must have logged in or are allowed to navigate throught the whole site without login. On our site we want them to be able to look into every category without login, as we protect every course with a password, mainly to prevent search machines from indexing everything. This block is mainly useful on the FrontPage and can be docked or better opened in a popUp-Window so that it stays open and usable during the whole session independently from the course where the users are working.
  • courseNavigation: should be a flat list of quick-links to course-sections and important course-material, as proposed by your block and the built in navigation. I propose a flat list, so as to keep the block as short as possible. Again we could think about docking and displaying in its own popUp-window, so as not to force users to constantly scroll down und up to click on the links.
  • myCourses: to display the user's own courses to navigate from one course to another quickly. Again my own version offers Admin-Options to choose a flat or a hierarchical display with nested folders. In combination with siteNavigation (hierarchical view) this one can be left as flat list of course-links.
  • Finally everything could be combined into one and the same block. In this case I would suggest to focus on my popUp-Windows, so that navigation can stay open all the time. The only problem would be to make it display the course-navigation as soon as you jump from one course to another. I fear the only chance we have there would be to load the whole navigation of the user's myCourses in collapsible/expansible fashion. Otherwise the user would have to open the popUp-Window in every single course separately. In the latter case we would better offer a courseNavigation block, as you are doing.

Rosario

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In reply to Rosario Carcò

Re: Preventing Navigation Block from Opening Too Much | Moodle v.2.3.1

by Itamar Tzadok -

The point of the block I posted here is section hierarchy in the course. See illustration below. The hierarchy functionality is inherited from the site navigation by extension. A further point is to be able to reuse a general hierarchy functionality and display in a block a hierarchy from any module/component that provides it. Undoubtedly every possible extension could go into the configuration of one block. But it is not entirely clear that it would necessarily make the block more useful.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'my popUp-Windows'.

smile

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In reply to Itamar Tzadok

Re: Preventing Navigation Block from Opening Too Much | Moodle v.2.3.1

by Rosario Carcò -

Have a Look here on my test-server: https://moodle.test.fhnw.ch/, still 1.9

Depending on your browser-settings you will see the siteNavigation in a popUp-Window or in a separat Tab or Window.

Rosario

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Rosario Carcò

Re: Preventing Navigation Block from Opening Too Much | Moodle v.2.3.1

by Itamar Tzadok -

I'm not sure why a popup/separate tab/window is more usable than the standard collapsibility of the block or the docking (in Moodle 2). smile

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In reply to Itamar Tzadok

Re: Preventing Navigation Block from Opening Too Much | Moodle v.2.3.1

by Francois Evans -

Dear Itamar,

 

You say: 'I don't display the global navigation at all in the course level'. - Where in Moodle do you make that setting?

 

Thank you.

 

François.

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Francois Evans

Re: Preventing Navigation Block from Opening Too Much | Moodle v.2.3.1

by Rosario Carcò -

I developed my own myCourses and siteNavigation blocks for Moodle 1.9

Unfortunately I did not have time to reengineer them to be used in Moodle 2.x

But I will do it as soon as possible. To tailor I use admin-options you can set in the admin-config-section of the blocks.

Rosario

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