Table of Contents
Overview
Topbar
Sidebar
Creating and Editing Navigations (Admins Only)
Setting Navigation to Appear in Public Catalog
Publishing Pages
Overview
In Coursedog’s Online Catalogs, there are two types of navigations you can create: Topbar and sidebar.
In addition to appearing in two different places on your page, one key difference between a Topbar and a Sidebar is that a sidebar can have groups that contain multiple pages, while a topbar can only link to specific pages.
Topbar
Contemporary Catalog
In a Contemporary Catalog, the topbar is the navigation bar at the very top of your catalog’s public site.
This is typically used for external links to other websites for your institution (e.g. admissions, visit, tuition & aid, etc.).
Standard Catalog
In a Standard Catalog, this is the navigation that’s at the top of your catalog.
Sidebar
Contemporary Catalog
In Contemporary Catalog, what’s called the “sidebar” in the builder is the Primary Navigation in your catalog’s public site.
This is the navigation that’s immediately under the topbar.
This is what drives navigation and PDF order.
Standard Catalog
In a Standard Catalog, the sidebar is the navigation on the left or right side of your catalog.
Creating and Editing Navigations (Admins Only)
Step 1:
To edit the navigation panel, navigate to Catalog > Navigation.
This brings you to a list of navigations that you can edit and assign to a catalog.
Step 2:
Click “New Navigation List” to make a new navigation or select one of the navigations in the list to make changes.
This takes you to a page where you can customize the navigation panel that will appear in the public catalog.
Step 3:
Each navigation must be assigned a "Catalog Scope" that indicates the catalog from which pages should be linked.
Even if two catalogs contain identical pages, it is necessary to specify a different catalog scope for each of their associated navigations.
If the "2020 catalog" is associated with a navigation that has an assigned scope of "2019 catalog" then edits made on the 2019 catalog's pages will appear on the 2020 catalog's website, but changes to the 2020 catalog pages will not.
Below you’ll see an example of a navigation editor for a Sidebar. This looks almost identical to that of a Topbar, except a Topbar won’t show “New Group” under New Links.
Step 4:
Decide which elements you would like to add.
There are multiple different elements to choose from, categorized as either “New Links” or “Pre-built links”.
New Links
New Group – A dropdown that contains other links or groups.
New Internal Link – Links directly to one of the pages built in Coursedog’s Catalog Page Editor.
New External Link – Links directly to a defined URL.
Pre-built Links
Pre-built link options include:
HOME – Your designated homepage.
COURSES – If you are also using Coursedog’s Curriculum tool, this will be an interactive page allowing users to easily find the courses your institution offers.
DEPARTMENTS – If you are also using Coursedog’s Curriculum tool, this will be an interactive page allowing users to easily navigate your institution’s departments.
PROGRAMS – If you are also using Coursedog’s Curriculum Management product, this will be an interactive page allowing users to easily navigate your institution’s programs.
Pre-built links are not designed for use within a navigation group. If you would like to link to a pre-built page from within a navigation group, use the “New External Link” tool to manually add the desired URL. For example, “coursedog.edu/departments.”
Step 5:
Add the elements you wish to include in your navigation.
To add a new link or group, simply select an element from the right side under “New Links” or “Pre-Built Links”, and drag it onto the navigation.
Step 6:
To edit an item that currently exists in the navigation panel, if desired, click on the edit button (pencil icon) on the right of each item.
Clicking this button opens up the “Edit Navigation Item” model (screenshot below).
Within this modal, you can make the following changes
Label – This is the label of the navigation element.
Page – This is the page that the user is sent to once they click on the navigation element.
Slug –
This is the ending of the URL for the page.
You can modify the slug to be anything you want, as long as it is unique.
The slug can only consist of lowercase letters, numbers, and dashes in between.
Capital letters and underscores cannot be used. Using dashes instead of underscores helps users and search engines identify concepts in the URL more easily.
Navigation Color
You can control the background color of the navigation top bar at Catalog > Settings > Catalogs > (Select Catalog) > “Topbar Elements”.
You can change this color without impacting the color scheme of any other elements.
This is the same functionality as what is in Event Scheduling.
Additional Note
If you are trying to select a page but it is showing up gray, it has not been published.
Setting Navigation to Appear in Public Catalog
In order to have your navigation appear in the public catalog, you need to assign it to your catalog.
This can be done in Catalog > Settings > Catalogs.
Simply select the catalog you want to assign the navigation to and select your navigation under either “Catalog Navbar Navigation” or “Catalog Topbar Navigation”.
Publishing Pages
To publish the page, navigate to the pages tab, search for the page, click on it and then hit the publish button on the right-hand side. This process is thoroughly detailed in the article on editing pages.