Navigation with Auto Index (and mobile)

JimR · 2013-03-09 16:08:26

I know it's difficult to explain how the UI behaves only using text, but I think this is familiar enough to the authors and web site designers. If you have a site with Auto Index, you can see this.

In the most simplest case, imagine we have a menu item called Parent and that takes us to a page showing thumbs for our gallery.

Opening any of those galleries leaves us still on the Parent page (the navigation menu is telling us this, as Parent is still highlighed and the page's title has changed to the name of the gallery). Not a problem...so far.

Now, imagine we create an Auto Index template for a new gallery and place on Parent. We'll call this new gallery index Child, and it will have a few galleries of its own.

When we select Child, the navigation menu still says Parent, not Child. Opening Child has taken us to a new location below Parent yet we're still at the same spot in the web site's navigation.

To get back to the Parent we have to click on its name in the menu (even though the nav is telling us we're already there, as it's still highlighted). Or, another way is to use the browser's back button.

Now if the Child gallery has more child galleries, then the navigation is starting to break down. The menu always says Parent, even when we're in Child and deeper still like Grandchild. As we go deeper the navigation continues to say Parent.

Once we're at Grandchild we have only two choices: 1) click on the already highlighted Parent menu to jump up two levels or 2) click on the back button in the browser twice.

This is when we would use breadcrumbs to keep the user oriented, and give them a clear path back.

I've been thinking how to support breadcrumbs in the PHP Plugins. One of the problems is the need to hard-code the gallery structure into the PHP code. The advantage of using Publisher is the ease of restructuring folders, and changing their names. Yet if we do this, we have to update the PHP code to match.

One more unique problem...it happens while using Auto Index on a mobile device.

When the user opens an index gallery, the index.php redirects us to mobile.php. The problem then becomes how can the user get back to where they were? (e.g. they were looking at Child's gallery and now they want to get back to Parent)

If the user selects the back button on their browser, it reloads the index.php which then redirects to the mobile.php and they're back to where they started - still in the Child gallery

They only have one choice - the menu selection Parent. This takes them back to the top of the tree. So the mobile user only has one navigation choice. They must always return to the top by clicking on Parent.

I guess all of this is leading me to see how we need breadcrumbs. Any suggestions on how to go about doing this? How should breadcrumbs work on a mobile device? How can we make the maintenance problem less problematic if we restructure our galleries?

JimR · 2013-03-09 16:14:05

This is a pretty good idea...

http://community.theturninggate.net/post/1751/#p1751

But that's lost on a mobile device, unless there's a way to always show such content on the page.

Matthew · 2013-03-09 16:28:57

Within the traditional context of exported-and-uploaded web galleries, breadcrumbs simply will not work. They would require the user to know and hardcode the entire breadcrumb trail for each individual gallery. Hello, Nightmare.

Using Publisher, we have a consolidated architecture from which to draw the gallery structure. By which I mean that breadcrumbs are a possibility for publisher galleries, whereas they have not previously been a feature that we could hope to implement in any meaningful or sane way.

That said, it's not something we expect that you should be able to do using PHPlugins. It's something that Ben will need to work on for a publisher update and would fall under the heading of "publisher enhanced" gallery features. We've talked about it before, but it just hasn't happened yet, as we've had other priorities like getting CE3 out the door, and Ben making publisher tweaks to help make that happen. At this point, he would need to chime in on his schedule of priorities for upcoming releases.

JimR · 2013-03-09 16:41:58

Matthew wrote:

They would require the user to know and hardcode the entire breadcrumb trail for each individual gallery. Hello, Nightmare.

Exactly what I had imagined, which is why I wrote this question of how to deal with the navigation problem presented by Auto Index (and the extra twist when it's on mobile).

Matthew wrote:

Using Publisher, we have a consolidated architecture from which to draw the gallery structure

Exactly

Matthew wrote:

That said, it's not something we expect that you should be able to do using PHPlugins

Back to the nightmare.

I was thinking...if Publisher could at least provide some of the missing variable (where we are in the architecture and album titles), then those daring enough to dive into PHP could have a chance, right?

We wouldn't have to wait for a complete breadcrumb solution. Just the key variables would be enough for us to have a fighting chance to build breadcrumbs and avoid the nightmare.

Last edited by JimR (2013-03-09 16:42:43)

Matthew · 2013-03-09 16:47:02

If Ben were going to make the effort to setup the variables, I think it would be easier that he then spend the extra 5-10 minutes beyond that to make breadcrumbs a checkbox option. The variables are the complicated part.

Community @ The Turning Gate

#1 2013-03-09 16:08:26

Navigation with Auto Index (and mobile)

#2 2013-03-09 16:14:05

Re: Navigation with Auto Index (and mobile)

#3 2013-03-09 16:28:57

Re: Navigation with Auto Index (and mobile)

#4 2013-03-09 16:41:58

Re: Navigation with Auto Index (and mobile)

#5 2013-03-09 16:47:02

Re: Navigation with Auto Index (and mobile)

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