floating supernav

Hi Ivan,

I like that idea, Ivan, but I'm not sure I want to integrate that quite yet. Right now, you can disable the frame forcing, and just open up a non-framed window in another tab. I personally like the consistency of the navigation, which is why, for example, the frame scroll bar is always visible. That way, even if the navigation gets expanded below the end of the page, the frame stays the same. The navigation is also only 200 pixels wide, which should still give admins enough room to view the page in the right-hand side.

Incorporating this might cause the module to lose out a little on simplicity and consistency, so I'm not totally sold on it yet, but will continue thinking about it.

Thanks!
Chris

I think this mod would be better used inside the sidebar in place of Navigation, being outside the Site layout, it gets in the way when you are wanting to view the whole site without it, screen space is like real estate. The way Drupal already integrates the admin into the content area of the site is ideal for day to day admin tasks, its just too clunky to navigate when having many links, but with SuperNav capability it would be a snap. Or better yet, make Supernav replace the content section and let there display only the categories and you can click on the section you need.

I think this mod would be better used inside the sidebar in place of Navigation, being outside the Site layout, it gets in the way when you are wanting to view the whole site without it, screen space is like real estate. The way Drupal already integrates the admin into the content area of the site is ideal for day to day admin tasks, its just too clunky to navigate when having many links, but with SuperNav capability it would be a snap. Or better yet, make Supernav replace the content section and let there display only the categories and you can click on the section you need.

I apologize for this duplicate post, the browser froze and it saved it twice :)

@daramuki That would defeat the entire purpose of Super Nav, which, according to the developers, is to "separate site administration from the theme".

If it were placed inside the sidebar, I for one would have no more use for it.

What I was hinting to was the quick drop down menus being the only real benefit of the mod, its very nice but as a whole, the Admin Navigation outside the site layout is annoying and takes up prime real estate. I had to disable the mod because it was only getting in the way and became a nuisance.

Usability is great but I think the hole point behind Drupal's built in Administration within the site layout is to create a userfriendly way to manage the site, that is a good thing but Super Nav takes that away.

I think what I"ll do is try to setup the menus with quick drop downs like this mod and then just use the regular Navigation menu for Administration. Quicker navigation is what its all about. It shouldn't be too difficult to setup.

Hello darumaki,

There's another thread going on where someone made a similar request: http://drupal.org/node/228964.

I've added some features to make Super Nav a little less obtrusive (mentioned in the other thread), but I think what you want can be better achieved through modules like Administrative Menu (creates a dropdown across the top) or DHTML menu (makes navigation quicker by loading the entire menu, and makes it expandable / collapsable).

A couple of my goals with this module involve moving administration outside of the theme, so that it's easier for themers, and to make navigation quick and persistant, which is why I use a seperate frame. With a drop-down solution, the menu still has to be loaded with each page refresh, and it doesn't keep track of what you just clicked. Moving the navigation into its own frame also allow flexibility for adding additional features, like the bookmarks, history and a tools hook.

The expandable navigation is only a piece of this module. I find that the search and bookmark features are the most useful, myself.

Thanks for your thoughts!
Chris

right, I understand where your coming from, having experienced CMS with separated Administrative areas and now Drupal's built in approach, its sometimes difficult to tell which is more productive. I like the fast responsiveness of Supernav but then the admin links in the content area still show up, I guess we are suppose to remove all that so they only appear in the supernav bar ? I think that combined with a way to open the site into a new browser without the Supernav would be a nice work around, so you can check your site in full view.

Perhaps one way to look at it, if the Administrative area is seen as a separate template and pretend we are logging into the backend of the CMS then we could user SuperNav without having to worry about the main site theme.

This is definitely a start in the right direction though.

Hi darumaki,

A couple of features that might help:

1. There is now a 'minimize' button, that will allow you to minimize the navigation into a thin bar, allowing you to interact with the rest of the page without the intrusion of the side nav.

2. If you'd like to open up the current page in a new window without Super Nav, you need to check the "Do not force frame" option in your settings (click on the cog to view these). Then, click on the (i) icon, and click the world-link icon to open the page in a new window. It sounds like a lot of steps, but it's very simple once you've done it once.

If any of your site users will be using the Navigation block, then you'll probably want to keep it enabled so you have an accurate perspective of what the theme looks like to them. But if you use Super Nav to get around, then it becomes more of a visual component than a navigational one.

Hope that helps! I'm going to go ahead and mark this closed.

Chris