WordPress plugin which uses the parent/child relationship of your pages or categories to generate menus based on the current section of your site.
So What exactly is the Advanced Sidebar Menu?
As the web grows so does the size of website’s sitemaps. As these grow to be 30, 100, 0r even 500 pages, the traditional single navigation becomes too cluttered. We try to make it a little cleaner by adding an additional navigation in the sidebar, but we can’t display every page the site has in the sidebar. We could create custom menus for each page or section and register different widget areas but this ends up being way too much work and impossible to maintain.
This is where this handy little plugin comes in:
The Advanced Sidebar Menu creates normal widgets that can be added into a widget area like any other. When viewing the page, the menu display only the pages that are parents of the page you are currently viewing or children of the highest level parent page of the page you are currently viewing.
Here is an example:
- Let’s say you have a page called “About”, this will be our parent page.
- We have 3 other pages “Contact”, “Services”, and “Hours” . Each of these pages will be have “About” set as the parent page.
- We add another level of pages “Office”, and “Field” and we assign “Contact” as the parent page for these two pages.
We now have a page structure that looks like this:
The widget will display in the sidebar of all included pages with the following menu structure:
- When you are viewing page (i) the menu will display pages (i), (1), (2), (3).
- When you are viewing page (1) or (3) the menu will display pages (1), (2), (3).
- When you are viewing pages (2), (a), or (b) the menu display pages (1), (2), (a), (b), (3).
This process will continue on any pages the widget is displayed on. Just like that, it makes your huge sitemap manageable and easy for your viewers to navigate.
This works the same way for categories. By selecting the Advanced Sidebar Categories Menu widget you can have the same parent and child generated menus for your categories. Any categories the widget is displayed on will automatically generate the menu. You may optionally select to have the categories show up on your single posts as well.
Basic Usage
Once this plugin is installed and activated you will find two widgets available for use within your sidebars or page builders. “Advanced Sidebar Pages Menu” and “Advanced Sidebar Categories Menu”.
As the names suggest, use the Pages widget to generate menus using your page hierarchy and the Categories widget to generate menus using your category hierarchy.
Both widgets are smart enough to only display when the widget has available menu items to display.
Widget Options
Advanced Sidebar – Pages
The pages widget supports the following options.
Display highest level parent page
When checked the menu will display the top level parent page on all menus. By default, if only the top level page would be shown, the menu will not display unless “Display menu when there is only the parent page” is also checked.
Display menu when there is only the parent page
Display the menu even if a single menu item will be shown. May only be used when “Display highest level parent page” is also checked.
Always display child pages
By default only the levels above the current page and one level below the current page will be shown. Use this option to show a set number of levels always.
Maximum level of child pages to display
Used when “Always display child pages” is checked to specify the number of levels to display. You may also select ” – All – ” to display every available level always.
Order By
Order the pages by
- Page Order – Display menu items in the order the are specified using Page Attributes. If you would like to drag/drop the order of you pages you may use this plugin.
- Title – Order the pages alphabetically using their title.
- Published Date – Order the pages according to the date they were created.
Pages to exclude
You may exclude pages from all menus based on their id by adding them to this option. Ids must be comma separated.
Advanced Sidebar – Categories
The categories widget supports the following options.
Display highest level parent category
When checked the menu will display the top level parent category on all menus. By default, if only the top level category would be shown, the menu will not display unless “Display menu when there is only the parent category” is also checked.
Display menu when there is only the parent category
Display the menu even if a single menu item will be shown. May only be used when “Display highest level parent category” is also checked.
Always display child categories
Be default only the levels above the current category and one level below the current category will be shown. Use this option to show a set number of levels always.
Levels of child to display
Used when “Always display child categories” is checked to specify the number of levels to display. You may also select ” – All – ” to display every available level always.
Display categories on single posts
By default the menu will only display on category pages. Use this option to also display the menu on post pages. When on a post page, the menu will generate based on which categories are assigned to the current post.
Display each single post’s category
Used to specify how the menus will be generated when on a post page that is assigned to multiple categories. Only available when “Display categories on single posts” is checked.
- In a new widget – Each assigned category will have it’s own separate widget structure and will display in the sidebar as if it were a separate widget.
- In another list in the same widget – Each assigned category will display as part of the same widget with a separate list structure.
Categories to exclude
You may exclude categories from all menus based on their id by adding them to this option. Ids must be comma separated.
Translations
This plugin includes the following languages:
- English (en_US)
- French (fr_FR)
- German (de_DE)
- Spanish (es_ES)
Features
- Page and category widgets.
- Option to display or not display the highest level parent page or category.
- Option to display the menu when there is only the highest level parent.
- Ability to order pages by date, title, or page order.
- Exclude pages or categories by entering a comma-separated list of ids.
- Option to always display child pages or categories.
- Option to select the levels of pages or categories to display when "always display child" is used.
- Option to display or not display categories on single posts.
- Ability to display each single post's category in a new widget or in the same list.
For more features Go PRO
- Ability to customize each page or navigation menu item link’s text.
- Click-and-drag styling for page, category, and navigation menu widgets.
- Styling options for links including color, background color, size, hover, and font weight.
- Styling options for different levels of links.
- Styling options for the current page or category.
- Styling options for the parent of the current page or category.
- Blocked styling options including borders, border width, and border colors.
- Option to choose from 7 bullet styles or no bullets.
- Accordion menu support for pages, categories, and navigation menus.
- Accordion icon style and color selection.
- Accordion option to keep all sections closed until clicked.
- Accordion option to include highest level parent in accordion.
- Accordion option to use links for open/close. New
- Ability to exclude a page from all menus using a simple checkbox.
- Link ordering for the category widget.
- Number of levels of pages to show when "always display child pages" is not checked.
- Ability to select and display custom post types.
- Ability to select and display custom taxonomies.
- Option to display only the current page's parents, grandparents, and children.
- Option to display child page siblings when on a child page (with or without grandchildren available).
- Ability to display the widgets everywhere the widget area is used (including homepage if applicable).
- Ability to select the highest level parent page/category.
- Ability to select which levels of categories assigned posts will display under.
- Ability to display assigned posts or custom post types under categories or taxonomies.
- Ability to limit the number of posts or custom post types to display under categories.
- Support for custom navigation menus from Appearance -> Menus.
- Ability to display the current navigation menu item's parents and children only.
- Option to display the top-level navigation menu items when there are no child items or not viewing a menu item.
- Priority support with access to members only support area.