Feedback on NavBarAddOn

This is a simple add-on to create navigation bars. The navigation bar depends on the latest SpreadSheetPlugin version 17 Jun 2005 (1.018)

There is an interference of this add-on with the latest PatternSkin, which renders the output unusable on IE, and somewhat off on Firefox. Any idea how to fix that?

-- PeterThoeny - 16 Jul 2005

... One sep along the way to giving Twiki a WikiMedia look and feel.

How well does this play with other skins?

-- AntonAylward - 16 Jul 2005

I don't suppose there's a simple way to implement "Edit", "Print", "Attach", "Backlinks" and a pull-down for "More actions" is there?

-- AntonAylward - 16 Jul 2005

This add-on plays well with many browsers and skins, except for the latest PatternSkin. Somehow, the minimum height of one pixel gets expanded to many pixel.

Yes, this add-on could be made part of a skin that shows panes for View, Edit, Attach etc.

-- PeterThoeny - 16 Jul 2005

See also KoalaSkinPrettyTabs for tabs done purely with CSS, as well as ones that have a pretier shape.

-- AntonAylward - 17 Jul 2005

Peter: Could the tabs be pritified by altering the graphics?

Could they be made to look like the rounded glowing tabs in KoalaSkinPrettyTabs?

Could you document what they are and what they do please.

-- AntonAylward - 17 Jul 2005

checked .zip into CVS

-- WillNorris - 19 Jul 2005

Is anyone using NavBarAddOn with Dakar/DEVELOP? If so, please contact me.

-- AntonAylward - 21 Jul 2005

Using css it is possible to create a tab bar from a bullet list only. See http://nundroo.com/navigation/. In-depth discussion please in Codev.MenuIdeas.

-- ArthurClemens - 21 Jul 2005

css based tabs fail for browsers that do not understand css. My design goal for this add-on was that it works across many browsers, old and new and many skins. Unfortunately it interferes with the latest PatternSkin version. Still looking how to fix that...

The tabs can be changed: Add new image elements to the NavBarAddOn topic and tweak the tables in NavBarAddOnStart and NavBarAddOnEnd. This could be done with a new spreadsheet variable that selects one or another tab style.

This add-on should work with Dakar/DEVELOP. Make sure that you get the latest SpreadSheetPlugin from the Plugin topic.

-- PeterThoeny - 21 Jul 2005

The setting of the target is fragile and non intuitive.

For example, taking the basic example and editing ....

%CALC{$SET(topic, TWiki.WebHome )        $SET(label, Go TWiki)    $EXEC($GET(tab))}%
%CALC{$SET(topic, Main.WebHome)          $SET(label, Go Main)     $EXEC($GET(tab))}%
%CALC{$SET(topic, Sandbox.WebHome)       $SET(label, Go Sandbox)  $EXEC($GET(tab))}%

produced undesired results. Given the rest of how TWiki works this would be a natural way to go.

However those tabs resolve to

• http://...../cgi-bin/view/%WEB%/TWiki.WebHome
• http://...../cgi-bin/view/%WEB%/Main.WebHome
• http://...../cgi-bin/view/%WEB%/Sandbox.WebHome

Now my contention here is not that the ability to set the web exists, not that it isn't documented.

I'm even willing to grant that giving a better example, as well, such as

%CALC{$SET(topic, WebHome)  $SET(web, TWiki)   $SET(label, Go TWiki)    $EXEC($GET(tab))}%
%CALC{$SET(topic, WebHome)  $SET(web, Main)    $SET(label, Go Main)     $EXEC($GET(tab))}%
%CALC{$SET(topic, WebHome)  $SET(web, Sandbox) $SET(label, Go Sandbox)  $EXEC($GET(tab))}%

No, what I'm complaining about is that this is non intuitive because all other parts of TWiki are happy with the web.topic syntax.

My experience with the uses of the CALC that have been submitted is that they are fragile. They don't adapt easily.

For example: Try setting a tab for an external web site ..... That's easy and common in the normal markup. How do you do it with these tabs? An example or an explicit statement that you can't would be part of the "necessary and sufficient" documentation.

-- AntonAylward - 22 Jul 2005

See TabbedBrowsing for an example of how to use CSS to create prettier tabs. Not to take away from Peter's intention of supporting older browsers, but some of us don't have that constraint.

-- PankajPant - 07 Jan 2006

I was wondering what versions of TWiki this works for? Is this TWiki 3 and 4 compat?

Also, when I installed the plugin on TWiki 3, all I see is a grey bar. Even when viewing with Classic skin. I went to the SpreadSheetPlugin page and it seemed that this plugin was working. Any suggestions appreciatted.

-- EricHanson - 16 Jun 2006

This component should work on Cairo and TWiki 4. It works here on twiki.org, which currently runs TWiki 4.0.2. I also verified it on TWiki.org's hidden Cairo installation. On older TWiki installations you might need to update the SpreadSheetPlugin to the latest version.

-- PeterThoeny - 16 Jun 2006

Great idea, but not very attractive looking (at least in the example).... Is it really necessary to run the configure through SpreadSheetPlugin (what is the performance hit on that one)?

-- ThomasWeigert - 25 Sep 2006

It does not look attractive with TWiki 4 PatternSkin, it works better with older PatternSkin and other skins, such as viewed with plain skin.

Performance of SpreadSheetPlugin is quite good because it is entirely regex based (much faster than building up a parsed tree.)

There are other CSS based solutions, such as the nice TabbedBrowsing example by PankajPant.

-- PeterThoeny - 26 Sep 2006