Help talk:Navigation

Additional site navigation
I believe there is a need in some wikis for additional site navigation besides the top links. See:
 * Can sidebar site navigation be returned in a show/hide box? --Timeshifter 21:35, October 8, 2010 (UTC)

Only four navigation items
I noticed that there seems to be a hard limit of four items for the navigation bar at the top of each page. Shouldn't this be noted in the article? --—Sakamoto Mio « Ha ha ha » 02:16, October 18, 2010 (UTC)

"Most popular" does not mean "most popular"
It means "most edited", which is probably NOT what you you want your visitors to look at. When there was a panel for popular pages near bottom left under the old look, Barack Obama's page was near the top of Familypedia's list. It's nowhere near the top of the special page that we are now referred to - that includes pages that hardly anyone would be interested in but which have had one or two people edit again and again (hundreds of times, some of them - including one user page). — Robin Patterson (Talk) 11:40, November 4, 2010 (UTC)

Referring to current page
I'm trying to add a link to the print version of the page in the navigation ( http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Printable ) but the refers to the Mediawiki page instead. How might I go about doing this or similar things? It could be useful for other things too, for example perhaps I want to include a template that acts differently per category or namespace. --Fritzophrenic 05:48, December 5, 2010 (UTC)

List of special names?
Where can I find a list of the special names such as #visited#? I would like a list of newly added pages, specifically, but I'd also like to know what's available. --Fritzophrenic 05:56, December 5, 2010 (UTC)

Doesn't work
Does this still work for anyone? #category-name#, with a space before the first # otherwise it turns into a number, still doesn't work. You end up with just the name of the category up there with a link to it, and no seven fold down items.  D r e a m Focus  13:21, December 25, 2010 (UTC)

how to
Question:

How do i make sub menu's???

I got as far as making mostly what i needed, but ran into the 4 limit, so now i have the first 3 as autofill but i need the 4th to be manual.

but how would i do that? magic word???

*item1#    *item2#      *item3#     *item4 auto       auto         auto        link1 link2

etc etc

Galaxy-A 09:33, March 1, 2011 (UTC)


 * You can see how I did mine at http://gantz.wikia.com/wiki/MediaWiki:Wiki-navigation or if you want something different, you find a wikia that has it already, and check for their MediaWiki:Wiki-navigation page.  D r e a m Focus  15:45, March 1, 2011 (UTC)

Seriously lacking infomation
This page is seriously lacking. I can't find anywhere to learn how to do anything with the navigation beyond showing the most edited pages. I run the Shameless wiki and I have a menu at the top for series, so all the the series are in a category called series. But not only do only a few show up in the menu, but they appear completely out of order, which looks a little strange, but if I remove the #'s so they don't go in most edited order I don't get a drop down menu anymore, I get literaly this: Category: Series

So no more drop down aswell as the 'Category:' part visible. So I'm guessing I have to do more than the #'s but I just can't find anywhere to learn about such things =/ -- Lyco499 (talk ) 04:27, April 19, 2011 (UTC)
 * Well I managed to get exactly what I wanted by copying from the source linked by someone above, so thank you to them, but I still don't really get how the code works, which is rather annoying, as I'd much prefer to learn how it works. I don't suppose there's some hidden base of knowledge for wiki code beyond the help pages on every wiki, which leave much to be desired? -- Lyco499 (talk ) 04:33, April 19, 2011 (UTC)
 * You could translate the German help. :P --AB 13:16, April 19, 2011 (UTC)

Special
Special pages enabled? I want a drop down that fills in the most popular pages. Using this Special:Top/most_visited, but the script doesn't like it. Could i get some help? Geniusguy445 (talk)  "Oh wait, this isn't the camera."
 * Sorry for the delayed response, did you get it to work? --Sarah (help forum | blog) 19:59, January 9, 2012 (UTC)

link
OK, where's the edit link in the expanded wiki navigation? leohuangchunwang 15:46, December 25, 2011 (UTC)


 * Help page here. Sarah (help forum | blog) 19:59, January 9, 2012 (UTC)

Sub-submenus
Can you have sub-submenus, i.e. a way of having more than seven pages listed under each heading? -- Robin Patterson (Talk) 01:31, January 9, 2012 (UTC)


 * This type of navigation is not going to change. For the expanded nav we are going to keep it to how it is for now but I will share your request with the product team. Sarah (help forum | blog) 19:59, January 9, 2012 (UTC)


 * Thank you. I thought that the 4x7 was the limit (and I can live with that if it is), but someone on some Wikia site said that there was a way to subdivide the seven. -- Robin Patterson (Talk) 01:42, January 10, 2012 (UTC)

Initial hash sign
One of the recent upgrades to MediaWiki removed the need for starting the "special" links with "#". The illustration seems to follow that. If all Wikia sites are now on the new upgrade, the text should be altered. -- Robin Patterson (Talk) 01:35, January 9, 2012 (UTC)

But I can't get #visited# or visited# to work on w:c:civilization. -- Robin Patterson (Talk) 01:56, January 9, 2012 (UTC)


 * I hadn't heard that. Is this happening in the new nav as well? Sarah (help forum | blog) 19:59, January 9, 2012 (UTC)


 * I don't know what "new nav" means. I follow the standard skins etc. The problem occurred yesterday, so a check on w:c:civilization:Special:RecentChanges should show the change(s?) I made, and a click on the top item on the "Community" menu will show whatever it shows: it showed nothing for me when I used #visited#. -- Robin Patterson (Talk) 01:42, January 10, 2012 (UTC)
 * By new nav I mean the new expanded navigation that is now available in Wikia Labs. Have you tried it out? It provides for a lot more links in the nav. It turns out that the #visited# tag has been depreciated and should not longer be used. I am going to update the help page now. Sorry for the confusion and thanks for trying it out. Sarah (help forum | blog) 19:50, January 10, 2012 (UTC)

This won't work!!!!! How come it keeps sying my level two thing is too wide. I'm not going to delete pages to make the navigation! Please help!DDfan80 00:55, January 24, 2012 (UTC)DDfan80

Expanded Wikia Navigation

 * What wiki? There is a width limit, so it may be you need to adjust how it displays. Sarah (help forum | blog) 18:28, January 24, 2012 (UTC)

The info on this guide was good, but it doesn't work with the Expanded Wikia Navigation, would it be possible to add information for that? I can't figure out how to use it.

GamingGrl24 01:12, March 4, 2012 (UTC)


 * What exactly didn't work and what wiki is it happening on? Sarah (help forum | blog) 19:15, March 5, 2012 (UTC)

Autopopulating no longer works?
Hi everyone, I'm wondering if the following instruction still works on your wikis? Somehow when I use #category-name# with the categories on my wiki, for example: #category-Characters#, the navigation bar only shows the pages in order of creation, and NOT in order of popularity.

''One way to make sure the navigation always shows the most popular content is to use a trick to autopopulate the fields with popular pages or the most linked category pages. This will autopopulate the 7 menu items with the most popular pages.'' To do this, use # symbols around category name.

''For categories, you use #category-name#. So for example, #category-food# will result in the 7 dropdown links being automatically filled with the most popular articles in the category "food".'' Foreva 12:20, April 12, 2012 (UTC)


 * Hi, Yes we have had issues with these pages not updating, and so we have removed functionality. I have removed that section from the help page. Thanks, Sarah (help forum | blog) 22:45, April 12, 2012 (UTC)

Publishing and Saving Errors
Dude, how can i publish my wiki navigaton? There is no "publish" button or "save" button.


 * There should be one - there may be an error where its further down the page. Can you send in a picture, your wiki and browser info to Special:Contact? Thanks, Sarah (help forum | blog) 18:31, June 11, 2012 (UTC)


 * I have unfortunetly the same issue than above. It is not further down the page. I'm using Google Chrome and Google Chrome Canary. Here's a pic . I'm fairly new to wiki editing, so any help's appreciated =) Doo Wacko 15:36, July 11, 2012 (UTC)Doo_Wacko


 * You're running into Wikia's bad UI design. I reported this issue and they told me it was "not a bug". They changed the UI specifically for this page and it isn't obvious what you need to do.
 * YOU MUST PRESS "PREVIEW" to publish changes to MediaWiki:Wiki-navigation. Once you press Preview a Publish button will appear at the bottom right of the Preview window, assuming no errors were found with your changes. -- Fandyllic (talk &middot; contr) 30 Oct 2012 3:24 PM Pacific

On the Wiki
Is it possable to remove the "On the Wiki" tab from the navigation bar?

Tng88 07:07, June 14, 2012 (UTC)


 * No it is not. Sarah (help forum | blog) 16:33, June 14, 2012 (UTC)

Adding links to "On The Wiki"
Is it possible to add things to the "On the Wiki" tab? For example Forums or Category:File? Essiw 12:32, August 22, 2012 (UTC)
 * Yes, see http://runescape.wikia.com/wiki/MediaWiki:Common.js for an example. -452 23:47, October 10, 2012 (UTC)
 * The link above is mostly useless without explanation. Also, what Runescape did may not be allowed, see Forum:New wiki navigation: Editing "On the Wiki", or it might be ok (but only based on second-hand assurances), see Forum:How to add Chat to "On the Wiki" Navigation and is it possible to edit "On the Wiki" Navigation?. -- Fandyllic (talk &middot; contr) 30 Oct 2012 3:33 PM Pacific

Help
Ummm how can anyone add a list of Administrators onto the navigation, I am having real trouble trying to do just that, can anyone help? Niko Banks (talk) 12:20, November 2, 2012 (UTC)
 * You could link to Special:ListAdmins. TK-999 (talk) 12:23, November 2, 2012 (UTC)

I know, but how do I add local Administrators on my wikis onto the navigation, I know if you add **#topusers|Users to navigation, it shows you the list of users, but how do you do the same for Administrators? Niko Banks (talk) 12:33, November 2, 2012 (UTC).


 * there is currently no magic word to list specific users (in this case: sysop). --Echoblast53 (talk | contributions | chat) 23:06, March 8, 2013 (UTC)

Use Parser Functions
Can one use parser functions for the Wiki navigation to remove a prefix (like "Instructions/Part 1" to "Part 1")? --Echoblast53 (talk | contributions | chat) 23:00, March 8, 2013 (UTC)


 * You can use the normal wiki text to do that (just like a link) and do . There shouldn't be a need for parser functions in the navigation. Rappy 16:21, March 11, 2013 (UTC)


 * What about categories? --Echoblast53 (talk | contributions | chat) 17:50, March 11, 2013 (UTC)