breadcrumb confusion with only 1 top level forum

I'm trying to figure out the navigation for the forums area of my clients site.

I've turned on breadcrumbs for the forums menu item, but when I link to the Ninjaoard Index, I get a nice page title that is the name of the top forum. This is great, BUT, if the user goes down a level, and then clicks the top level forum title in the breadcrumbs...they end up on a DIFFERENT page. They end up on the page that they would end up on if I'd linked to the top level forum from the menu. It wouldn't be a big deal except they look different. One has the top forum name as the page title, the other has the MENU item as the page title (in my case Forums).

I hope this makes sense, but basically:

1. the user clicks Forums in my nav bar. Then they see the nice list of 4 sub forums, with the title of the TOP level at the top of the page, and they see recent topics at the bottom. It looks great.

2. Then they choose a topic. Fine.

3. Then they see the breadcrumbs and click the one that has the name of the top forum, the same name they saw on the first page of the forums...only when they click it, the do NOT go back to that first page, they go to a NEW view of JUST the top forum. The page title is different and the recent topics are missing.

If I put ALL of the forums up at the top level, then they don't show at all, so I assume you have to have one at the top.

I can post screen shots if you want, but this is just weird.

AHA, yes, you can even see it on the demo! Start Here:
http://ninjaforge.com/ninjaboard-demo/index.php?option=com_ninjaboard&view=forums&Itemid=172
Notice the Support section on the lower part of the page. Then click the "powered by nooku" forum.
Then click the "Ninjaboard rocks!" option in the breadcrumbs.
Notice anything? You're not on the same page you were on, even though you'd THINK that's where you should be according to the breadcrumbs.

If you click Zephyr (home) it DOES do what I want, but then you have this extra top level forum in the path. I can guarantee, the average user doesn't understand why that is there.

I'm not sure what to do except just make sure the home item is on in breadcrumbs and hope users just don't get confused by the different views...

And here comes my epiphany as I realize that the current format works GREAT if you have more than one top level forum.
This makes me feel a bit stupid for not realizing that, but then I realize, what if you don't WANT more than one top level forum?

So, I'd love the option to HIDE the top level in the breadcrumbs if there's only ONE top level forum. Not even sure if that can be done, but it would be nice to keep down the confusion when you only use one top level item.

Sorry for the long post, but sometimes you learn AS you're working through problems :)

15 Oct 10

Great idea!

That's not a bad option to have.
Adding feature suggestion ticket ;)

Thanks,
Stian

15 Oct 10

EDIT: By the time I finished writing this, Stian had beaten me to a response :)

Hi brianpeat,

Thanks for the very thorough explanation of the problem.

This is actually an issue I noticed a week ago while styling our new forum (we are redesigning our website and will be migrating it to Joomla 1.5 and Ninjaboard).

Basically when you go one step up via the breadcrumbs, you go into what is essentially the category view ie:
Board Index > Category > Forum

This category view is "unfinished" and I believe Stian will be updating/fixing it in the next RC release of Ninjaboard.

As for removing the category from the breadcrumbs if there is only one category, that is a good idea; we'll see what Stian has to say about it.

Note: I use the term "category" in this post, but I'm not sure just yet whether we are going to use that term.

Thanks for the feedback; it is highly appreciated. We'll do our best to get you the functionality you want in the next release of NB.

11 Jan 11

Hi brianpeat,

Can you try the following package: http://cl.ly/2R0k2y1h3m0S2T1X2w2k

And let me know if the breadcrumbs works for you in this nightly? :)

Thanks

13 Jan 11

Hi all,

I also think that would be a useful thing.

The easiest solution would be:

- add a parameter in the forum setup "isCategory"
- if "IsCategory" is set this level does not appear in the breadcrumbs

my 5 cents

regards
Wolfgang

14 Jan 11

We've been thinking about adding such a param, for other things as well.
Like for example toggling wether you want people to post in a forum, or not (categories don't let you do that).

14 Jan 11

That's the point ... If you make the title unlinkable (existing parameter) and if it does not appear in the breadcrumbs then you CANNOT post into it because you never see it. (unless you know Joomla good enough to enter the url of the "category".

For sure the cleaner approach would be to also prohibit posting into it when the parameter is set.

14 Jan 11

Ok ... Thinking about it again I think the category should always be visible in the bradcrumbs but it should not carry a link so you can't click on it. It is an element of the hierarchy of the forums ... So suppressing it would not be right.

So to summarize my opinion:

- parameter 'isCategory' is needed in the forum's settings
- if set, this level does mot carry a link in the breadcrumbs
- additionally (if somebody browses directly to it by url) it doesn't allow postings

18 Jan 11

Yep, we'll add it in 1.1.
We're starting on 1.1 as well as 1.0.1 today.
1.0.1 will only have bugfixes reported after the 1.0 launch (and some reported before but not successful in resolving) and some translation updates but no features in order to release sooner.

Do you mind if I send you a beta tester invite? Your kind of feedback is exactly the kind we're after :)

31 Jan 11

Sure. that's fine!

02 Feb 11

Alright, will invite you then :)