User:0fret/sandbox

Documentation for dynamic navigation boxes.

Dynamic navigation boxes use a combination of CSS and Javascript to make collapsible navigation boxes. The technical parts comprise style sheet declarations in MediaWiki:Common.css, and Javascript code in MediaWiki:Common.js.

Example (click "show" or "hide" to see the good bits):

How to use

NavFrame divs

The basic concept here is to use the div element within a Wiki article's markup code to identify certain content (which we'll call the "details" here) that we want the user to be able to "show" or "hide". The markup code used to achieve this effect comprises three main classes: NavFrame, NavHead, NavContent.

The underlying implementation uses Javascript to add a "show" or "hide" link in the NavHead part, and to turn the visibility of the NavContent part on or off. In web browsers that do not support Javascript, or where Javascript is disabled, the content will always be displayed, and the "show"/"hide" links will not be present.

The default behavior of this code will initially "show" the details, as well as a link to "hide" the details. To reverse the default behavior, so that the details are initially hidden, use class="NavFrame collapsed" (instead of class="NavFrame") in the outer div element. Do not add style="display:none;" to the NavContent element, because that will make it impossible for users without Javascript to see the content.

Simple example

You will need to create three div elements:

<div class="NavFrame">
  <div class="NavHead">[... This is the title of your collapsible content ...]</div>
  <div class="NavContent">
    [... The content you want to hide goes here ...]
  </div>
</div>

[... This is the title of your collapsible content ...]

[... The content you want to hide goes here ...]

To initially hide the content do this:

<div class="NavFrame collapsed">
  <div class="NavHead">[... This is the title of the hidden content ...]</div>
  <div class="NavContent">
    [... This content is initially hidden ...]
  </div>
</div>

[... This is the title of the hidden content ...]

[... This content is initially hidden ...]

Mixed classes example

You can even apply other classes along with these, making a more styled design rather than if you were to use the standard classes:

<div class="messagebox standard-talk NavFrame">
  <div class="somerandomclass NavHead">
    [... This is the title; it does not have to be plain text, you can get creative here ...]</div>
  <div class="NavContent anotherclass">
    [... The content you want to hide goes here ...]
  </div>
</div>

[... TEST HERE ...]

[... The content you want to hide goes here ...]

Getting a caption instead of a heading

If you swap the order of the two inner div elements, then you can get an always-visible caption below optionally-hidden content, instead of an always-visible heading above optionally-hidden content:

<div class="NavFrame">
  <div class="NavContent">
    [... The content you want to hide goes here ...]
  </div>
  <div class="NavHead">[... This is the caption below your collapsible content ...]</div>
</div>

[... The content you want to hide goes here ...]

[... This is the caption below your collapsible content ...]

If the title doesn't fit on one line

If the title is too long, then the formatting is very bad:

<div style="width: 20em">
<div class="NavFrame">
  <div class="NavHead">[... This is the title of your collapsible content ...]</div>
  <div class="NavContent">
    [... The content you want to hide goes here ...]
  </div>
</div>
</div>

[... This is the title of your collapsible content ...]

[... The content you want to hide goes here ...]

To correct this, you need to add height: auto to the style of the NavHead div, and a dummy element to leave space for the "show/hide" link:

<div style="width: 20em">
<div class="NavFrame" style="width: 20em">
  <div class="NavHead" style="height:auto">
    <div class="hack-to-leave-space" style="float:right">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</div>
[... This is the title of your collapsible content ...]
  </div>
  <div class="NavContent">
    [... The content you want to hide goes here ...]
  </div>
</div>
</div>

        

[... This is the title of your collapsible content ...]

[... The content you want to hide goes here ...]

Collapsible tables

Main page: Help:Collapsing

The initial state of any collapsible content can be controlled using a "collapsible table", because it also allows a table with only one element with content, and a header.

Left-alignment

To have things lined up to the left, add in this line of code

style="text-align:left"

to the first (or whichever) <div> you want the text inside aligned to the left.

Left-alignment

Content added here. See how nicely it lines up to the left, instead of being centered? Far easier to read for many things.

Limitations

Currently, the three Nav* classes apply styles of their own. When mixing classes, this causes some of the Nav styles to override other styles (in the above example, NavFrame is overriding the styles from .messagebox.standard-talk).

This limitation does not affect collapsible tables.

Accessibility

All browsers from Internet Explorer 5.5 and on (IE6/7/8, Firefox, Safari/Chrome/KHTML, Opera 8/9, etc.) that support JavaScript will properly collapse the elements.

Internet Explorer 5 and browsers which do not support JavaScript will render the elements without the [hide/show] links and will not collapse them.

Templates

• {{Hidden}}
• {{Hidden begin}}

Navigation templates comparison

Template	Collapsible	Image	Groups	Style (body) parameter/s
{{Navbox}}	collapsible	Left/right of body	Yes	Yes
{{Navbox with collapsible groups}}	collapsible	Left/right of body and/or in each list	Yes	Yes
{{Navbox with columns}}	collapsible	Left/right of columns	No	Yes

Collapsible attributes

Type	CSS classes	JavaScript	Collapses when	Custom initial state	Nesting
Collapsible tables	mw-collapsible	jQuery.makeCollapsible	2 or more autocollapse on page	Yes	Yes

NavFrame