Display different navigation menu depending on type of user logged in

[paulsnolan]

Hi All

We have a requirement whereby we want to display a different navigation menu depending upon the type of user that is logged into our portal. Looking at the Header web template there is a statement near the beginning of the template

    <div id="navbar" class="navbar-collapse collapse">

      {% assign primary_nav = weblinks["Default"] %}

Is this where I would put the logic, something like:

                {% if someusertype = "xyz" %}

                    {% assign primary_nav = weblinks["xyz navigation"] %}

                {% endif %}

                {% if someusertype = "abc" %}

                    {% assign primary_nav = weblinks["abc navigation"] %}

                {% endif %}

Is anything else required?

Thanks

[justinburch · Accepted solution]

Hi @paulsnolan,

Without digging into the code, that looks about right. If the "user type" doesn't change during a session it should work just fine, otherwise you'll need to consider adding {% substitute %} and {% endsubstitute %} tags to bypass the header cache. Signing in and out should also reset the cache, as far as my previous experience has shown. 

[OliverRodrigues]

@paulsnolan another thing to add here is that you can access any attribute from the user (even custom attributes) via liquid, i.e.: {% if user.new_type == 1 %}

if you are using web roles to define the type, you can also filter by that: 

{% if user | has_role: "Administrators" %}

[paulsnolan]

Hi Oliver

Thanks for the reply

[paulsnolan]

Hi Justin

Thanks for the confirmation that we have the right approach

[paulsnolan]

Hi Justin

We have got around to doing this development but have hit an issue. I have created two different weblink sets for our required navigation based on a user type.

To ensure they both work as expected I have hardcoded each assign primary_nav = weblinks[... in turn in the header web template with the assignment before the start of the OOB 'if primary_nav' statement

e.g.

      {% assign primary_nav = weblinks["xyz navigation"] %}

      {% if primary_nav %}

        <div class="navbar-right menu-bar {% if primary_nav.editable %}xrm-entity xrm-editable-adx_weblinkset{% endif %}" data-weblinks-maxdepth="2" id="navbarright">

          <ul class="nav navbar-nav weblinks" role="menubar">

            {% for link in primary_nav.weblinks %}

              {% unless forloop.first %}

This works fine

However, if I then place the assign inside an if statement, as in my original question, and this if is immediately before the 'if primary_nav' the navigation menu isn't displayed.

e.g.

      {% if someusertype = "xyz" %}

        {% assign primary_nav = weblinks["xyz navigation"] %}

      {% endif %}

      {% if someusertype = "abc" %}

        {% assign primary_nav = weblinks["abc navigation"] %}

      {% endif %}

      {% if primary_nav %}

        <div class="navbar-right menu-bar {% if primary_nav.editable %}xrm-entity xrm-editable-adx_weblinkset{% endif %}" data-weblinks-maxdepth="2" id="navbarright">

          <ul class="nav navbar-nav weblinks" role="menubar">

            {% for link in primary_nav.weblinks %}

              {% unless forloop.first %}

Is there a scope issue with the liquid assign within the if statement?

[justinburch]

Oh man, wrote a full reply before realizing I wasn't signed in.. forgive any shortness here in rewriting.

I don't think it'll be a scope issue, and would likely be the statements themselves. Definitely recommend having a default style just in case, though

var primary_nav = defaultnav;
if (user['new_typecode'].value == 1)
   primary_nav = nav1;
if (user['new_typecode'].value == 2)
  primary_nav = nav2;
nav = primary_nav;

I think it's likely the issue is in the if statements. Some progressive things I'd try:

1. Validate your field is being retrieved as you expect
   • Login to the Portal on a test page, have Liquid somewhere to wrap the value you're comparing in a <p></p> to make sure it looks like what you'd expect
   • Make sure it's a valid type; e.g., multi-choice isn't available in the Portal
2. Validate your if statements are being hit successfully, assuming the value is correct - e.g., seeing a datetime object in <p> doesn't mean the conditions in logic will work the same against it, so put some hidden inputs or <p> statements in your if assignment blocks to see which (if any) are being covered by a given user
3. Wrap the assignment of the variable in a substitution tag
4. Wrap the assignment of the variable and the nav logic in the substitution tag or just turn off header/footer cache
5. Use a workflow/process to assign/unassign appropriate web roles based on the type field, then see if the hasrole condition is more successful.. hopefully this would be a last resort

I hope this helps!

Justin

[paulsnolan]

Hi Justin

Got this working, my bad. I had some substitution tags in the if statements plus I'd turned the header caching off. I removed the tags and turned the caching on and it worked.

Regards

Paul