I am the one who will need sectioning

[Jemski]

I'm trying to create department store style navigation i.e. if you are in a book section of the store the primary left hand nav only shows links to other book sections; if you are in a clothes section the LH nav only shows links to other clothes sections etc.

I'm using V8 so to do this I created custom 'section name only section link' layouts for use with the 'TopLevelSectionLink' selector and set the place of setting to 'section'. The idea was that for all the book sections I'd set the selector to a layout called 'custom books section links' which would only show book section links. Each of the clothes sections would be set to a layout only showing links to other clothes sections and so on for each department.

However, what is happening (and you can see it in the design tree) is that Actinic is daisychaining all the layouts regardless of which section you're in. It looks like this:

With no custom layouts selected anywhere on the site
TopLevelSectionLink =
section name only section link (the Actinic default layout)

If I then go to the books section and change the TopLevelSectionLink layout selector to 'custom books section links', the result is
TopLevelSectionLink =
section name only section link
& custom books section links

... in other words my section specific layout + the default Actinic layout. Not my layout instead of the default Actinic layout! This would still be workable if it weren't for the next issue:

If I then go to the clothes section and set the TopLevelSectionLink layout selector to 'custom clothes section links', the result is
TopLevelSectionLink =
section name only section link
& custom books section links
& custom clothes section links

... so that's the Actinic default + the custom layout for this section + the custom layout for any other sections even though I'm not in any of those sections

Am I misunderstanding selectors or missing something somewhere? Surely if I set a layout selector to 'custom books section links' at the section level then in that section only that layout should apply, not that layout + any others that are selected anywhere else in the entire site.

I've tried numerous variations on this now and am hitting a brick wall every time. Whatever I do I cannot seem to customise the primary navigation according to the section you are in. We are trying to create a sort of department store so having section specific primary navigation is going to be vital if we are to avoid having just a huge, all encompassing navigation list on every page.

I had expected this to take me an hour at most but I've now been working on it for 2 days. Help!

[JSnow]

Try using Block If.

I'm no expert but I think you will need to edit the TopLevelSectionLink layout in Design | Library. Add your custom section link selectors to the layout code. Then wrap each in a block if to test which page you are on and thereby display the correct section links.

[leehack]

I have done this a few times and currently have a 3 way navigation on a build. I did it like Jonathan says, i have a variable at section level and in there are choices of list1, 2 or 3. A block if tests to see what is in this variable and what is chosen decides in which list the section should show. I then have 3 instances of the TLS lists in my layout and each becomes a list in it's own right. For instance i have 2 of the lists on the left and the other on the right, if i go to a section and change the list variable, the link to that section jumps around on the page into the new section.

I daresay you can do this using the actinic offering, personally i just created my own block bringing in the section list and then check to see which list to be in by of a couple of blockifs.

[Goz]

Not quite sure I fully understand what you're trying to achieve. Is it something like

www.smithsofnorthants.co.uk

I'v just started development work on it so there is no substance but I've got the navigation sorted as the client wants it.

Is it similar to this but not showing anything to do with flowers or gifts if you're in the Balloons section?

[Jemski]

Thanks for your replies - much appreciated. I was (and still am) using blockifs relating to a section variable i.e. blockif sectiontype="books" etc. But the bit I couldn't understand was that I was still getting the daisychain so if I had a second blockif sectiontype="clothes" then even if I was viewing a section with the variable sectiontype="books" then in the top level section links to "books" and "clothes" were both showing, seemingly treating both blockifs as true.

I can see now why this was happening and I think I was thrown off course by my initial attempts to change the top level section list layout on a section by section basis using blockifs which had had no effect - but the main thing is I managed to find a fix. Actually it was more of a realisation as to why my initial attempts had had no effect. For reference:

The key was that (I was using the 'Works best with exec' theme) the top level section links was using a fixed layout (Top Level Section List With Horizontal Dividers) not a selector, which would seem a more logical choice - which is why my initial attempts at setting specific layouts at the section level had failed. I was setting them but there was no selector to action them, it was a fixed layout. I changed this fixed layout to use the TopLevelSectionList layout selector instead and then went back to using my individual section layouts using blockifs. Now I can set the layout (and have it take effect) at the section level so that, for example, the books section layout only has one relevant blockif in the layout: blockif sectiontype="books" - so if you are in any section using the Custom Books Layout the layout will correctly display only top level section links to sections with the variable sectiontype="books".

For anyone who who is having similar problems and is still awake after that monologue I'm guessing if you're confident enought to change/create all these settings this will be enough information to set you on your way. The key for me is to watch out for fixed layouts where you were expecting layout selectors.