Navigation

Global navigation

Vanilla includes a simple navigation bar that you can add to the top of your sites.

The navigation items are collapsed behind a "Menu" link in small screens and displayed horizontally on larger screens.

You can change the breakpoint at which the menu changes to a small screen menu by adjusting the $breakpoint-navigation-threshold variable from _settings_breakpoints.scss.

Dropdown

Drop-down menus can be added to the navigation by including one or more p-navigation__item--dropdown-toggle components.

To open the dropdown you need to set the is-active class on p-navigation__item--dropdown-toggle element, but also set aria-hidden to false on p-navigation__dropdown.

By default, dropdowns are left-aligned with their parent; if you'd prefer the menu to be positioned from the right, use the p-navigation__dropdown--right modifier. This can be seen in the "My account" menu in the example.

Sliding

To use the sliding navigation pattern, add the p-navigation--sliding class to the root element of the navigation.

You can add nested dropdowns to the navigation by nesting one or more p-navigation__dropdown in p-navigation__item--dropdown-toggle components. They will be rendered as sliding panels that slide in from the right side of the screen on small screens and as dropdowns on larger screens.

Expanding search box

Expanding search in main navigation consists of couple of elements: two search toggle links (.p-navigation__link--search-toggle) - one inside .p-navigation__banner for mobile view and another in .p-navigation__nav as one of standard view items, the expanding search box (.p-navigation__search) and an overlay that covers whole screen when search is expanded (.p-navigation__search-overlay).

The .p-navigation__link--search-toggle class name is used to add a search toggle link to navigation items. The label text of this toggle element should be wrapped in .p-navigation__search-label element to make sure it's hidden on smaller screen sizes. Click event handler attached to the toggle element should add .has-search-open class on main .p-navigation element to expand the search box and show the overlay.

Vanilla Search box component is used for the search field, but it's wrapped into an element with .p-navigation__search class name. The search will be hidden by default and only expands when the navigation element has .has-search-open class name.

When search box is expanded the overlay element (p-navigation__search-overlay) is faded in to cover all the contents of the page (except the search box itself). Clicking anywhere on the overlay (or hitting Escape key) closes the search box.

On small screens the search box and menu items can be expanded individually as their own separate dropdowns.

Sticky

Top navigation can be made sticky by adding the is-sticky class to the root element of the navigation.

Reduced

When used on websites with more complex information archutecture there may be a need to provide two levels of top navigation. In such case the reduced navigation pattern can be used to provide a top level navigation (that would contain the top level navigation items, as on website home page), followed by standard navigation, that would serve as a secondary navigation for the current section of the website.

Full-width dropdowns

Instead of standard navigation dropdown menus a full-width dropdowns can be used to provide more space for the content of the dropdown.

To use them add .is-full-width class name to .p-navigation__dropdown element. Inside of it you need two containers for full-width desktop dropdown content .p-navigation__dropdown-content--full-width and mobile sliding navigation .p-navigation__dropdown-content--sliding content. The mobile content will be displayed on small screens only and desktop content on larger screens (based on the value of $breakpoint-navigation-threshold).

Side navigation

The side navigation pattern can be used to provide more detailed navigation alongside your content.

It allows grouping the links into navigation sections and nesting them up to four levels.

Current page in the side navigation should be highlighted by adding aria-current="page" attribute to the corresponding p-side-navigation__link element. Alternatively, if aria-current attribute cannot be set, the is-active class can be used instead.

Use p-side-navigation__status inside p-side-navigation__link elements to add status labels or icons on right side of navigation items.

Icons

To add icons on the left side of the items in side navigation use the .p-side-navigation--items class.

Sticky

On pages with content significantly longer than the side navigation contents you can make the navigation sticky to keep it visible when scrolling by adding .is-sticky class to the root element of .p-side-navigation.

Accordion

New

To add accordions within side navigation use the .p-side-navigation--accordion class on the root element of the side navigation and .p-side-navigation__accordion-button to accordion button elements. The accordion will be collapsed by default and can be expanded by clicking on the accordion button.

Raw HTML

When the HTML markup of the side navigation links is generated by an external service and Vanilla class names cannot be added to the elements, use the p-side-navigation--raw-html modifier.

In this variant, the side navigation pattern will style headings (h2, h3, etc.) and lists (ul, li) with links or text elements (a, strong, span) consistently with default side navigation component:

• headings (h2, h3, etc.) get the styling of p-side-navigation__item--title
• lists: ul tags are styled as p-side-navigation__list, and li tags as p-side-navigation__item
  • nesting lists (ul > li > ul > li ...) is possible up to 3 levels
• text elements (span, strong) inside li are styled as p-side-navigation__text
• links (a) inside li are styled as p-side-navigation__link
  • is-active class needs to be added to a link element to mark the active page

Because of the limitations of raw HTML markup without class names, it's not possible to use icons or status labels in the raw HTML variant of side navigation.

Class reference

JavaScript functionality

On small screens side navigation is rendered off-screen as a drawer. To open the side navigation drawer, add is-drawer-expanded class to main .p-side-navigation element. To close the drawer (with the animation) remove is-drawer-expanded class and replace it with is-drawer-collapsed class.

To make sure side navigation toggle works without JavaScript the toggle button for opening the side navigation drawer should be an anchor with href attribute pointing to the id attribute of the side navigation element (for example: <a href="#drawer" class="p-side-navigation__toggle">).

Application layout

For applications built with the application layout the size and positioning of the navigation panel is handled by the layout itself, so the side navigation component doesn't need it's own drawer, overlay or toggle buttons.

To use side navigation in the application place .p-side-navigation--icons in the l-navigation element. You don't use p-side-navigation__toggle, p-side-navigation__overlay or p-side-navigation__drawer elements, just put the lists of the links p-side-navigation__list as direct children of .p-side-navigation element.

Additionally, in order for application layout to fully control side navigation elements when expanding and collapsing you need to wrap the text of the side navigation items in <span class="p-side-navigation__label">. This will allow to fade them out when navigation collapses.

For more information, read the dedicated application layout documentation.

Theming

The side navigation is available in a light and a dark theme. The colours used by both themes in the colour settings file. Overriding the colours of individual elements of the side navigation is discouraged, as this may lead to accessibility issues, or inconsistencies with other components that use the same theme.

By default, the side navigation uses the current theme of the page. To change the appearance of an individual instance of the side navigation, you can use the is-dark class.

For more details about themes in Vanilla refer to the Color theming section of the documentation.

See example of side navigation with dark theme.

Import

To import just navigation component into your project, copy snippets below and include it in your main Sass file.

// import Vanilla and include base mixins
// this only needs to happen once in a given project
@import 'vanilla-framework';
@include vf-base;

@include vf-p-navigation;

To import side navigation, copy snippet below:

// import Vanilla and include base mixins
// this only needs to happen once in a given project
@import 'vanilla-framework';
@include vf-base;

@include vf-p-side-navigation;

// optionally add icons and/or labels if you use them in side navigation__nav
@include vf-p-status-label;
@include vf-p-icons;

For more information see Customising Vanilla in your projects, which includes overrides and importing instructions.

React

You can use navigation in React by installing our react-component library and importing Navigation component.

See the documentation for our React Navigation component