Most of the out of the box SharePoint sites use the QuickLaunch menu. The size of this menu gradually grows as the number of sub sites and lists grow. I have heard many people complain about how they cannot easily find a particular navigation item when it is so crowded.
I published a free solution on Codeplex called SharePoint QuickLaunchExtender. It enriches the QuickLaunch menu. It comes with a custom configuration page that allows you to specify the behaviour of the QuikcLaunch menu. It works on both WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007. SharePoint QuickLaunchExtender comes with a Solution Package (WSP), so there are no manual installation steps to take.
This is the description of SharePoint QuickLaunchExtender on codeplex:
“Extends the SP QuickLaunch control to provide a richer experience. Configure it to transform the QuickLaunch into an Accordion, a set of collapsible/expandable panels (Adds scrollbar per panel if height limit is specified and exceeded), or a real-time filterable list. Uses jQuery”
Basically, in addition to the default behaviour of the QuickLaunch menu, there are three modes that SharePoint QuickLaunchExtender introduces.
- Expand/collapse (optionally with configurable panel height limit)
- Accordion
- Filter
Expand/collapse mode allows you to click one of the headings - just right next the heading link) to toggle the expand/collapse state of the panel that contains its related child links. You can configure whether all panels should be expanded or collapse on page load. Also, you can specify a limit in pixels for the panel height. If the limit for any of the panels is exceeded because of the amount of links on that panel, a vertical scrollbar will automatically be added to that panel to cater for any overflow.
Accordion mode also allows you to click one of the headings, however, only one panel will be in expanded state at all times. You can configure the panel height in pixels.
Filter mode is a mode that has been added after the first release. It is now my personal favourite now! It adds a textbox to the top of the QuickLaunch menu and allows you to filter the links in the QuickLaunch menu in a filter-as-you-type manner. This is really useful when your QuickLaunch menu tends to get very big.
Demo screencast:
I apologise for the poor readibility in the video above. In the video I demonstrate the different modes of SharePoint QuickLaunchextender as I configure it using the custom configuration page
Jaap, I’ve been using your list filter out on hosted sites. It works very well so thanks very much for that. Cheers!
Comment by Mick — March 30, 2009 @ 11:43 pm
Hi Mick,
Thanks for your comment. That is very cool, glad I could help!
Jaap
Comment by Jaap Vossers — March 30, 2009 @ 11:49 pm
any thoughts on making it site specific, meaning I can have a different setting for my top-level site rather then a sub-site?
Comment by Josiah — June 24, 2009 @ 4:37 pm
Hi Josiah,
If I ever decide to develop a new version, that feature would be at the top of the list
Thanks
Jaap
Comment by Jaap Vossers — June 26, 2009 @ 3:37 pm
Hi Jaap, thanks for this great piece of functionality. I have a question: I have deployed Quick Launch Extender onto a MOSS Publishing Portal. I have deployed the wsp globally. It works for all Quick Launches in “_layouts” but not on the portal itself ie team sites. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks
Gary
Comment by Gary — July 10, 2009 @ 1:12 pm