Menus

The theme can build menu trees from the structure of your page files or from Hugo’s build in menu feature.

• Option Configuration options in your hugo.toml apply to all menus.

• Front Matter In case of page structure menus, individual configuration is done via a page’s front matter.

• Menu. In case of Hugo menus, individual configuration is done via a menu entry’s configuration.

Expand State of Submenus

Option Front Matter You can change how submenus appear with alwaysopen.

Menu For Hugo menus, you have to set params.alwaysopen instead.

If alwaysopen=false for any given entry, its children will not be shown in the menu as long as it is not necessary for the sake of navigation.

The theme generates the expand state based on the following rules:

• all parent entries of the active page including their visible siblings are shown regardless of any settings
• immediate child entries of the active entry are shown regardless of any settings
• if not overridden, all other first level entries behave like they would have been given alwaysopen=false
• if not overridden, all other entries of levels besides the first behave like they would have been given alwaysopen=true
• all visible entries show their immediate child entries if alwaysopen=true; this proceeds recursively
• all remaining entries are not shown

[params]
  alwaysopen = false

params:
  alwaysopen: false

{
   "params": {
      "alwaysopen": false
   }
}

Expander for Submenus

Option Front Matter Set collapsibleMenu=true to show submenus as collapsible trees with a clickable expander.

Menu For Hugo menus, you have to set params.collapsibleMenu=true instead.

[params]
  collapsibleMenu = true

params:
  collapsibleMenu: true

{
   "params": {
      "collapsibleMenu": true
   }
}

Ordering Menu Entries

By Weight

Front Matter Menu Hugo provides a simple way to handle order of your entries by setting the weight front matter to a number.

Hugo menus can only be sorted using the weight method.

weight = 5

weight: 5

{
   "weight": 5
}

By Other

Using the weight for sorting can get cumbersome if you, for example, just want to sort alphabetically. Each time you add a new page in the set of pages, you may have to renumber some or all of them to make space for the new page.

Option Front Matter Use ordersectionsby to sort by other aspects. See the children shortcode for a complete list.

[params]
  ordersectionsby = 'linktitle'

params:
  ordersectionsby: linktitle

{
   "params": {
      "ordersectionsby": "linktitle"
   }
}

Title for Menu Entries

Front Matter A page’s linkTitle or title front matter will be used for naming a menu entry of a page menu, in that order if both are defined. Using linkTitle helps to shorten the text for menu entries if the page’s title is too descriptive.

Menu A menu entry’s title or name will be used for naming a menu entry of a Hugo menu, in that order if both are defined.

For example for a page named install/linux.md

+++
linkTitle = 'Linux'
title = 'Install on Linux'
+++

---
linkTitle: Linux
title: Install on Linux
---

{
   "linkTitle": "Linux",
   "title": "Install on Linux"
}

Icons for Menu Entries

Front Matter For page menus, add a menuPre to insert any HTML code before the menu label. You can also set menuPost to insert HTML code after the menu label.

Menu For Hugo menus, add a pre to insert any HTML code before the menu label. You can also set post to insert HTML code after the menu label.

If pageRef is set for the menu entry and no pre or post was configured, menuPre and menuPost of the referenced page will be taken.

The example below uses the GitHub icon for an entry of a page menu.

+++
title = 'GitHub Repo'

[params]
  menuPre = '<i class="fab fa-github"></i> '
+++

---
params:
  menuPre: '<i class="fab fa-github"></i> '
title: GitHub Repo
---

{
   "params": {
      "menuPre": "\u003ci class=\"fab fa-github\"\u003e\u003c/i\u003e "
   },
   "title": "GitHub Repo"
}

Disable Menu Entries

You may want to structure your entries in a hierarchical way but don’t want to generate clickable parent entries? The theme got you covered.

For Page Menus

To stay with the initial example: Suppose you want log/first-day appear in the sidebar but don’t want to generate a page for it. So the entry in the sidebar should not be clickable but should be expandable.

For this, open content/log/first-day/_index.md and add the following front matter

+++
[build]
  render = 'never'
+++

---
build:
  render: never
---

{
   "build": {
      "render": "never"
   }
}

For Hugo Menus

Just don’t give your parent menu entry configuration a url or pageRef. See the next section for a special case.

If you want to learn how to configure different Hugo menus for each language, see the official docs.

The following example will not generate clickable menu entries for the Parent 1 and Parent 2 menu entries.

+++
[menu]
  [[menu.shortcuts]]
    name = 'Parent 1'
    weight = 1

  [[menu.shortcuts]]
    name = 'Child 1'
    parent = 'Parent 1'
    url = 'https://example.com/1'

  [[menu.shortcuts]]
    name = 'Parent 2'
    weight = 2

  [[menu.shortcuts]]
    name = 'Child 2'
    parent = 'Parent 2'
    url = 'https://example.com/2'
+++

---
menu:
  shortcuts:
  - name: Parent 1
    weight: 1
  - name: Child 1
    parent: Parent 1
    url: https://example.com/1
  - name: Parent 2
    weight: 2
  - name: Child 2
    parent: Parent 2
    url: https://example.com/2
---

{
   "menu": {
      "shortcuts": [
         {
            "name": "Parent 1",
            "weight": 1
         },
         {
            "name": "Child 1",
            "parent": "Parent 1",
            "url": "https://example.com/1"
         },
         {
            "name": "Parent 2",
            "weight": 2
         },
         {
            "name": "Child 2",
            "parent": "Parent 2",
            "url": "https://example.com/2"
         }
      ]
   }
}

Predefined Shortcuts Menu

By default, the theme supports one additional Hugo menu below the page menu in the sidebar named shortcuts. You only need to configure it in your hugo.toml to appear in your sidebar. For example:

+++
[menu]
  [[menu.shortcuts]]
    name = 'Example Entry'
    url = 'https://example.com'
    weight = 1
+++

---
menu:
  shortcuts:
  - name: Example Entry
    url: https://example.com
    weight: 1
---

{
   "menu": {
      "shortcuts": [
         {
            "name": "Example Entry",
            "url": "https://example.com",
            "weight": 1
         }
      ]
   }
}

Title for the Predefined Shortcuts Menu

Option By default, the predefined shortcut menu has a the title More (in the English translation) displayed above it.

You can disable this title with disableShortcutsTitle=true.

[params]
  disableShortcutsTitle = true

params:
  disableShortcutsTitle: true

{
   "params": {
      "disableShortcutsTitle": true
   }
}

To change the title, override your translation file.

[shortcuts-menuTitle]
other = "Other Great Stuff"

Title for Arbitrary Menus

Each menu may have an optional title above its tree. This must be activated for each menu by setting disableMenuTitle=false for each sidebar menu configuration.

Front Matter For page menus, set the menuTitle front matter for the root page of the menu. For example in the home page for the default sidebar menu. If no menuTitle was set, the title will be taken from your translation files by the key <identifier>-menuTitle, where <identifier> is the identifier of your sidebar menu configuration.

Menu For Hugo menus, the title will be taken from your translation files by the key <identifier>-menuTitle, where <identifier> is the identifier of your sidebar menu configuration.

If you don’t want to fiddle around with your translation files, you also have the possibility to let the title be taken from the menu definition. For that, define a nested menu that only has one top-level entry without url or pageRef.

In this case, the title or name is taken for the menu heading.

If you want to learn how to configure different Hugo menus for each language, see here.

+++
[menu]
  [[menu.addendum]]
    identifier = 'addendum-top'
    name = 'A Menu Title for the Whole Menu'

  [[menu.addendum]]
    name = 'A Menu Entry Title for Child 1'
    parent = 'addendum-top'
    url = 'https://example.com/1'
    weight = 1

  [[menu.addendum]]
    name = 'A Menu Entry Title for Child 2'
    parent = 'addendum-top'
    url = 'https://example.com/2'
    weight = 2
+++

---
menu:
  addendum:
  - identifier: addendum-top
    name: A Menu Title for the Whole Menu
  - name: A Menu Entry Title for Child 1
    parent: addendum-top
    url: https://example.com/1
    weight: 1
  - name: A Menu Entry Title for Child 2
    parent: addendum-top
    url: https://example.com/2
    weight: 2
---

{
   "menu": {
      "addendum": [
         {
            "identifier": "addendum-top",
            "name": "A Menu Title for the Whole Menu"
         },
         {
            "name": "A Menu Entry Title for Child 1",
            "parent": "addendum-top",
            "url": "https://example.com/1",
            "weight": 1
         },
         {
            "name": "A Menu Entry Title for Child 2",
            "parent": "addendum-top",
            "url": "https://example.com/2",
            "weight": 2
         }
      ]
   }
}

Defining Sidebar Menus

Option Front Matter Menus are defined for individual areas of the sidebar:

• sidebarheadermenus: the non-scrolling area below the search box
• sidebarmenus: the scrolling area below the search box
• sidebarfootermenus: the area at the bottom of the sidebar

As these options are arrays, you can define as many menus, as you like in each area. Each menu is displayed as a distinct block in their area. You can configure titles for each menu and dividers between multiple menus.

If you don’t set these options in your hugo.toml, the theme defaults as follows:

• sidebarheadermenus:
  • a divider to separate from the logo (depending on the color configuration of the theme variant) if any of the following is configured
  • a home button if configured, see notes below
  • a divider
  • the version switcher if versioning is configured
  • a divider to separate from the sidebarmenus (depending on the color configuration of the theme variant)
• sidebarmenus:
  • the main page menu based on your content structure
  • the shortcuts menu including the title if configured, see notes below
• sidebarfootermenus:
  • a divider to separate from the sidebarmenus if any of the following is configured
  • the language switcher if multilingual is configured
  • the variant switcher if multiple variants are configured
  • the history clearer if you configured to mark visited pages

This comes down to the following pseudo default configuration.

[params]
  [[params.sidebarfootermenus]]
    type = 'divider'

  [[params.sidebarfootermenus]]
    identifier = 'footercontrols'
    type = 'custom'

    [[params.sidebarfootermenus.elements]]
      type = 'historyclearer'

    [[params.sidebarfootermenus.elements]]
      type = 'variantswitcher'

    [[params.sidebarfootermenus.elements]]
      type = 'languageswitcher'

  [[params.sidebarheadermenus]]
    type = 'divider'

  [[params.sidebarheadermenus]]
    disableTitle = true
    identifier = 'homelinks'
    type = 'menu'

  [[params.sidebarheadermenus]]
    type = 'divider'

  [[params.sidebarheadermenus]]
    identifier = 'headercontrols'
    type = 'custom'

    [[params.sidebarheadermenus.elements]]
      type = 'versionswitcher'

  [[params.sidebarheadermenus]]
    type = 'divider'

  [[params.sidebarmenus]]
    identifier = 'main'
    type = 'page'

  [[params.sidebarmenus]]
    disableTitle = false
    identifier = 'shortcuts'
    type = 'menu'

params:
  sidebarfootermenus:
  - type: divider
  - elements:
    - type: historyclearer
    - type: variantswitcher
    - type: languageswitcher
    identifier: footercontrols
    type: custom
  sidebarheadermenus:
  - type: divider
  - disableTitle: true
    identifier: homelinks
    type: menu
  - type: divider
  - elements:
    - type: versionswitcher
    identifier: headercontrols
    type: custom
  - type: divider
  sidebarmenus:
  - identifier: main
    type: page
  - disableTitle: false
    identifier: shortcuts
    type: menu

{
   "params": {
      "sidebarfootermenus": [
         {
            "type": "divider"
         },
         {
            "elements": [
               {
                  "type": "historyclearer"
               },
               {
                  "type": "variantswitcher"
               },
               {
                  "type": "languageswitcher"
               }
            ],
            "identifier": "footercontrols",
            "type": "custom"
         }
      ],
      "sidebarheadermenus": [
         {
            "type": "divider"
         },
         {
            "disableTitle": true,
            "identifier": "homelinks",
            "type": "menu"
         },
         {
            "type": "divider"
         },
         {
            "elements": [
               {
                  "type": "versionswitcher"
               }
            ],
            "identifier": "headercontrols",
            "type": "custom"
         },
         {
            "type": "divider"
         }
      ],
      "sidebarmenus": [
         {
            "identifier": "main",
            "type": "page"
         },
         {
            "disableTitle": false,
            "identifier": "shortcuts",
            "type": "menu"
         }
      ]
   }
}

Notes:

• multiple consecutive dividers are removed by the theme if no other content is in between them
• if you redefine the homelinks like displayed above, you have to define a Hugo menu to replicate the implicit default configuration
• for the shortcuts if the implicit default configuration is active, the value for disableTitle will be determined by your configuration for disableShortcutsTitle.

Page Menu

The page menu generates a menu tree out of your directory structure. You can give it a starting page from where the tree is generated down. If now starting page is given, the home page is used.

Hugo Menu

The Hugo menu generates a menu tree out of a Hugo menu definition with the same identifier.

Custom

The custom menu allows you to define arbitrary HTML snippets wrapped inside of a li element. There is no title available to print above these menus.

A HTML snippet has its own parameter. Your self-defined snippets can contain further parameters that are passed to your snippet partial when called. Your snippets must be stored in layouts/partials/sidebar/element and the name of the snippet partial needs to be <TYPE>.html where <TYPE> is the type of the element.

Divider

A horizontal ruler

Example

The following example configures the language switcher and history clearer into the menu header, only shows the the page menu in the main sidebar section and keeps the menu footer empty:

[params]
  sidebarfootermenus = []

  [[params.sidebarheadermenus]]
    type = 'custom'

    [[params.sidebarheadermenus.elements]]
      type = 'languageswitcher'

    [[params.sidebarheadermenus.elements]]
      type = 'historyclearer'

  [[params.sidebarheadermenus]]
    type = 'divider'

  [[params.sidebarmenus]]
    type = 'page'

params:
  sidebarfootermenus: []
  sidebarheadermenus:
  - elements:
    - type: languageswitcher
    - type: historyclearer
    type: custom
  - type: divider
  sidebarmenus:
  - type: page

{
   "params": {
      "sidebarfootermenus": [],
      "sidebarheadermenus": [
         {
            "elements": [
               {
                  "type": "languageswitcher"
               },
               {
                  "type": "historyclearer"
               }
            ],
            "type": "custom"
         },
         {
            "type": "divider"
         }
      ],
      "sidebarmenus": [
         {
            "type": "page"
         }
      ]
   }
}

Redefining Sidebar Menus for Certain Pages

Suppose you are building a site that contains a topmost log and ship section.

When the user is on one of the log pages he should only see a page menu containing all log pages, while on one of the ship pages she should only see a page menu containing all sub pages of the ship section.

For both sections, the default shortcuts Hugo menu should be displayed as if defaults menus were used.

Directory structure:

Option Front Matter Using Hugo’s cascade feature, we can redefine the menus once in log/_index.md and ship/_index.md setting sidebarmenus so they will be used in all children pages.

Setting the sidebarmenus Front Matter will overwrite all default menus. If you want to display the shortcuts Hugo menu as well like in this example, you have to declare it with the Front Matter as given in the default options.

+++
title = "Captain's Log"

[[cascade]]
  [cascade.params]
    [[cascade.params.sidebarmenus]]
      identifier = 'log'
      pageRef = '/log'
      type = 'page'

    [[cascade.params.sidebarmenus]]
      identifier = 'shortcuts'
      type = 'menu'
+++

---
cascade:
- params:
    sidebarmenus:
    - identifier: log
      pageRef: /log
      type: page
    - identifier: shortcuts
      type: menu
title: Captain's Log
---

{
   "cascade": [
      {
         "params": {
            "sidebarmenus": [
               {
                  "identifier": "log",
                  "pageRef": "/log",
                  "type": "page"
               },
               {
                  "identifier": "shortcuts",
                  "type": "menu"
               }
            ]
         }
      }
   ],
   "title": "Captain's Log"
}

+++
title = 'The Ship'

[[cascade]]
  [cascade.params]
    [[cascade.params.sidebarmenus]]
      identifier = 'ship'
      pageRef = '/ship'
      type = 'page'

    [[cascade.params.sidebarmenus]]
      identifier = 'shortcuts'
      type = 'menu'
+++

---
cascade:
- params:
    sidebarmenus:
    - identifier: ship
      pageRef: /ship
      type: page
    - identifier: shortcuts
      type: menu
title: The Ship
---

{
   "cascade": [
      {
         "params": {
            "sidebarmenus": [
               {
                  "identifier": "ship",
                  "pageRef": "/ship",
                  "type": "page"
               },
               {
                  "identifier": "shortcuts",
                  "type": "menu"
               }
            ]
         }
      }
   ],
   "title": "The Ship"
}

Displaying Arbitrary Links in a Page Menu

You may have the need to add arbitrary links at some point in your menu that should redirect to other pages in your site structure. These are called crosslinks.

Assume the following structure

You now want to add a top level menu entry that points to third-day as separate crows-nest-incident.

For that create a new page with the following front matter

+++
title = "The Crow's Nest Incident"

[params]
  menuPageRef = '/log/third-day'
+++

---
params:
  menuPageRef: /log/third-day
title: The Crow's Nest Incident
---

{
   "params": {
      "menuPageRef": "/log/third-day"
   },
   "title": "The Crow's Nest Incident"
}

Front Matter If you want to link to an external page instead, you can use menuUrl instead of menuPageRef.

Pages defining a crosslink are never part of the arrow navigation and are skipped instead.

So with the above example and alphabetical sorting of the menu entries, pressing on kraken-incident page will skip the newly added crows-nest-incident and instead will load burning-sail-incident.

Having sub pages below a page that has menuUrl or menuPageRef set in their front matter is undefined.

Displaying Pages Exclusively in a Hugo Menu

Sometimes you want to hide pages from the page menu but instead want to show them in a Hugo menu. For that you have two choices

1. Create a headless branch bundle, _index.md in its own folder with the below front matter. The branch bundle will not be contained in the sitemap.

   content/showcase/_index.en.md

   toml yaml json

   +++
   title = 'Showcase'
   
   [build]
     list = 'never'
     publishResources = true
     render = 'always'
   +++

   ---
   build:
     list: never
     publishResources: true
     render: always
   title: Showcase
   ---

   {
      "build": {
         "list": "never",
         "publishResources": true,
         "render": "always"
      },
      "title": "Showcase"
   }

2. Or, put a child page inside a headless branch bundle with the following front matter in the bundle. This causes the child but not the branch bundle to be contained in the sitemap.

   content/more/_index.en.md

   toml yaml json

   +++
   [build]
     list = 'never'
     publishResources = false
     render = 'never'
   +++

   ---
   build:
     list: never
     publishResources: false
     render: never
   ---

   {
      "build": {
         "list": "never",
         "publishResources": false,
         "render": "never"
      }
   }

   The child page can be any type of content.

   content/more/credits_index.en.md

   toml yaml json

   +++
   title = 'Credits'
   +++

   ---
   title: Credits
   ---

   {
      "title": "Credits"
   }