New "topic" menu feature

[kevindherman]

intro
@curtismchale this is meant to get the conversation started with this new feature idea to help restructure governments sites.

Once we get a handle on menu capabilities we can shift into if this is best leveraged as a new content type or part of pages and the layouts to follow.

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
Departments are the only way to create dedicated menus and we want to work towards a topic structure rather than department structure.

Here's a work in progress IA with a topic/action oriented focus rather than org chart structure: link in slack.

What feature would you like to improve
Create new menu based on topics. This could work with a new "topics" content type similar to how departments currently is that relies on a layout. Or be an option under pages someone selects rather than new page and then selecting a layout.

Wish list

• Create new menu (not a dept menu)
• URL structure can use the "topic" rather than current "department" which can be misleading
• Pages can belong to multiple topic menus
• Likely to have many menus instead of fewer extremely long ones

Additional idea

• Create new widget called topic list widget that would display related topics
• This would address pages being in multiple places but would not address breadcrumb menu concerns

Questions

1. If pages belong to multiple menus, how will breadcrumbing work? (this is likely an edge case)
2. How does taxonomy work in WP? Should we consider a page taxonomy strategy rather than menus to address pages have multiple topics?

[kevindherman]

@curtismchale I think a more basic approach than everything outlined above would be a good first step:

• Create topic landing page layout: https://san-rafael-mini-beta-ca.proudcity.com/topic-landing-page/
• topic landing page would be full width and without a leftside menu
• Create topic subpage layout: https://san-rafael-mini-beta-ca.proudcity.com/topic-test-inside-page/
• Subpage layout could be the same as department subpage but with topic menu
• URL path structure uses /topic-name rather than /department

This can all be done through creating a menu and then page layouts.

@curtismchale does the above make this a simpler task or does it still require rewriting the menu?

I moved this to to-do for the question above.

[curtismchale]

@kevindherman if you can use those two templates to build what you want then it doesn't require reworking the menu. If it's not quite right then we need to mess with the menu still.

[kevindherman]

@curtismchale it's pretty close but I could use some help so that the subpage is formatted exactly like department subpages: https://san-rafael-mini-beta-ca.proudcity.com/public-data/

If that's accomplished I think you're right that we can do this with layouts as is.

[curtismchale]

@kevindherman what doesn't look right? I note that the sidebar section is 25% width in the older style page but it's 33% in the page template. Is that what you want me to look at or is there something else you're not able to accomplish?

[kevindherman]

@curtismchale These are the differences I see, mostly padding which I'm not sure how to address or where to view/edit the agency subpage.

Items:

• columns as you mentioned
• Padding above breadcrumb
• Padding from breadcrumb to menu
• Padding from top of menu to top of page title

[kevindherman]

@curtismchale as we add more complex content, the approach is feeling a little too advanced or custom for a government to do for every subpage like this.

Here are some additional changes that may go beyond the layout approach:

Priority:
When creating a subpage, we need the ability for pages to default to breadcrumb, leftside menu and page title like department subpages do. Currently each subpage is entirely custom in page builder to make work.

Additional notes:

• Currently all pages are subpages of the landing page in the menu, this is needed for the breadcrumb to show the main topic landing page which isn't needed with departments. Departments display the department in the breadcrumb which technically is not part of the menu. This gives a nice breadcrumb without all pages being subpages.
• The subpage issue then creates a conflict with the text card menu view since that only displays parent menu items. We can avoid the text widget menu display for these types of landing pages if needed but it would be nice if it did work. This is low priority.

Side note: the functionality is closer on the Recovers theme but requires being in the primary navigation, see this subpage that gets the breadcrumbing and layout. https://williams-county-fairground-nd.proudcity.com/upper-missouri-valley-fair-association/. Non department subpages act like city-template, it's just the primary nav subpages that get this treatment option.

Lets discuss on our call later.

[kevindherman]

@curtismchale for the new topic content type, please use this as the layout template: https://san-rafael-mini-beta-ca.proudcity.com/homelessness/

[curtismchale]

Notes after a discussion last week.

• copy the Agency/Departments plugin and make a Topics plugin
• don't need
  • exclude from list
  • external link
  • contact information
  • social media accounts
• change Agency/Department words to topic
• add custom layout when this content type is used
• use department page template