Navigation pane

[bartekpaczek]

I'm working on a project with big amount of requirements - hundreds. We have requirements split into multiple directories and files, so they are easier to maintain commit and review. Strictdoc server generates great web view of those, however there is one problem, which makes the work with the requirements very inconvenient.

The left navigation pane, which shows all of the files, after clicking on one goes back to the top. That means that the reader never knows where he is within the directories/files structure and can not go easily to the next requirement file from the same directory.
There are couple improvements I'd see solving that:

• freeze the view of the left navigation pane at the point where you currently are in the structure
• allow for rolling up the directories content in the left navigation pane, the way it is in the main view and make it adjustable at configuration level of which should e rolled at the start
• at the top bar show the relative path of the file not only its name

Maybe there are already some features that can support my needs?

[mettta]

@bartekpaczek

Thanks for the detailed report, this is a real issue for large projects.

The navigation problem you described (left tree jumping to top) is addressed in PR #2711.

What was added:
preserve left tree scroll across navigation/reload,
if navigation happens not via the tree (for example from an in-document link) and active file is out of view, auto-scroll to it and persist that new position too.

[bartekpaczek]

I cleared the cache, deleted /output strictdoc folder and also tried oth chrome and firefox. Nothing helped.

[bartekpaczek]

I see in the test files, that you only have one level of directories, in my project we have multiple nested directories, maybe that is the reason.

[stanislaw]

I confirm that switching between all documents in both static and editable HTML versions is working for me. I am clicking on the left panel's documents and they are not jumping to the top. The current one is always in the focus.

Your hypothesis about nested directories needs to be checked separately.

Just for our understanding: do you keep 1 requirement per file or your files are like small sections with multiple requirements?

[bartekpaczek]

Files are having multiple sections and requirements within them.

The top of each file is:
[DOCUMENT]
MID:
TITLE:
OPTIONS:
ENABLE_MID: True

[GRAMMAR]
IMPORT_FROM_FILE: @hlr_grammar

[bartekpaczek]

I created new python venv and installed strictdoc once again and now it works as expected. Thanks a lot for your help :)

[mettta]

@bartekpaczek

For your other suggestions:

• collapsible directories in the left tree (with initial-state config): possible future improvement.

• at the top bar show the relative path of the file not only its name
  This is something we can consider, but we want to balance it carefully: these screens are already quite dense, so we try to add only elements that bring clear day-to-day value. The browser URL is effectively visible right above the title, so in many cases that already provides enough path context, and adding file path in the top bar may be less essential.
  That said, we’d still like to understand your workflow better before deciding, because your use case may justify adding the relative path in the top bar. This clarification helps.

[stanislaw]

@bartekpaczek, now that we solved the preservation of the current document, let's get to your other points:

allow for rolling up the directories content in the left navigation pane, the way it is in the main view and make it adjustable at configuration level of which should e rolled at the start

I must say, I didn't understand what you meant by rolling up the directories content and therefore the whole sentence is not really clear. Could you try somewhat harder for us and elaborate your description?

at the top bar show the relative path of the file not only its name

Regarding this, follow @mettta's comment here: #2708 (comment). In the worst case, we could get a very long relative path that will start competing for free available space with other buttons, especially on smaller laptop screens.