Navigation
Last updated
Last updated
The Navigation-tab is where you manage your 'Navigation points'.
Introduced in June 2022, Custom HTTP Endpoints can be managed from this Navigation-tab.
Navigation points are basically menu options that are available in the various menus that are available in a WEM application. A navigation point navigates towards a specific flowchart or URL. This is defined when you create a navigation point.
Every WEM application comes with three different visible menu-groups and one invisible group. The location and styling of the visible menu-groups is defined by the Design Template selected on the portal.
Main menu - this is the main menu bar that you usually find at the top of your application (or at a different position defined by the Design Template).
User menu - this menu is also on the top menu bar, but at the far right: here you find all navigation points (menu options) that can be made available when a user has logged in (a typical use for this group). But this group can also be used just to show specific menu items at the top-right of the page (or where the Design Template places this group).
Footer menu - which is actually a secondary menu that can be positioned at the bottom of the page but also at the left (based on the location defined by the Design Template).
Besides the menus that are mentioned above, there is also a group called Invisible. This is a special one: all navigation points that are part of Invisible are points that will not be visible in a manu on the page, but may provide specific URLs (hostname of portal + path to specific flow). These URLs can be used to directly access a specific flowchart in the WEM application from the outside (bypassing the standard home-starting point). For example by providing a link in an email message. A specific often-used example is the Reset Password option: you create a URL that is very specific, you can't access the functionality via the application directly, but through the URL you could access the password reset functionality of the application (for example via link in email). This feature can be seen in the Quick Starter Project Basic Authentication v2020, in MyWEM.
A navigation point navigates directly to a flowchart or a hyperlink. Usually, a navigation point is used as a menu item in a menu. When you click on a menu you get access to the list of navigation points. When you right-click on a navigation point, you get a menu to manage the navigation point:
To create a new navigation point, click on the menu or navigation point where you want to create a navigation point. When you create a new navigation point, some properties have to be defined:
Name
The (internal) name of the navigation point.
Display text
(optional) This is the text that is used for a menu item (navigation point) in your application. If this property is left empty, the Name property is used to display the label of the menu item.
Icon
(optional) It is possible to have menu items that also include an icon. Here you can specify the icon.
Visible when
This property is required.
You can restrict access to a navigation point by specifying an expression in this property. If this expression evaluates to false, the navigation point is not visible and its flowchart not accessible by its URL path. This is often used to give access based on a specific user role or set of user roles. But any other reason can be used to prevent access, as long as you can specify it in the expression editor.
For security reasons, this field is required: you have to consciously set the Visible When expression! Plainly setting the expression to true makes the item always available - so you can use that if you are sure that this item does not need specific rules to be available - just as long as this choice is consciously made.
Action
Deeplink: The navigation point navigates towards a flowchart that will be executed after clicked on menu item. This action should be a stand-alone flow ending in an Interaction Node without an End Node (or a navigation node navigating to a different flow).
Subroutine: This can be used to call flowcharts as a subroutine, to return to the same point when this item was clicked. The flowchart to be executed must end with an End Node, so that when flow reaches the End Node it can return to the point from where the Subroutine was started.
Hyperlink: Allows you specify a URL you want this navigation point to use. This is usually an external URL pointing to another webpage.
None: No action will be executed and this option allows you to create deeper level menu items (submenu). None creates a placeholder in the application menu that can expand and collapse to show/hide submenu items. After creation of this item, you can create new navigation points as sub-items in this item, that will be available if this item is clicked to expand the sub-menu.
Flowchart
Only available when the Action is Deeplink or Subroutine. You use this field to select the flowchart the navigation point will execute.
Hyperlink
Only available when the Action is Hyperlink. This field is used to specify the hyperlink the navigation point will take you to.
URL Path
Only available when the Action is Deeplink or None. The specified path is added to the base hostname of the portal and can be used to get direct access to this navigation point through your browser.
Open hyperlink in
When you use a hyperlink as a navigation point, you can specify what should happen when the hyperlink is opened: Open in a new window, open in the current window, open in the current frame or open in the parent frame.
Hierarchical parents of a navigation points override the visible when expression of its children. When a parent is not visible to the user its children will also not be visible and its direct link will not allow access either.
Most Navigation menu-bar options are pretty straightforward:
Move allows you to move a navigation point to another menu;
Delete deletes the navigation point;
Find usages show you where a navigation point is used within the current project.
Rename Your navigation point, this is updated project wide.
Query parameters are parameters that are used in URLs. Let's look at this example URL (that does not specifically work):
http://queryapp.live.wem.io/queryparam?uid=admin&action=resetpw
This URL points to the navigation point "queryparam" and contains two parameters: uid and action. Both have values associated with the specific parameter. The flowchart associated with the navigation point "queryparam" gets direct access to these variables and their values through the data-field-mapping you define. To make a parameter available to a navigation point, select the navigation point and click on Edit query parameters. You now get a form where you can manage the parameters for this navigation point:
You can now add or delete query parameters. When you Add a new parameters, you have to select the field to which this parameter should be mapped:
The WEM modeler automatically assigns a name to the parameter, but when you click on that name you can change it to your own preferred name (this is the name that is used in the URL). When you want to change the data field, simply click on Change data field.
You can also define Query string Parameters on the Project level, in Project Configuration - Query string, to make them available to any and all URL paths. When these parameters have been used on any URL to access the portal, the mapped data fields will have the provided values and are available to your flows.
