Employee Center’s Mega Menu Configurations

[SmritiGupta]

Academy Session

 

Introduction

The mega menu navigation menu dictates how employees navigate and discover available resources and content within your organization. By implementing appropriate mega menu configurations, you can enhance the browsing experience on your employee portal and boost self-service engagement.  

Building Blocks of Employee Center's Mega Menu

Employee Center Menu	Taxonomy Topics	Advanced Portal Navigation
It’s the Service Portal Menu associated with Employee Center portal Supports different menu items types, including: Service portal page Content URLs (catalog item or knowledge article) Knowledge Base /Catalog Category external URLs, and more Menu items can have hierarchical structure with parent and child items Refer to product documentation on Employee Center Mega Menu for additional details.	It’s a collection of hierarchical topic pages that brings together different content types such as requests, articles, communications etc. into a single employee-centric taxonomy structure. Active taxonomy topics with connected content are automatically displayed on the mega menu for up to 3 levels Refer to product documentation on Unified Taxonomy for additional details.	It’s a separate configuration within Employee Center that helps create an information architecture of choice. It comes with the ability to intermix service portal menu items with taxonomy topics and configure the order, hierarchy, and visibility of menu items. Refer to product documentation on Advanced Portal Navigation for additional details.

What is Advanced Portal Navigation?

Advanced Portal Navigation is the key to achieving a user-friendly browsing experience on your portal, akin to consumer-grade standards. We laid the foundation for Advanced Portal Navigation with our February 2023 release and enhanced this capability with our November 2023 release to include additional configurations options for the portal admins to build a navigation experience for their portal menu that goes beyond the unified taxonomy.  

Advanced Portal Navigation provides:

• Greater flexibility to portal admins in designing an intuitive navigation Information Architecture
• Enhanced provisioning to prioritize and highlight Menu items for better content discovery
• Ability to cascade of related Menu Items under a common umbrella menu item thereby reducing chances of menu items being reduced to a hamburger layout in smaller screens.

Following are the configurations options available for mega menu via the Advanced Portal Navigation module: 

• Mixed Hierarchy - Admins can now configure the Mega Menu drop downs, along with the top-level menu items, to be a mix of Taxonomy Topics and direct Service Portal page links. Note that this is in addition to surfacing quick links on the Mega Menu. It allows admins to blur the difference between a Service Portal page and taxonomy, helping create a more seamless content browsing experience for end-users. 
• Hierarchy & Order - Admins can easily define the hierarchy and order in which menu items need to displayed and even display service portal menu items before the taxonomy topics.   
• Display 4-levels of Mega Menu hierarchy – We have also added a new tab layout for the Mega Menu, which allows for the display of 4 levels of topic sub-trees, as opposed to the standard 3-level view. This expanded view is particularly beneficial for organizations with complex Mega Menus, providing a clutter-free experience by clubbing similar menu items under a common umbrella menu topic. This allows admins to fetch and configure top 3 levels of taxonomy topics and top 2 levels of service portal topics to be configured via the advanced portal navigation module. 
• Left or right aligned menu items - Furthermore, you can now configure some menu items to the left and others to the right, giving you greater control over the alignment. 
• Configurable Browse button text - Admins can configure the browse button text display using the advanced portal navigation   

Steps for configuring Mega Menu via Advanced Portal Navigation:

Refer to product documentation on Advanced Portal Navigation for additional details. 

    

  

FAQ's 

1. What is Advanced Portal Navigation? 

• Advanced Portal Navigation is a feature that helps in designing and configuring a better information architecture for the mega menu that makes the navigation more intuitive within Employee Center, thereby resulting in efficient information discovery.  

APN allows organizations to configure both Taxonomy menu items and Service Portal menu items  

2. How can Advance Portal Navigation benefit my organization? 

• Mega menu configurations when done via Advanced Portal Navigation can benefit you in following ways: 

1. Configure the mega menu to display Taxonomy or non-taxonomy menu items such as Service Portal pages as part of the navigation in any preferred order 
2. Configure the alignment of root topics on your mega menu to left or right 
3. Utilize the 4-level hierarchies within mega menu to build a navigation structure that best suits your needs 
4. Utilize the advanced portal navigation to streamline your header by minimizing the number of first-level menu items. This becomes particularly advantageous in responsive portal designs, preventing menus from collapsing into a hamburger menu on smaller screens. 

3. Do we require any additional plugins to activate APN? 

• No, you do not need any additional plugins to activate the Advanced Portal Navigation (APN) feature. It comes bundled with both the Employee Center and EC Pro packages. 

4. Is it possible add Service Portal pages and Taxonomy pages on the Employee Center mega menu in any order? 

• Service Portal and Taxonomy pages can be combined in the Employee Center mega menu up to level 2. Beyond level 2, particularly at levels 3 and 4, configuring this mix becomes more challenging. Levels 3 and 4 only support Taxonomy pages as of Nov’23 release.  

5. Is it possible to right align the menu items on the mega menu header? 

• With our November 2023 release, we are giving admins greater control over the alignment of their menu items. Using the APN module, admins could now configure some menu items to the left and others to the right. For example, the 'Get Support' menu item which is one of the new Mega Menu widget shipped with our Nov 2023 release - comes pre-configured on the right-hand side of the Mega Menu. 

6. What is the difference between Advanced Portal Navigation module and the Taxonomy module? If I’m using advanced portal navigation module, does that mean I do not need to use the taxonomy module? 

• You continue to utilize the taxonomy module for constructing your taxonomy structure, including creating menu items, sub-menu items, and child topics, as well as managing the content associated with these topics. However, for configuring the navigation order of these topics, aligning root menu items, or syncing hierarchies to fetch root topics or child topics, the advanced portal navigation module proves to be highly beneficial. 

7. Can I create new menu items under the APN module? 

• No, under the APN (Advanced Portal Navigation) module, you're not creating new menu items. Instead, you're utilizing pre-existing menu items to organize them, align them to the left or right, or nest them under each other. This module doesn't involve defining new menu items; it focuses on managing the layout and arrangement of existing ones.  

8. Can I configure my mega menu without utilising Advanced Portal Navigation? 

• Yes, mega menu can be configured without utilising the advanced portal navigation. However, if you don’t have an active advanced portal navigation record, several functionalities will be affected: 
  1. Without an active advanced portal navigation record, you won't have the option to left or right align menu items. The default alignment will always be set to left. 
  2. Taxonomy menu items will consistently be prioritized over non-taxonomy menu items, and you won't have the ability to customize the order of these menu items according to your preferences. 
  3. Moreover, all active menu items will occupy the entire menu header, and there will be no nesting of menu items allowed.  

9. What does the sync hierarchies button under the Advanced Portal Navigation module do? 

• The Sync Hierarchy button in the APN (Advanced Portal Navigation) module serves to synchronize the hierarchy in order to fetch menu items, root topics, and child topics, ensuring that the navigation structure defined or any new changes within the Taxonomy accurately reflects within the Advanced Portal Navigation module. 

10. How quickly can I view my changes when using Advanced Portal Navigation? 

• You can expect to see your changes reflected almost instantly with just a simple page refresh. 

11. Is it possible to undo changes made with Advanced Portal Navigation? 

• Absolutely. You have the capability to deactivate any active record within the APN module. This action will revert your changes made with APN, placing all first-level menu items to the header by unnesting them.  

12. What are some of the best practices around APN? 

• When considering best practices for APN (Advanced Portal Navigation), it's crucial to emphasize aspects that align with your organization's goals. Since people typically read from left to right, prioritize structuring your navigation accordingly. Additionally, the introduction of the Help Center aims to shift away from a departmental silos' perspective towards a more comprehensive end-user approach. APN provides the flexibility needed to achieve this by offering customization options for your mega menu. 

13. What mega menu configurations are available out of the box for Employee Center and Employee Center Pro? 

• Employee Center - Based on learning and deployment experiences of customers and partners, we have made some elemental changes with respect to nomenclature of root topics. 

1. We renamed IT to Technology Services, HR to Human Resources, and so on. This is specifically done to better position the taxonomy for an enterprise service delivery portal and avoid the connotation of a departmental-based taxonomy structure instead of employee-based.  
2. We have also placed the Get Support widget on the mega menu to make it easy to get help from anywhere on the portal.   

 

• Employee Center Pro - We have updated the Information Architecture on Employee Center Pro to make it better positioned for employee destination site.  

1. We’ve introduced a new top-level menu item called ‘Help Center’ which consolidates all service delivery-oriented Taxonomy Topics into a single menu item - including Technology Services, Workplace Services, Human Resources, and more, with updated nomenclature.  
2. We have added a new ‘Your Team’ menu item that provides direct access to Manager Hub pages such as Team Insights.  
3. We have introduced ‘Company’ as a new menu item where organization-level details like Org Chart and Location Directory are placed.  
4. We have added 'Your Career' menu item, creating a space for Employee Growth and Development related pages such as Trainings and Learnings appear.  
5. All these menu items have been added in addition to a dedicated 'News Center' menu item to streamline access to the news experience launched in August 2023.  

 14. I am not able to search for a topic/SP menu item while creating a navigation item via APN?

1. Make sure that topic/SP menu item is not already associated in the parent navigation item. 

2. We only allow top 3 levels of topics associated with portal’s taxonomy to be fetched. And We only allow top 2 levels of SP menu items associated with portal’s menu to be fetched.

3. Only active topics/SP Menu items are allowed to be browse while creating a navigation menu item.

15. I've defined a taxonomy topic but I don't see it on Menu?

Ensure that the topic is active in taxonomy module and have connected content associated with it with proper access defined. Then ensure that this topic is synced in the APN module and active in that module as well.

16. When I click on 'Sync Hierarchy’ button at Advanced Portal Navigation record level, It does not fetch the desired SP Menu items?

1. Make sure the SP Menu Items are associated with portal Menu of the Portal for which Advanced Portal navigation record is configured. 

2. Make sure that topic/SP Menu item is active.

3. Make sure that Sync Hierarchy is done at each child level hierarchy as well

17. In hamburger view of mega menu, the configured Browse button is not displayed?

Browse button configuration is not honored in hamburger view of megamenu.

18. What roles are required to make changes to mega menu via Advanced Portal Navigation?

• Advanced Portal Navigation (APN) was designed primarily as a portal administration tool where Service Portal admins own and control the overall portal structure and navigation.
• Since APN integrates both SP menu items and taxonomy topics into a unified navigation, and often requires access to portal records that taxonomy admins typically don't have permissions to view or modify, APN access was limited to SP admins only.
• The key reason is the clear separation of responsibilities and permissions:
  • SP admins own the portal structure, configuration, and overall navigation
  • Taxonomy admins own only the content/topics within the portal
  • APN requires access to both portal records and taxonomy records to function

• This separation of concerns led to the current design where SP admins must handle APN updates, though this creates operational challenges for organizations wanting taxonomy admins to directly manage their content in the portal navigation.

19.  I am a taxonomy admin [not portal admin] but I want to be able to manage access and manage APN like a portal admin. What do I do?

• Provide Advanced Portal Module Access to Taxonomy Admin
  • Clone existing APN module and add taxonomy_admin role to visibility settings to enable module access.
  • This allows taxonomy admins to see the APN section in the admin navigation UI.

• Modify Table ACLs to include taxonomy admin role to be able to view APN records
  • Create new ACL records allowing read access to all APN content but write access only for taxonomy-sourced items.
  • Configure ACLs for service portal , APN and APN navigation item tables to allow taxonomy admins to view the complete hierarchy while limiting edit capabilities to their scope.
  • Based on your need, you can decide to provide Write, Edit and Delete access as well.

• Modify Sync Hierarchy action to provide taxonomy admin the ability to sync the changes to APN
  • Modify the UI action permissions for the sync hierarchy button to include taxonomy_admin role.
  • Choose between giving full sync capabilities or limiting to taxonomy-related items only.[based on need]
  • In case you want to restrict taxonomy admin to only be able to sync topic changes to APN
    • Clone the utility function and update to use GlideRecordSecure instead of GlideRecord. This ensures sync operations only process records that users have permission to access.

[gjz]

How do you activate APN?  The documentation is horrible, it just states to select "Active", but the only place I see "Active" is in the list and security prevents me from changing it.  More detailed instructions and a picture or two would be so much more help!

[LearnUseThrive]

gjz, switch to the Employee Center scope. Then you can set active to true. I'm not sure why this page doesn't give a scope warning.

[ChrisJohnsten]

@SmritiGupta Thank you for the helpful write up! My team is struggling to enable APN, the documentation does not cover where to navigate to activate it. Could you please provide this information? Thanks!

[ChrisJohnsten]

@gjz Where are you navigating to see this list? I am struggling to find any mention of APN on the instance.

[LearnUseThrive]

@ChrisJohnsten Employee Center > Advanced Portal Navigation, from the All menu.

[Pooja Gupta1]

Hi, Advanced Portal Nagivation was released as part of our Nov 2023 store release. Hence, you would need Employee Center (version 31.0.3) and  Employee Center Pro (version 29.0.4)  or higher installed to see it in your instance. 

[Khalid5]

@SmritiGupta  Hey Smriti,

Why the mega topics and connected sub topics do not reflect right away after making the changes. It takes hours to show the update on the ESC Portal.

Is there any way to force the replication on real time ?

Thanks,

Khalid

[Andrii Valiiev]

@Khalid5 few hints and tricks here:

1. if you configure simple Header Menu (the one that is connected to your Portal record as a "Main menu" [sp_rectangle_menu] field) -- these changes appear immediately
2. if you configure Advanced Portal Navigation [sn_ex_sp_portal_extensible_navigation] (the one that can be found as All > Employee Center > Advanced Portal Navigation) -- these changes also appear immediately, but need to consider that Taxonomy elements used by Advanced Portal Navigation (APN) can be not immediately visible (see next item...)
3. if you configure Taxonomy [taxonomy] (the one that can be found as All > Content Taxonomy > Taxonomies) -- these changes (1) require connected content that is available for the logged in user, (2) are cached, so need EC Portal Cache to be flushed.

I'd assume that you have the issues with item#3. And I'd assume that you know about the thing that you need to connect at least one piece of content (for example, Knowledge Article) to every "leaf" Taxonomy Topic/Subtopic ("leaf" = the one that has no child topics below it).

If so, your issue is with cache. After Taxonomy changes are made, changes do not appear on EC Portal. Page refresh and even "hard" page refresh (with "drop browser cache") do nothing. It's all because you need to refresh EC Portal Cache. To do this you need either to (1) logout and login again, or (2) impersonate any user and end impersonation, so that you are back to your user -- both actions will refresh EC Portal Cache and you will see your recent Taxonomy changes.

[Khalid5]

@Andrii Valiiev Thanks for the reply! Yeah my question was for point 3 in your reply... let me try the suggested workarounds to force the replication and confirm

[MikeDev]

Hi @giz is it possible to achieve this kind of design in right side of menu on APN. Thanks! 

[Kanhaiya_Verma]

I want taxonomy menus on the main header not on second header

[Krishna Chaita8]

@SmritiGupta  Hi Smitha,

when enabled APN and selected Submenu display type as Expanded, then quick links options disappeared, is it expected behavior or do I need to adjust anywhere to show quick links when Submenu display type is set as Expanded