navto links go dead when not the first article in collection

[geoffreyr651434]

I am experiencing some very strange behavior with navto links in DPS solution articles.

I have an article with a large button with this link:  navto://GRhodes_PofC_contents#1  --just the name of another article in the same collection, going to the second page.

If I set up the collection so that the article with the navto link loads first, the button works.  If it is anywhere else in the collection (and I navigate there through a link from another article), the button is dead.  It is clearly reading the action because the <=back link doesn't appear at the top of the screen.  And no error comes up ('content not found'), instead it does nothing.  It seems like a bug, but I can't diagnose it.  I have not tried yet completely rebuilding the collection and articles on DPS, but that is my next step.

Anyone else having this problem with unreliable strange behavior with navto links?

[geoffreyr651434]

As far as I can tell, after rebuilding the collections in DPS, there's a strange bug:

If I link to an article within my project that is not within a collection, then I am able to navto link to that article, but unable to link back out.  The links instead just act like dead buttons, sense touch but do nothing.

If I take those same articles and add them to my collection from which I am linking, then I am able to go back and forth...

That seems to be what it is doing.  It is annoying because the way DPS is set up, it's very tricky to combine horizontal swiping and navigation links.... I am about ready to give up on using horizontal swiping at all, which is a pity, because that's really industry standard.

But, when you set up your articles to horizontally swipe (in InDesign), then you have to turn on the whole 'navigate with swipe' feature in the collection, which basically makes it so everything is connected to everything else (very undesirable, and unintuitive).

I was trying to work around that, by having just my navigation page inside the collection (that automatically opens in Content View), and then keep all articles separate, so they can't be swiped between.

Now, my only thought is to do the entire project in 'landscape view' but actually make all the pages cocked 90 degrees.  Seems a little silly.

[geoffreyr651434]

What's weird is I could have sworn that last week when you checked the option "enable horizontal swipe to navigate content" in the Collection that it would just make it so you don't swipe between multiple articles but can still horizontally swipe within a single article if you set that up when you exported your InDesign article.  But now if you do that, you just get a locked unswipeable page within a multipage article....  I guess DPS has decided to only think about phone UI (vertical swipe centric) and not tablet UI (horizontal swipe centric).

I'm now changing my entire project over to vertical swipe.

[geoffreyr651434]

I take it back... maybe Adobe's server is messed up.  Right now the ONLY time my navto links work is when the articles are all in the same collection... I am unable to move back up the hierarchy to higher level collections, only move down.  So the exact same article with the exact same navto link trying to find an absolute article name, navto://GRhodesPCcontents#1 , works when it's in the same collection with that article, otherwise it doesn't.

Seems like this wasn't true last week, but it is true now.

[Colin_Fleming · Accepted solution]

Hey Geoffrey;

Navto links in DPS2015 work much like the previous version, but there are some differences.

Within a project you'll have many articles, but every article name is unique. Navto://articleName will get you to the article, but the relative location of where you came from and where you "nav'd-to" has an impact on your experience.

A navto from one article to another in the same collection has a context, so you can swipe to previous or next articles within the collection.

But if you navto an article that's outside of the collection, then there's no context for any swiping navigation (you can only go Back). So a navto an article outside of the current collection is a bit like going into a cup-de-sac -- you must exit the way you came in.

Some relative navto commands work, and there's info in the HELP system: https://helpx.adobe.com/digital-publishing-solution/help/hyperlinks.html#create_goto_links_to_custom...

The notable passage in the HELP article is in the first section, third bullet point:

• If the destination article is in the same collection as the article the user is viewing, tapping the link opens that article within the context of the collection. If the destination article is not in the same collection, it will be opened in a state that's not related to a collection, with no articles to the left or right of it. Users can use the navigation bar to return to the source article.

HTH;

Colin

[GU_Julz]

Hi Colin!

I have a random question on article linking. Is there a way to link an article to a collection? Think if you liked this article you might want to check out this collection kind of thing? Is this possible. I tried with Navto without much luck. Just curious.

Julz

[Bob_Bringhurst_]

Hi Julz,

You can use the navto://[articlename] format to link to a different article in any collection. The article name needs to be the same article name that appears in article properties, so if you migrated content, you'll want to copy/paste the article name.

In Monday's (Oct. 26) release, you'll be able to link to collections.

-Bob

[GU_Julz]

so what you are saying is next Monday I can do "navto://[Collectionname}" ? That would be great! I am trying to make more Navigation beyond the one top level navigation option.

Julz

[Bob_Bringhurst_]

That's right. The format will be navto://collection/[collectionname]

[Edited to reflect the right format.]

[Bob_Bringhurst_]

The format will be navto://collection/[collectionname]

[geoffreyr651434]

So am I correct that there is no way to use a static navto navigation article as a menu to multi-page articles?  Specifically, I get these navto link cul-de-sac problems when I try to make a static navigation page (by selecting the horizontal swiping navigation checkbox when exporting from InDesign and then unchecking that box in its collection metadata so that the first page of the article appears and is unswipeable).  Then, in that static menu page, I have a button with a navto link to a different collection and multi-page article that allows horizontal swiping and put a button in there that links back to the static menu page.  When I do this, I get the dead buttons problem; I am unable to link back to the static menu page, instead the buttons do nothing when touched.  The same articles and buttons do work if they are all put into the same collection, but then I lose the ability to have one article that is static connected to another article that can be swiped horizontally between pages.

[Colin_Fleming]

Yes, you are correct Geoffrey.

This is a current limitation to navto.

[Bob_Bringhurst_]

That's an interesting approach, Geoffrey. In the next couple of releases, we'll have support for linking to collections and (later) context linking to articles in a different collection. I'm curious to see whether those enhancements will give you what you're looking for..