Side menu

Coming soon Coming to communities: the choice in Brand and appearance › Navigation, the compact menu and the news badges are coming to the screen. The API and the assistant (MCP) already work.

The side menu shows the community's sections and spaces. It can appear full, with the name of every section and space, or compact, a narrow strip with just the icons, which leaves more width for the content. Next to each Feed, Content and Events space, a badge says how many new items arrived since you last opened it.

#What it's for

• Communities with a lot of content (courses, videos, events with long programs): the compact menu gives the screen more room, and anyone who wants the full menu opens it with one click.
• Communities with many spaces: the badge shows where to go first, without opening them one by one.

#How it works

#The menu's starting state

In Settings › Brand and appearance › Navigation, the owner and the admin choose how the menu starts for everyone:

Each person can switch for themselves with the header button, which on a computer toggles between full and compact. Each person's choice stays in the browser, for this community.

Compact applies on screens 1024 px wide and up. On a phone, the menu is still the drawer that opens from the header button.

#News badges

Each Feed, Content and Events space shows how many new items arrived since your last visit to it:

• Above 99, the badge shows 99+.
• A section adds up its spaces.
• Opening the space clears its badge.
• A space you never opened counts from when you joined the community.
• A space you cannot open does not count: a private, plan-only, group-only or locked space does not show in the badge, nor in the section's sum. Nobody learns from the number how many items a closed space holds.
• A scheduled post only counts once it is published; a post awaiting approval, only once it is approved.

#Who can

The menu's starting state: owner and admin. Switching the menu for yourself and seeing the badges: anyone.

#Step by step

Role: owner or admin.

1. Settings › Brand and appearance, Navigation card.
2. In Menu starting state, choose Full or Compact.
3. Open the community in a private window (or ask a member) and check how the menu shows for someone who has not chosen yet.

#Examples

A video course school. Compact menu: lessons take the whole screen, and the student opens the Learn section from its icon.

A community with six Feed spaces. The badges show that Jobs has 12 new posts and Announcements, 2: the member starts with Jobs.

#FAQ

Does changing the starting state change the menu for people who already chose? No. It applies to whoever has not chosen yet in that browser.

Does the badge count my own posts? No. Only other people's.

Does reading the news through the assistant clear the badge? No. The badge only clears when you open the space in the app.

Will other modules get badges? Today, only Feed, Content and Events. The Channel has its own notice for new messages and mentions.

#In the API

• GET /api/menu/counters (any role of the X-CommunityId community): spaces (spaceId, sectionId, module, count, lastVisitAt; null when never opened), sections (sectionId, count) and total. One call for the whole menu; only the spaces the person opens are listed.
• The visit is recorded when the person opens the space (GET /api/spaces/{id}), at most once a minute per person and space.
• appearance.navigation.sidebarDefault (full or rail; default full) comes in the community reads and is written with PATCH /api/communities/appearance (owner and admin). Any other value returns 400 on navigation.sidebarDefault. The change is recorded in the Logs.

#Through the assistant (MCP)

• "What is new in my spaces?": list_space_updates lists the spaces with news, most first; with include_zero: true, it also lists the ones that are up to date. Reading through the assistant does not clear the badge.
• "Make the menu compact for everyone": update_community_appearance with sidebar_default: "rail", owner and admin only, always with confirmation.

#Related

• Dark mode
• Colors
• Sections
• Spaces