Smart navigation

When you allow smart navigation for an eligible portal page, the page does not have to be completely re-rendered when a user navigates to it from another page. Instead, the parts of each page that are the same—such as the header, footer, and menus— remain in place, and only differing parts of the next selected page are rendered. This allows the page to load more quickly for portal users.

Smart navigation uses the NavigateToSitePage() API to navigate to an eligible page. To be eligible, a page must meet these requirements:

  • The page must be FDF-based; not a static page.
  • The master page FDF must be an unbound IPFGrid.
  • The page must be enabled for smart navigation, as described later in this topic.
  • The master page FDF must be the same as the one used by the page being navigated from.

How it works

If the page being navigated to is eligible for smart navigation, the master page FDF is not entirely re-rendered. Each cell in the master page grid is checked to see whether its FDF is set to what the new page expects, given the cell’s initial FDF plus any FDF overrides from the new page. For cells that are not the same, the FDF is changed and rendered with the new FDF.

The master page FDF also gets a FilterChanged event that contains the filter that is passed in the NavigateToSitePage() API call, but it does not get a LayoutInitialized event, because it is not re-initializing.

During smart navigation, the IPF architecture also performs these functions:

  • Changes the title of the page to the translated title of the new page.
  • Resets the styles applied at the page level to those of the new page. This is a combination of the page spec styles and master FDF styles.
  • Modifies the URL in the browser or in the hosting iFrame, if IPF is hosted within an external application, to correspond to the new site page and filter.

Enabling smart navigation

These settings are provided in the Portal Manager and Page Editor for controlling smart navigation:

Setting Location Description
Allow Smart Navigation by Default check box Portal Manager:

Portal Configuration > Session Initialization

 Select this setting to allow smart navigation for eligible new and existing portal pages by default. To be eligible, the pages must meet the requirements specified earlier in this topic.

This is a global setting and can be overridden at the page level.

By default, this setting is not selected when you set up a new portal.
Smart Navigation drop-down list Portal Manager:

Content Development > Pages

Page Editor:

Page section of the Page Editor tools pane

 Use this setting to follow or override the portal default setting. These are your options:
  • Portal Default: Causes the page to follow the portal default setting. This option is used by default.
  • Allowed: Regardless of the portal default setting, this option allows smart navigation for the page, if eligible.
  • Disallowed: Regardless of the portal default setting, this option does not allow smart navigation for the page.