Custom sidebar

Customize the sidebar in terms of menus, links and icons.

When selecting "Left navbar" as the Navigation menu style, you'll be able to choose from 2 options for it:

• Default

• Custom, in which case the "Navigation menu" option will be enabled.

The "Default" option will render a fixed left sidebar with Ubidots standard menu layout in the App, where all the options will appear to end-users based on their role of permissions.

Custom

When selecting the "Custom" option, you'll be able to customize the sidebar at will. For example, in the below sidebar, menus, names, icons and dropdowns have been changed:

This is possible via the "Edit menu" button, which opens an XML editor that includes a preview where you can see what the XML translates to:

This is the XML that creates the custom sidebar seen above:

<!DOCTYPE tree PUBLIC '-//UBIDOTS//DTD Menu App XML V1.0//EN' "-">
<tree>
  <link exact="true" path="/app/dashboards/663d484aaa8d92005751b2bb" permissions="ubi_dashboards.view_dashboardpg">
    <icon name="home"/>
    <label>Home</label>
  </link>
  <link exact="true" path="/app/dashboards/668f020f8ccb68127b14e64d" permissions="ubi_dashboards.view_dashboardpg">
    <icon name="industry-windows"/>
    <label>Production</label>
  </link>
  <link exact="true" path="/app/dashboards/668f080e16b68912f0d2eb10" permissions="ubi_dashboards.view_dashboardpg">
    <icon name="fa-solid fa-chart-line-down"/>
    <label>Losses</label>
  </link>
  <menu>
    <toggle>
      <icon name="gear"/>
      <label>Settings</label>
      <chevron/>
    </toggle>
    <collapsable>
      <menulink path="/app/devices" permissions="ubi_datasource.view_device">Datasources</menulink>
      <menulink path="/app/dashboards/" permissions="ubi_dashboards.view_dashboardpg">Custom dashboards</menulink>
    </collapsable>
  </menu>
</tree>

XML syntax

The custom sidebar uses XML to map UI elements to code, which is the engine that allows the creation of a sidebar tailored to a specific application.

The available UI elements, and their hierarchy, are:

├── tree
│   ├── menu
│   │   ├── toggle
│   │   │   ├── icon
│   │   │   ├── label
│   │   │   ├── chevron
│   │   ├── collapsable
│   │   │   ├── menulink
│   ├── link
│   │   ├── icon
│   │   ├── label
│   ├── paragraph
│   ├── divider

Using these XML elements comes with rules that are enforced by the editor, and warns you of errors in the syntax:

1. The XML needs to start with: <!DOCTYPE tree PUBLIC '-//UBIDOTS//DTD Menu App XML V1.0//EN' "-">

2. The <tree> element is mandatory. It must have at least 1 or more <menu> or <link> elements.

3. The <menu> element must have at least 1 <toggle> and 1 <collapsable> elements.

4. The <collapsable> element must have at least 1 <menulink> element.

5. The <link> element must have at least 1 <icon> and <label> elements.

Here's a quick summary of the available elements, but you can click the links and read more details:

Sidebar element	Description	Properties
tree	Root element. All other elements must be inside	–
menu	Allows creating dropdown menus	defaultShow: determines if the dropdown is open or close when loading the app.
toggle	Comprises the dropdown itself	–
icon	Represents the icon the dropdown	name: name of icon from Fontawesone
label	Text in the dropdown menu	–
chevron	Arrow icon in the dropdown menu	–
collapsable	Comprises a parent element for all the options in the dropdown	–
menulink	Actual options displayed under a dropdown menu	path: where the menulink redirects to upon clicking. permissions: list of end-user permissions under which the menulink will be visible. tags: list of end-user tags under which the menulink will be visible. open: open link in same tab or redirect exact: highlights the menulink when in the exact path defined by path.
link	Creates direct access to links	path: where the menulink redirects to upon clicking. permissions: list of end-user permissions under which the menulink will be visible. tags: list of end-user tags under which the menulink will be visible. open: open link in same tab or redirect. exact: highlights the menulink when in the exact path defined by path.
paragraph	Creates titles of different sizes. It helps in creating defined sections in the sidebar.	type: determines the size. It can be "h1", "h2", "h3", "h4", "normal" or "bold".
divider	Creates horizontal lines that serve as section separation.	–

tree

Parent element where all <menulink> and <link> reside:

<!DOCTYPE tree PUBLIC '-//UBIDOTS//DTD Menu App XML V1.0//EN' "-">
<tree>
    <!--Your menulink and link components go here-->
</tree>

menu, toggle, icon, label, chevron, collapsable and menulink

Elements used to create dropdown menus:

<!DOCTYPE tree PUBLIC '-//UBIDOTS//DTD Menu App XML V1.0//EN' "-">
<tree>
    <menu defaultShow="true">
      <toggle>
        <icon name="gear"/>
        <label>Settings</label>
        <chevron/>
      </toggle>
    <collapsable>
      <menulink 
          open="tab"
          exact="false"
          path="/app/devices"
          tags="tag1"
          permissions="ubi_datasource.view_device"
        >Datasources
      </menulink>
      <menulink path="/app/dashboards/" tags="tag1" permissions="ubi_dashboards.view_dashboardpg">Custom dashboards</menulink>
    </collapsable>
  </menu>
</tree>

This will create a dropdown menu, with its options, as follows:

These are the properties of the <menulink> element:

Property	Description
path	This is a path in Ubidots to either a direct resource, for example "/app/dashboards/663d484aaa8d92005751b2e2", or a module "/app/dashboards/", or a full URL in Ubidots or an external website.
permissions	Comma separated list of permissions associated with the path. An end-user will only see this menulink option if its permissions matches
tags	Comma separated list of tags. This adds a visibility layer to the sidebar. An end-user will only see this menulink option if its tags matches. See also here.
open	Available options are: - "tab": link will open in a new tab. - "redirect": link open in the same tab.
exact	"true" or "false". Highlights the menulink when in the exact path defined by path.

link

Element to create shortcuts, in other words, direct access to modules or resources:

<!DOCTYPE tree PUBLIC '-//UBIDOTS//DTD Menu App XML V1.0//EN' "-">
<tree>
  <link
    open="tab"
    exact="true" 
    path="/app/dashboards/663d484aaa8d92005751b2e2" 
    tags="tag1" 
    permissions="ubi_dashboards.view_dashboardpg">
      <icon name="home"/>
      <label>Home</label>
  </link>
</tree>

This will create a direct link, as follows:

The properties of the <link> element are the same as the <menulink>

paragraph and divider

Titles/Labels element and separation horizontal lines

<!DOCTYPE tree PUBLIC '-//UBIDOTS//DTD Menu App XML V1.0//EN' "-">
<tree>
    <paragraph type="bold">SECTION 1</paragraph>
    <divider/>
    <paragraph type="bold">SECTION 2</paragraph>
</tree>

This will create the following:

Permissions

The available permissions for each possible path that's exposed to the end-users in the application are:

Module	Path	Permissions
Devices	"/app/devices/"	"ubi_datasource.view_device"
Device groups	"/app/device-groups/"	"ubi_datasource.view_devicegroup"
Dashboards	"/app/dashboards/"	"ubi_dashboards.view_dashboardpg"
Events	"/app/events/"	"ubi_events.view_eventpg"
Reports	"/app/data-analysis/"	"ubi_data_analysis.view_report"
Organizations	"/app/organizations/"	"customuser.view_organization"
Users	"/app/organizations/users"	"customuser.view_user"

With permissions, the <menulink> and <link> elements will only appear to those end-users whose assigned permissions match that in the element configuration.

Filter elements by tags

The <menulink> and <link> elements receive a "tag" property that adds a visibility layer on top of the permissions assigned to an end-user. The way it works is by matching the tags of an end-user with those specified in the <menulink> or <link> (learn more about tag filtering). Simply put, if the user has the same tags as the elements, it means the element will be visible to the user.

This filtering by tags allows customizing the sidebar based on the user accessing the platform. For example, say you want to create a direct link that takes users to their own home dashboard, you would create an XML as follows:

<!DOCTYPE tree PUBLIC '-//UBIDOTS//DTD Menu App XML V1.0//EN' "-">
<tree>
  <!--This link creates Home for User 1-->
  <link
    open="tab"
    exact="true" 
    path="/app/dashboards/663d484aaa8d92005751b2e2" 
    tags="tag1" 
    permissions="ubi_dashboards.view_dashboardpg">
      <icon name="home"/>
      <label>Home</label>
  </link>

  <!--This link create Home for User 2-->
  <link
    open="tab"
    exact="true" 
    path="/app/dashboards/663d484aaa8d92007364jnhd" 
    tags="tag2" 
    permissions="ubi_dashboards.view_dashboardpg">
      <icon name="home"/>
      <label>Home</label>
  </link>
</tree>

Let's assume 2 end-users, with tags "tag1" and "tag2", respectively. Note that there are 2 Home links in the XML, however, because each has different tags, namely "tag1" and "tag2", each Home link will appear to the respective user.

Like so, this will preview the following sidebar. We have marked what each would see