Navigating through those folders via a browser client, particularly when there are a large number of folders, is not as simple. The usual method of navigating folders in Notes and Domino is to present an outline of folders in a navigational pane. The user is required to expand and collapse branches in order to search through the content. When the number of folders is large, particularly when they are nested many levels deep, this type of navigation is neither efficient nor convenient.

Large public Web sites such as Yahoo use an alternative method of navigation that is particularly well suited to a large hierarchical data structure. This method of navigation differs from the standard Notes navigation in that you see only the current folder, the path leading to it, and one level of folders below it. You can "walk" through the folder structure to arrive at a topic of interest. Of course, the success of this method depends on what names are given to the folders and how well those names give an understanding of how the content is organized.

In this article, I'll show you how to create Yahoo-like navigation of folders and views via a Web browser. Before we get into the characteristics of this form of navigation, take a look at Figure A. You might want to open it in a new window by shift clicking on the small image below; we'll be referring back to it throughout the article.

FIGURE A


The navigation closely resembles that used by Yahoo. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Item 1 in the figure represents the current location path displayed at the top of the page as a horizontal list of folder names. It shows the hierarchy from the root of the folders on the left to the current folder on the right. Each folder name is hot linked to allow quick return to prior levels.

Item 2 represents some content specific to that folder.

Below the current location path is a list of topics (i.e., folders) on the next level down in the hierarchy. See item 3. Each topic/folder name is hot-linked.

Below the list of next-level folders is a list of documents in the current folder, represented by item 4 in the figure.

I've prepared a sample database incorporating all the design elements discussed in this article. The examples and figures used in this article come directly from that database. Please feel free to obtain a copy from the download area of my Web site at http://www.gorenstein.com/download.