CUNY Academic Commons

Great, I'll let her know. Thanks!

She requests the Nextend Accordion Menu plugin. LMK if you need anything.

Boone -
LMK if you want her to do anything. Should I send her the descriptions of
- https://wordpress.org/plugins/wpb-accordion-menu-or-category/
- https://wordpress.org/plugins/jquery-vertical-accordion-menu/
and ask for her opinion? Thanks!

Thanks, Marilyn. I'll make the recommendation this time, since her last recommendation ran into technical problems she couldn't have known about. If she's enquiring with you, please encourage her to have patience until after the scheduled release on the 11th (this Friday).

Great! I’ll let her know.

Boone -

It is my unhappy fate to be the messenger. Here's her reply:

"Hello,
Thanks for your message. The WPB Accordion Menu or Category plugin has the functionality we’re looking for, but not the aesthetics. We’d like to maintain the page’s look and feel by using a plugin that allows us to simply collapse the existing categories, rather than creating a distinct menu bar, as this plugin does. There were some other plugins that I included in my initial email that seem they would enable us to do this: Collapsing Categories and Show-Hide / Collapse-Expand. Are either of these possibilities?
Thanks,
Kristen
Kristen Cribbs, MPH
Human Research Protection Program Coordinator
Doctor of Public Health student, Health Policy & Management
CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy
kristen.cribbs@sph.cuny.edu | 602-686-0038"

Thanks, - will let her know.

I've let her know. Will report back. Here's hoping!

The reply:

"Unfortunately, the plugin doesn’t seem to work as we need it to. The widget only expands/collapses blog posts. We are looking for a function that will allow us to expand/collapse menu items in our custom menu sidebar.
I found a few other options that might do the trick:
· Netgo Expandable/Collapsible (https://wordpress.org/plugins/netgo-expandablecollapsible-menu/[wordpress.org]) menu
· Expandable Menus (https://wordpress.org/plugins/expandable-menus/#description[wordpress.org]) (plugin is a few years old but people seem to still have success using it)
· Nice Navigation (https://wordpress.org/plugins/nice-navigation/[wordpress.org]) (plugin is a few years old and not sure if it’s still supported)
I also found these instructions (http://mysitemyway.com/docs/Collapsible_sidebar_menus[mysitemyway.com]) on altering the CSS within the menu to collapse menu items, but it doesn’t seem our site currently gives us the option to customize the CSS or Javascript.
I am also open to any other suggestions the programmers might have.
I have an unrelated question for the programmers that I can’t find the answer to online: We currently have our blog posts on our home page (https://sphhrpp.commons.gc.cuny.edu/) . I’d like to alter the appearance of these posts. Specifically, do you know if there is a way to make the font of the blog post titles smaller as well as eliminate some of the white space in between posts within our existing WP theme? In general, I’d like the posts to be more compact.
"

I'll review the available options and see what I can do for version 1.11.12.

Specifically, do you know if there is a way to make the font of the blog post titles smaller as well as eliminate some of the white space in between posts within our existing WP theme?

It's possible for users to enter custom CSS that can be used to modify the appearance of the theme. I recommend doing this with the Jetpack plugin. Some documentation: https://jetpack.com/support/custom-css/

From the user:

"I believe I (finally!) figured out a workaround to allow me to collapse our site’s sidebar menu. Following these instructions (http://mysitemyway.com/docs/Collapsible_sidebar_menus) , I successfully used custom CSS (via Jetpack) to hide submenus on the menu bar. As a next step, I need to add custom JavaScript to enable the menu to display their children.

I could not find a custom JavaScript plugin installed in Commons. Is it possible for the programmers to install the following? Simple Custom CSS and JS (https://wordpress.org/plugins/custom-css-js/)"

Thanks for the follow-up, Marilyn.

It's not possible for users to write custom JavaScript on the Commons. It's something we can't allow due to security concerns. If the user has written and tested some JS, I may be able to roll it into a custom tool.

Generally speaking, the user may find it helpful to review our Hosting Partner Handbook https://dev.commons.gc.cuny.edu/hosting-partner-handbook/, which has details about custom functionality on the Commons. In situations like these, it's strongly recommended that users set up their own WordPress installation (either locally or on some other environment) where they can test candidate plugins and other customizations before submitting them for inclusion on the Commons.

Looks like this needs re-opening. She just wrote:

I’m writing to follow up to an old thread regarding integrating a collapsible sidebar menu into my Commons WordPress site (https://sphhrpp.commons.gc.cuny.edu/) . Unfortunately, the plugins we tried last August did not work, however, I recently discovered a newer plugin that seems promising. Would it be possible for the Bellows Lite plugin (see here (https://wordpress.org/plugins/bellows-accordion-menu/) ) to be added to Commons?