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Side Nav

Figma GitHub

Used as the primary navigation of an application.

The SideNav provides users with access to the main pages of the product and should be used as the primary navigation in the application.

Usage

When to use

  • To display the primary navigation of the application on a page.

When not to use

  • To move between views within the same context or page, consider Tabs.

The navigation header displays persistent UI elements that give users quick access to important sections and resources within the application or platform.

The home link gives users consistent and quick access to the application's main page or section. Generally, the home or dashboard.

For cloud products, the icon set should always be the HCP service icon. For standalone or open-source products, it should be the product’s service icon (e.g. terraform).

Home link in side-nav's header

Help dropdown

Use the help dropdown to provide users with access to support and helpful resources that can be easily accessible from anywhere within the application—for example, links to the help center, documentation, or tutorials.

Avoid placing non-help related links or actions, such as user settings or navigation links within the menu.

Help dropdown menu in side-nav's header

User dropdown

The user dropdown gives users quick and easy access to their settings and preferences. The menu should contain links or actions related to the user's profile, settings, and/or preferences.

Avoid placing links to unrelated pages or actions, such as support or navigation items within the menu.

User dropdown menu in side-nav's header

Custom content

The custom type supports any custom content, local components, or Helios components within the header via an instance swap property (customInstance) in Figma.

Generic container within the side-nav header

Body

The body consists of a group of sections with vertical lists of links, typically to the most important parts of the application. Any custom content or component is also supported by an additional generic container.

List

With title

Side-nav section with a title

Without title

Side-nav section without a title

  • A title can help users scan the sections and provide context about the links inside each section.
  • Titles should be meaningful and related to the content within the section.

List items

Without icon

List items without icons

With icon

List items with icons

  • Use icons to help users recognize and scan the links they are paired with.
  • We recommend only using icons in the main or top level navigation.
  • Avoid overwriting color styles in icons.
Do

List items with correct use of icons

Don’t

List items with incorrect use of icons

With badge

List item with a badge

With count

List item with badge-count

With nested items

Use hasSubItems to show or signify that a link has a nested level of navigation.

List item with sub-items

Use isLinkExternal to show that the list item is a hyperlink pointing to a page outside the product or platform.

List item with a external link

Use external links sparingly. Avoid using this property to link pages that are unrelated to the product's navigation.

Custom content

Toggle hasCustomContent on to support any additional custom content, local components, or Helios components within the body container via an instance swap property (customInstance) in Figma.

Generic container within the side-nav body

Context switcher

The context switcher allows users to switch between different contexts within your product or application. For example, the navigation or application can change based on a particular organization or workspace the user selects.

Context switcher

Positioning, and responsive behaviour

The SideNav should always be positioned on the left side of the viewport, occupying 100% of the viewport height to ensure that the navigation is always visible and accessible to the user..

On smaller viewports, the SideNav should collapse to maximize the available real estate on tablet and mobile devices. By tapping the menu icon, users can expand and access the full menu when needed.

Responsive side-nav

How to use this component

Documentation update in progress

The documentation for the SideNav component is being updated, following a recent refactoring.

For the time being, if you need to adopt this component refer to the Component API documentation below (which is up-to-date) or contact the HDS team–specifically Cristiano Rastelli–to get help.

Component API

SideNav

Name
<:header>
Type
named block
Description
A named block where the content for the “header” area of the SideNav is rendered. The SideNav::Header component should be added here.
Name
<:body>
Type
named block
Description
A named block where the content for the “body” or main content of the SideNav is rendered. The SideNav::List and SideNav::PortalTarget components should be added here when used.
Name
<:footer>
Type
named block
Description
A named block where the content for the “footer” section of the SideNav is rendered.
Name
…attributes
Description
This component supports use of ...attributes.

SideNav::Header

Name
<:logo>
Type
named block
Description
A named block where the main product logo linked to your app’s home page will be rendered. The SideNav::HomeLink component should be added here.
Name
<:actions>
Type
named block
Description
A named block where the header “action” components will be rendered. Typically Dropdown components and/or SideNav::IconButton components will be added here. Special SideNav coordinated styling can be applied to dropdowns by adding the hds-side-nav__dropdown class name.
Name
…attributes
Description
This component supports use of ...attributes.

The SideNav::Header::HomeLink component uses the generic Hds::Interactive component. For more details about this utility component please refer to its documentation page.

Name
icon
Type
string
Description
Used to show an icon. Any icon name is accepted. Typically you would add the icon name for your product.
Name
color
Type
string
Description
Used to specify an optional custom color provided as any valid CSS color. For more details on acceptable values, see the FlightIcon color argument. If unspecified, it will use the SideNav’s default white text color.
Name
href
Description
URL parameter that’s passed down to the <a> element.
Name
isHrefExternal
Type
boolean
Values
  • false (default)
  • true
Description
This controls if the <a> link is external. For security reasons, we add the target="_blank" and rel="noopener noreferrer" attributes to it by default.
Name
route/models/model/query/current-when/replace
Description
Parameters that are passed down as arguments to the <LinkTo>/<LinkToExternal> components.
Name
isRouteExternal
Type
boolean
Values
  • false (default)
  • true
Description
This controls if the “LinkTo” is external to the Ember engine, in which case it will use a <LinkToExternal> for the @route.
Name
ariaLabel
Type
string
Required
Required
Description
The value of the aria-label. If no text value is defined an error will be thrown.
Name
…attributes
Description
This component supports use of ...attributes.

SideNav::Header::IconButton

The SideNav::Header::IconButton component uses the generic Hds::Interactive component. For more details about this utility component please refer to its documentation page.

Name
icon
Type
string
Description
Used to show an icon. Any icon name is accepted.
Name
href
Description
URL parameter that’s passed down to the <a> element.
Name
isHrefExternal
Type
boolean
Values
  • false (default)
  • true
Description
This controls if the <a> link is external. For security reasons, we add the target="_blank" and rel="noopener noreferrer" attributes to it by default.
Name
route/models/model/query/current-when/replace
Description
Parameters that are passed down as arguments to the <LinkTo>/<LinkToExternal> components.
Name
isRouteExternal
Type
boolean
Values
  • false (default)
  • true
Description
This controls if the “LinkTo” is external to the Ember engine, in which case it will use a <LinkToExternal> for the @route.
Name
ariaLabel
Type
string
Required
Required
Description
The value of the aria-label. If no text value is defined an error will be thrown.
Name
…attributes
Description
This component supports use of ...attributes.

SideNav::PortalTarget

The SideNav::PortalTarget component is used to receive some content "transported" through the portal and inject it into its position in the DOM tree. For details about how portals work refer to the ember-stargate documentation.

The component is implemented to support multiple portals.

Name
targetName
Type
string
Values
  • hds-side-nav-portal-target (default)
  • string
Description
The unique name used by ember-stargate to identify the portal. If provided, the same name must be used in the SideNav::Portal to point to the correct target.
Name
…attributes
Description
This component supports use of ...attributes.

SideNav::Portal

The SideNav::Portal component is used to "transport" some content through the portal into the target element. For details about how portals work refer to the ember-stargate documentation.

The content yielded in the component is injected inside a Hds::SideNav::List element (hence all its sub-components available as yielded components).

Name
<[P].extraBefore/Item/BackLink/Title/Link/extraAfter>
Type
yielded component
Description
Sub-components yielded from Hds::SideNav::List (see below).
Name
targetName
Type
string
Values
  • hds-side-nav-portal-target (default)
  • string
Description
The unique name used by ember-stargate to identify the target portal. If provided, the same name must be used in the SideNav::PortalTarget to identify it.
Name
ariaLabel
Type
string
Description
The value of the aria-label that is applied to the <nav> element in the Hds::SideNav::List component.
Name
…attributes
Description
This component supports use of ...attributes.

SideNav::List

The SideNav::List component is used to wrap and contain the SideNav::List::Title, SideNav::List::Link, SideNav::List::BackLink and SideNav::List::Item components.

Name
<[L].extraBefore>
Type
yielded component
Description
Container that yields its content before the <ul> list of items (but inside the <nav> wrapper)
Name
<[L].Item>
Type
yielded component
Description
The generic SideNav::List::Item component (see below).
Name
<[L].BackLink>
Type
yielded component
Description
The SideNav::List::BackLink component (see below).
Name
<[L].Title>
Type
yielded component
Description
The SideNav::List::Title component (see below).
Name
<[L].Link>
Type
yielded component
Description
The SideNav::List::Link component (see below).
Name
<[L].extraAfter>
Type
yielded component
Description
Container that yields its content after the <ul> list of items (but inside the <nav> wrapper)
Name
…attributes
Description
This component supports use of ...attributes.

SideNav::List::Item

The SideNav::List::Item component can be used to contain generic content.

Name
yield
Description
Elements passed as children of this component are yielded inside the <li> element.
Name
…attributes
Description
This component supports use of ...attributes.

The SideNav::List::BackLink component uses the generic Hds::Interactive component. For more details about this utility component please refer to its documentation page.

Name
text
Type
string
Description
The text content for the SideNav::List::BackLink component.
Name
href
Description
URL parameter that’s passed down to the <a> element.
Name
isHrefExternal
Type
boolean
Values
  • false (default)
  • true
Description
This controls if the <a> link is external. For security reasons, we add the target="_blank" and rel="noopener noreferrer" attributes to it by default.
Name
route/models/model/query/current-when/replace
Description
Parameters that are passed down as arguments to the <LinkTo>/<LinkToExternal> components.
Name
isRouteExternal
Type
boolean
Values
  • false (default)
  • true
Description
This controls if the “LinkTo” is external to the Ember engine, in which case it will use a <LinkToExternal> for the @route.
Name
…attributes
Description
This component supports use of ...attributes.

SideNav::List::Title

The SideNav::List::Title component is used to display a title for related SideNav::List::Link components.

Name
yield
Description
Elements passed as children of this component are yielded inside the element.
Name
…attributes
Description
This component supports use of ...attributes.

The SideNav::List::Link component uses the generic Hds::Interactive component. For more details about this utility component please refer to its documentation page.

Name
icon
Type
string
Description
Used to show an icon. Any icon name is accepted.
Name
text
Type
string
Description
The text content for the SideNav::List::Link component.
Name
badge
Type
string
Description
Displays an optional Badge. Accepts the text value that should go in Badge.
Name
count
Type
string
Description
Displays an optional BadgeCount indicator. Accepts the text value that should go in Badge Count.
Name
hasSubItems
Type
boolean
Values
  • false (default)
  • true
Description
Indicates the existence of sub-item links. If set to true, displays a right aligned chevron-right icon.
Name
isActive
Values
  • false (default)
  • true
Description
If set to true, adds the class name of “active” to the rendered interactive element. Used to indicate the currently active page Link.
Name
href
Description
URL parameter that’s passed down to the <a> element.
Name
isHrefExternal
Type
boolean
Values
  • false (default)
  • true
Description
This controls if the <a> link is external. For security reasons, we add the target="_blank" and rel="noopener noreferrer" attributes to it by default. If set to true, displays a right aligned “external-link” icon.
Name
route/models/model/query/current-when/replace
Description
Parameters that are passed down as arguments to the <LinkTo>/<LinkToExternal> components.
Name
isRouteExternal
Type
boolean
Values
  • false (default)
  • true
Description
This controls if the “LinkTo” is external to the Ember engine, in which case it will use a <LinkToExternal> for the @route.
Name
yield
Description
Elements passed as children of this component are yielded inside the element (after the leading icon/text/badge/count block, before the trailing icon).
Name
…attributes
Description
This component supports use of ...attributes.

Anatomy

Anatomy of sideNav

Element Usage
Header
Home link Required; either default or custom
Help dropdown Optional
User dropdown Required
Search bar Optional
Body
Back button Required in sub-pages
List title Optional
List item Required; at least one
Footer
Context switcher Optional

Conformance rating

Conformant

When used as recommended, there should not be any WCAG conformance issues with this component.

Focus

When the SideNav receives focus via keyboard, the HomeLink should focus as the first interactive element in the DOM (document object model). Then, focus will follow through with the rest of the elements according to their order in the DOM.

Since the SideNav is a complex component that holds several nested components and can contain multiple types of content, nested elements must adhere to their individual accessibility criteria.

Focus order in navigation

Applicable WCAG Success Criteria

This section is for reference only. This component intends to conform to the following WCAG Success Criteria:

  • 1.1.1 Non-text Content (Level A):
    All non-text content that is presented to the user has a text alternative that serves the equivalent purpose.
  • 1.3.1 Info and Relationships (Level A):
    Information, structure, and relationships conveyed through presentation can be programmatically determined or are available in text.
  • 1.3.2 Meaningful Sequence (Level A):
    When the sequence in which content is presented affects its meaning, a correct reading sequence can be programmatically determined.
  • 1.3.3 Sensory Characteristics (Level A):
    Instructions provided for understanding and operating content do not rely solely on sensory characteristics of components such as shape, color, size, visual location, orientation, or sound.
  • 1.3.4 Orientation (Level AA):
    Content does not restrict its view and operation to a single display orientation, such as portrait or landscape.
  • 1.4.1 Use of Color (Level A):
    Color is not used as the only visual means of conveying information, indicating an action, prompting a response, or distinguishing a visual element.
  • 1.4.10 Reflow (Level AA):
    Content can be presented without loss of information or functionality, and without requiring scrolling in two dimensions.
  • 1.4.11 Non-text Contrast (Level AA):
    The visual presentation of the following have a contrast ratio of at least 3:1 against adjacent color(s): user interface components; graphical objects.
  • 1.4.12 Text Spacing (Level AA):
    No loss of content or functionality occurs by setting all of the following and by changing no other style property: line height set to 1.5; spacing following paragraphs set to at least 2x the font size; letter-spacing set at least 0.12x of the font size, word spacing set to at least 0.16 times the font size.
  • 1.4.13 Content on Hover or Focus (Level AA):
    Where receiving and then removing pointer hover or keyboard focus triggers additional content to become visible and then hidden, the following are true: dismissible, hoverable, persistent (see link).
  • 1.4.3 Minimum Contrast (Level AA):
    The visual presentation of text and images of text has a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1
  • 1.4.4 Resize Text (Level AA):
    Except for captions and images of text, text can be resized without assistive technology up to 200 percent without loss of content or functionality.
  • 2.1.1 Keyboard (Level A):
    All functionality of the content is operable through a keyboard interface.
  • 2.1.2 No Keyboard Trap (Level A):
    If keyboard focus can be moved to a component of the page using a keyboard interface, then focus can be moved away from that component using only a keyboard interface.
  • 2.1.4 Character Key Shortcuts (Level A):
    If a keyboard shortcut is implemented in content using only letter (including upper- and lower-case letters), punctuation, number, or symbol characters, then it should be able to be turned off, remapped, or active only on focus.
  • 2.4.3 Focus Order (Level A):
    If a Web page can be navigated sequentially and the navigation sequences affect meaning or operation, focusable components receive focus in an order that preserves meaning and operability.
  • 2.4.7 Focus Visible (Level AA):
    Any keyboard operable user interface has a mode of operation where the keyboard focus indicator is visible.
  • 3.2.1 On Focus (Level A):
    When any user interface component receives focus, it does not initiate a change of context.
  • 3.2.3 Consistent Navigation (Level AA):
    Navigational mechanisms that are repeated on multiple Web pages within a set of Web pages occur in the same relative order each time they are repeated.
  • 3.2.4 Consistent Identification (Level AA):
    Components that have the same functionality within a set of Web pages are identified consistently.
  • 4.1.2 Name, Role, Value (Level A):
    For all user interface components, the name and role can be programmatically determined; states, properties, and values that can be set by the user can be programmatically set; and notification of changes to these items is available to user agents, including assistive technologies.

Support

If any accessibility issues have been found within this component, let us know by submitting an issue.

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