Book Navigation

What is Drupal Book Navigation?

The image to the right shows an example of a (Drupal) 'Book Navigation'. 'Book Navigation' allows you to:

have your content (articles) appear in a navigation form to make it easier for your users to find the relevant information
create "books" with a top category, followed by sub-categories and/or articles under that top category.
create more than one "book"
arrange the order of the "books" as well as the sub-categories and/or articles within a "book"
set visibility of your 'book navigation' - whether all "books" are shown in the 'book navigation' or only show specific books and their sub-categories (based on which page was currently being viewed); whether users can hide and unhide the book navigation; which user types can see it (e.g. Anonymous, Authenticated, Administrator user types); and whether the 'book navigation' appears on all pages or only on certain pages.

Q. What are 'books'?
In a nutshell, books are (related) pages that you tie together in a book hierarchy. The hierarchy can contain multiple sub-sections and/or pages. Much like a real book with sections and/or chapters.

How do you set up your Drupal Book Navigation?

You might just want to check my Drupal specifications to make sure we are on the same page and that this Drupal tutorial is relevant to you.

There are 3 main areas of Drupal that have to be dealt with to make your 'Book Navigation'.

Block
User Permission
Book Outline

Block: Enable 'Book Navigation' block

Administer > Site Building > Blocks

On this page, you will find the block named 'Book navigation'. You can enable it (if it is listed under the 'Disabled' section of the blocks) or change the position of the block of 'Book Navigation' by using the drop-down selection list next to 'Book Navigation'.
Drupal Book Navigation

Once the 'Book Navigation' block has been enabled, and you have "books" to display, you will see it on your site. However you need to ensure that you have set the correct user permissions so that those user types can see your 'Book Navigation'.

On the same page, you may notice another block called 'Navigation'. This is different from 'Book Navigation'. The 'Navigation' block is by default, enabled and is important to you, the administrator of your site. It is Drupal's navigation block for you and it includes a link to your administration side of your Drupal site, as well as the log on/log off links. You can configure this block. The image on the right gives you an example of some of the contents of the default 'Navigation' block.

User Permissions to view the Book Navigation

Administer > User Management > Permissions

On this page, you can set all kinds of permissions (for various tasks) to specific 'user types'. Scroll down to the section "book module".
set Drupal book module permission

It is here that you can specify if a specific user-type can create a new book (for your 'Book Navigation'). And whether a user type, when creating a new content (e.g. blog, story, book page, etc.) can add their content to an existing "book"; and whether a user type can 'administer book outlines' - meaning whether they can re-order the arrangement of the contents of the books that appear in the 'Book Navigation'

Book Outlines: Which content type can become the top-level of a "Book"?

By default, not every 'content type' can be made into the start (top level) of a book - i.e. into a 'book outline type'. To specify which 'content types' can be made into a 'book outline type', go to:

Administer > Content Management > Books > Settings^[tab]

Under this "Settings" tab, you can specify which 'content types' can be set as a 'book outline type'.
Drupal Book Outline types

This does not mean that those 'content types' will automatically be made into a 'book outline type'. But it will allow a user with the correct permission to be able to specify that if they choose to.

Example: Book Outline - How to

Once all this in place, then you can add a new content to an existing "book" or even create a new "book" - which will appear in your 'Book Navigation'.

Example: you are of a user type that has permission to "add content to books" and/or "create new books". You want to create a new content of type 'blog entry' and you want to make this entry as a 'new book' (so that you can add sub-articles or sub-categories under this later on), you would:

Create content > Blog entry > ..

and in that creation page, there will be a section entitled "Book Outline" which has a drop-down selection box you can use. Here you can either add your new content to an existing book or create a new book.