Navigation/menu customization

[nwwatson]

Summary

Prose has hardcoded navigation (Home, About). Site owners cannot customize the navigation menu, add custom links, or configure footer content. Modern blogging platforms provide a menu builder for full navigation control.

Who Has This

• WordPress — Full menu builder with drag-and-drop, multiple menu locations
• Ghost — Navigation editor with primary and secondary menus

Why This Matters

Every blog has different navigation needs. A photography blog might want Portfolio and Contact links. A tech blog might want categories in the nav. Hardcoded navigation forces all sites into the same structure.

Recommended Implementation

Model

Create a NavigationItem model:

• label (string) — Display text
• url (string) — Link URL (internal path or external URL)
• position (integer) — Sort order
• location (enum) — header, footer
• open_in_new_tab (boolean)

Admin UI

• Navigation settings page at /admin/settings/navigation (or a tab in settings)
• Sortable list of navigation items (drag-and-drop via Stimulus)
• Add/remove items inline
• Separate sections for header and footer navigation

Public Rendering

• Replace hardcoded nav with dynamic rendering from NavigationItem records
• Cache navigation items (Solid Cache) — they change infrequently
• Support both internal paths (/about) and external URLs (https://github.com/...)

Footer

• Add footer navigation section (currently no footer links)
• Include social media icon links (Twitter/X, GitHub, LinkedIn, etc.)
• Social links could be SiteSetting entries or NavigationItem records with a social location

Key Files to Create/Modify

• app/models/navigation_item.rb
• app/controllers/admin/navigation_items_controller.rb
• app/views/layouts/application.html.erb — Dynamic nav rendering
• app/views/shared/_header.html.erb, _footer.html.erb
• db/migrate/ — Create navigation_items table
• db/seeds.rb — Default navigation items (Home, About)