Making pages and menus visible to users

Introduction 

The user menu in the top-left corner is the main navigation point for learners. It gives them access to the various pages of the platform, such as My Courses and learning plans, Course Catalog, My dashboard, and so on.

As an administrator, you can configure custom menus for specific user segments, giving you control over which pages appear for which users. These custom menus can include both built-in pages and custom pages that you create.

This article explains how to:

• Check which main menu is shown to different users
• Manage which pages (menu items) are visible within each menu

Understanding these settings ensures that, in their navigation menu, users only see the content that's relevant to them. 

This article also covers how to use menus to control the visibility of pages that are not listed in the main navigation menu, so that they can be accessed, for example, via links or redirects. 

Visibility rules for menus

Select Navigation menu > Customization (shapes icon) > Menus to see the list of menus currently configured on your platform. 

→ Power Users with Permissions for menus will see listed here only the menus assigned to them as resource.

The visibility rules for menus are as follows: 

• Only Published menus are shown. Unpublished menus are not shown to anyone (with the exception of the Default menu).
• The order of the menus in the list is important: A user's navigation menu will be the topmost published menu of which they have visibility. Click the Visible to column to check which groups, branches and levels (Superadmin, Power User, or normal user) are allowed to see each menu. 
  → To have visibility of a menu, a user must match one of the specified levels AND belong to at least one of the specified groups or branches.
• If a user is not eligible to see any of the existing published menus, their navigation menu will be the one set as Default, even if it is not published, and even if they do not match its eligibility criteria. 

For more information about configuring menus and their visibility see the article Creating and managing custom menus for users 

Determine which navigation menu a particular user has

To check which navigation menu a particular user sees, start from the top of the menus list and look only at the published menus. Find the first menu where the Visible to criteria match your user’s level and group/branch membership. 

For example, to have visibility of the menu illustrated below, the user must be:

• Either a Superadmin, or a Power User with “HR manager” profile

AND

• Belong to the Milano group OR to the Anonymized branch (it is not necessary to belong to all the specified groups or branches, one is sufficient)

If the user does not meet the criteria for any of the published menus, then their navigation menu will be the one marked as default.  

Tip: You can impersonate a user to confirm which navigation menu is being shown to them 

Understand which users have a given navigation menu 

To determine which users have a particular navigation menu in the platform, you need to consider two things:

1. The order of published menus in the list (the menu hierarchy).
2. The visibility settings of each menu (how broad or narrow they are). 

Key guidelines

Menus visible to everyone:

• If a menu is visible to all users (e.g., all branches, groups, and levels), it will override any menus listed below it. None of the menus underneath it will be shown to anyone as their navigation menu.
• If you have multiple menus visible to everyone, only the topmost one will apply—it will “catch” all the users, and none of the menus beneath it will be used as anyone's navigation menu.

Narrow vs broad visibility:

Menus with narrower visibility (e.g., specific branches or levels) must be placed above broader ones to have an effect.

Similarly, if you have a menu visible to both the Sales and Marketing branches (all users)  and you place it above the menus targeting only the Sales branch, then the Sales-specific menus will not be seen.  

Overlapping audience segments:

Consider also whether the targets of different menus intersect

Example: You have a menu targeting the Canada group (all users) and another menu targeting the Sales branch (all users): 
- These menus will not interfere with each other if none of the Canada group members are also in the Sales branch. 
- But if some users are both in the Canada group and the Sales branch, they will get whichever menu is higher up in the list. 

Effect of the default menu:

The default menu acts both as:

• A regular menu (shown based on its priority and visibility), and
• A fallback menu for users who don’t match any other published menu's visibility.

If all your defined menus target small or specific groups, many users may not match any of them—and they’ll get the default menu instead. 

But if every user is eligible for at least one published menu, then the default menu behaves just like any other menu.

Menu order matters: 
Because menu visibility is hierarchy-based, changing the order of menus can potentially impact users across the platform–not just those targeted by the menu you're moving. Be especially cautious when moving broadly visible menus above more targeted ones—this can unintentionally hide menus from the intended audience.

Check what pages appear in a specific menu (on desktop and mobile)

Once you have established which of the platform menus is being shown to the user or users that you want to target, you can check what pages are contained in that menu. To do this:

1. Select Navigation menu > Customization (shapes icon) > Menus, and from the list of menus click on the specific menu you want to check
2. The Desktop main menu tab will show, on the right hand side, the items that are included in this menu on the desktop platform. 
   → Remember that this means that all the users who see this menu will have those items in their user menu. 
   
3. Similarly, the Mobile app main menu tab shows what items users who have this menu will see on the mobile app. 
   - If the Customize mobile app menu toggle is off, this means the mobile menu will be identical to the desktop one. 
   - If the Customize toggle is on, then the mobile menu is distinct from the desktop one. In this case the panel on the right hand side shows the items that will be visible to users with this menu on mobile. 
   

You can change the pages that appear in a particular menu by either removing existing pages, or by adding pages from the available ones listed on the left hand side. You can also change the order in which the menu items appear. 

→ Remember that, if the mobile menu is customized, you will need to do this separately for the desktop and mobile menus. 

For instructions see the article Creating and managing custom menus for users, chapters Adding pages to desktop menus and Adding pages to mobile menus. 

Warning: When you change the pages of a menu, remember that this will affect all the users who see that particular menu in their platform. 

Make a page visible in your users' navigation menu

In some scenarios, you may want to make a specific page visible to a user or set of users, so that they can access it via their navigation menu. For example, this might happen after you create a new custom page (either a widget page or an external link page). Or you might want to make available a previously concealed built-in page. 

Make sure the page is published

To make a page visible to users, you first of all need  to check that it is published. To do this:

1. Select Navigation menu > Customization (shapes icon) > Pages to open the list of pages.  
   → Power users with permissions for pages will see listed here the pages assigned to them as resource
2. In the list of pages, locate the page that you want to show.
3. If it is a custom page (widget page or external link page), make sure that it is Published, as unpublished pages are not shown, even if included in menus. You can publish or unpublish a page by clicking the icon in the Published column. 
   → Note that built-in pages are always published and cannot be unpublished.
4. Save changes when you are finished. 

Add the page to the appropriate user menus

Next, to display the page to the desired target audience, you need to put it into the right menus. To do this:

1. Identify the menu or menus that are shown to your desired target users. For help with this see the chapters Determine which navigation menu a particular user has and Understand which users have a given navigation menu. Remember to consider only published menus, and the default menu if applicable.
2. Check whether the page you want to show is already added to those menus. For help with this see the chapter Check what pages appear in a specific menu (on desktop and mobile). Remember to check both the mobile and desktop menus, which may be different.
3. If the page is not already added, insert it into the appropriate menus as instructed in the article Creating and managing custom menus for users, chapters Adding pages to desktop menus and Adding pages to mobile menus. 

Get the users to refresh the page

The changes to pages and menus will take effect for users the next time they refresh the platform page. If users report the requested page is still not visible in their navigation menu, first ask them to refresh (reload) the browser page. If that doesn’t work, try the following: 
- check in an incognito browser window
- sign out of the platform and then sign back in again 
- clear the browser cache

Make a menu visible to your users 

In some scenarios, you may already have a correctly configured menu containing the page you want to show, only this menu is not being shown to everyone in your target audience, because certain users are seeing a different navigation menu. 

In this case you need to carefully examine the hierarchy of menus on your platform and see what changes you can safely make to correct this.  In particular: 

Check the visibility settings of the menu itself: Make sure it targets all the groups, branches or levels who should be getting that particular menu. 

Check the priority of the menu: If you have another higher-priority menu that targets some of the same users, it will intercept those users and prevent them from getting the desired menu.

Eliminate unwanted or abandoned duplicate menus: In some cases, the menus list may include some old or test versions of menus that are inadvertently “capturing” some users and preventing them from seeing the properly updated menu.  
To avoid this, clean up your menus list or at least move any test or duplicate menus to the bottom of the list.

Control the visibility of pages not in the navigation menu

It is sometimes necessary for users to access pages that do not appear in their navigation menu. 

For example, you may want to use direct links or system redirects to send users to certain pages that they do not see listed in their platform menu.  

For this to work, the targeted users need to have visibility of a published menu containing the page–even if that menu is not the one shown to them in the platform.

To accomplish this, you can create a secondary menu associated to the same users, but with a lower priority than the menu actually shown to those users. Include in this "hidden menu" any pages that the users need to access, but which should not be listed in their primary navigation.