Highlight current navigation tab based on url or subdirectory - html

Question

I've created a vertical navigation on the left of our site. We'd like the background color for a .item to change based on the subdirectory where a user is viewing content. So if someone clicks on a nav .item, the href will redirect them to a page and we want that .item to be highlighted a unique hex color that we can customize for each nav .item. All 6 nav items would have a different color.
One point of clarification is that sometimes folks may visit our site without having ever clicked a navigation item. I want the navigation items to still be highlighted based on the current subdirectory where a person is viewing content. This helps them easily identify where they are and how to get back if they navigate to other parts of the community. Also if a person does a global search and stumbles upon content in one of our 6 main areas, we want the nav menu to instantly identify their current location (based on url) and highlight that nav .item in our vertical nav bar.
Is Javascript or Jquery the way to go? Any help would be appreciated!!
Heres a FIDDLE with all the code.
sample CSS:
.navback {
position: fixed;
top: 0;
left: 0px;
width: 100px;
height: 100%;
background: #283237;
z-index: 4;
}
.navbar {
position: fixed;
top: 44px;
left: 0px;
width: 100px;
height: 60vh;
background: #283237;
display: flex;
z-index: 5;
flex-direction: column;
}
.topbar {
border-top: 1px solid #000;
top: 44px;
}
.navbar .item {
flex: 1;
text-align: center;
display: flex;
justify-content: center;
flex-direction: column;
padding-top: 40px;
padding-bottom: 40px;
max-height: 100px;
z-index: 5;
}
.navbar .item div.label {
color: #fff;
position: relative;
top: 5px;
font-size: 13px;
font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, Helvetica, Arial, "Segoe UI", sans-serif;
transition: all 300ms cubic-bezier(0.68, -0.55, 0.27, 1.55);
left: -100px;
}
Sample HTML:
<div class="topbar"></div>
<div class="navback leftnav">
<div class="navbar">
<div class="item hvr-shrink">
<a href="https://community.canopytax.com/">
<div>
<img src="https://png.icons8.com/ios/35/ffffff/home.png"/>
<div class="label">Home</div>
</div>
</a>
</div>
<div class="item hvr-shrink">
<a href="https://community.canopytax.com/community-central/">
<div>
<img src="https://png.icons8.com/ios/40/ffffff/conference-call.png">
<div class="label">Central</div>
</div>
</a>
</div>

Answer 1

JS/jQuery
// get the first directory by splitting "/dir/path/name" into an array on '/'
// get [1] instead of [0] b/c the first should be blank. wrap in /s.
hereDir = "/" + window.location.pathname.split("/")[1] + "/";
// rebuild the URL since you're using absolute URLs (otherwise just use hereDir)
hereUrl = window.location.protocol + "//" + window.location.host + hereDir;
$(".item")
.find("[href^='" + hereUrl + "']")
.closest(".item").addClass("here");
Note .find("[href^=...]") selects things that start with what you're looking for.
CSS
/* now use .here to style */
.item.here {
background-color: purple;
}
.item.here .label {
font-weight: bold;
}

Answer 2

To answer your question directly, yes this could be done also via JavaScript/jQuery but there is a far simpler way using the css :active selector.
For example, if the user clicks the .item
then the code would be:
.item:active {
background-color: #cecece; // or whatever styling you want
}
Sidenote: As a webdesigner myself, in general i'd advise using the :hover selector when it comes to navbar highlightng instead of the :active one.

Answer 3

Use jquery in your html (https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.3.1/jquery.min.js)
Add the following script
$('.item').click(function(){
$('.item.active').removeClass("active");
$(this).addClass('active');
})
CSS
.item.active {
background-color: red;
}
Please see updated fiddle

Answer 4

If you are using jQuery you can loop through each anchor and test it against the current URL of the page like this:
$(function highlightCurrentUrl() {
var currentUrl = window.location.href;
var items = $(".item").each(function() {
var anchor = $(this).find('a');
$(this).removeClass('active');
//comparison logic
if (anchor.prop('href') == currentUrl) {
$(this).addClass("active");
}
});
});
What this does is add a class to the matching .item in the menu. (This won't work in JSFiddle due to Content Security policy so you will have to test it your own environment.)
Next, you will need to define the styles that will be applied to an .item.active DIV tag. And, if you want different colors for different items, you should probably give them ID's in you markup, so you can reference them individually:
<div class="item hvr-shrink" id="home-link">
<a href="https://community.canopytax.com/">
<div>
<img src="https://png.icons8.com/ios/35/ffffff/home.png"/>
<div class="label">Home</div>
</div>
</a>
</div>
<div class="item hvr-shrink" id="central-link">
<a href="https://community.canopytax.com/community-central/">
<div>
<img src="https://png.icons8.com/ios/40/ffffff/conference-call.png">
<div class="label">Central</div>
</div>
</a>
</div>
These rules are saying that when the active class is added to the div with the ID home-link or central-link it should have the following properties
#home-link.active {
background-color: blue;
}
#central-link.active {
background-color: green;
}