The menu generated by `sectionPagesMenu` is not detecting Children items and does not seem to be Recursive in nature

anandkp · February 29, 2024, 4:01am

Hi everyone! Hugo noob here, this is my first post so a few words first… Loving the system and finding the documentation to be REALLY robust - so, to all maintainers/advanced users, THANK YOU!

Second thing before I dive into details… This is a LONG post - I tried to make my question as clear and well illustrated as possible. If you’re looking for a TL;DR of this post, scroll to the bottom of the post and read the Conclusion section which outlines a summarised list of the actual questions I’m asking.

Third/last before continuing: THANKS IN ADVANCE!!! to whomever can help me figure things out here!

Alrighty… I’ve read over the Menu documentation. My question is either straight forward and simple OR, I may be encountering a bug with the latest version of Hugo…

What I was hoping: I was hoping that sectionPagesMenu would (with the “default” recursive template provided in the documentation) automatically generate nested menus.

What is happening: Only top level items are being rendered/picked up. When I dump site.Menus.main (using a <script> tag to view JSON rendering of site.Menus.main) I can see that top (top section) Menu objects that should have child items (site structure follows below), don’t.

Site/Content Structure

content/
├── _index.md
├── about.md
├── privacy-policy.md
├── terms-and-conditions.md
├── artwork
│   ├── _index.md
│   └── art-piece-00
│       ├── img
│       │   ├── primary
│       │   │   └── primary_768x1024_00.jpg
│       │   └── secondary
│       │   │   └── secondary_768x1024_00.jpg
│       │   │   └── secondary_768x1024_01.jpg
│       └── index.md
└── updates
    ├── _index.md
    ├── event1
    │   └── index.md
    ├── event2
    │   └── index.md
    └── event3
        ├── _index.md
        └── subevent1
            ├── event4.md
            └── event5.md

JSON Dump of site.Menus.main

  [
    {
      'Identifier': '',
      'Parent': '',
      'Name': 'About',
      'Pre': '',
      'Post': '',
      'URL': '',
      'PageRef': '',
      'Weight': 0,
      'Title': 'About',
      'Params': null,
      'Menu': '',
      'ConfiguredURL': '',
      'Page': {
        'Date': '2024-02-27T22:46:56-05:00',
        'Lastmod': '2024-02-27T22:46:56-05:00',
        'PublishDate': '2024-02-27T22:46:56-05:00',
        'ExpiryDate': '0001-01-01T00:00:00Z',
        'Aliases': null,
        'BundleType': '',
        'Description': '',
        'Draft': false,
        'IsHome': false,
        'Keywords': null,
        'Kind': 'page',
        'Layout': '',
        'LinkTitle': 'About',
        'IsNode': false,
        'IsPage': true,
        'Path': '/about',
        'Pathc': '/about',
        'Slug': '',
        'Lang': 'en',
        'IsSection': false,
        'Section': '',
        'Sitemap': {'ChangeFreq': '', 'Priority': -1, 'Filename': 'sitemap.xml'},
        'Type': 'page',
        'Weight': 0,
      },
      'Children': null,
    },
    {
      'Identifier': 'artwork',
      'Parent': '',
      'Name': 'Artwork',
      'Pre': '',
      'Post': '',
      'URL': '',
      'PageRef': '',
      'Weight': 0,
      'Title': 'Artwork',
      'Params': null,
      'Menu': '',
      'ConfiguredURL': '',
      'Page': {
        'Date': '2024-02-27T22:46:56-05:00',
        'Lastmod': '2024-02-27T22:46:56-05:00',
        'PublishDate': '2024-02-27T22:46:56-05:00',
        'ExpiryDate': '0001-01-01T00:00:00Z',
        'Aliases': null,
        'BundleType': 'branch',
        'Description': '',
        'Draft': false,
        'IsHome': false,
        'Keywords': null,
        'Kind': 'section',
        'Layout': '',
        'LinkTitle': 'Artwork',
        'IsNode': true,
        'IsPage': false,
        'Path': '/artwork',
        'Pathc': '/artwork',
        'Slug': '',
        'Lang': 'en',
        'IsSection': true,
        'Section': 'artwork',
        'Sitemap': {'ChangeFreq': '', 'Priority': -1, 'Filename': 'sitemap.xml'},
        'Type': 'artwork',
        'Weight': 0,
      },
      'Children': null,
    },
    {
      'Identifier': '',
      'Parent': '',
      'Name': 'Privacy Policy',
      'Pre': '',
      'Post': '',
      'URL': '',
      'PageRef': '',
      'Weight': 0,
      'Title': 'Privacy Policy',
      'Params': null,
      'Menu': '',
      'ConfiguredURL': '',
      'Page': {
        'Date': '2024-02-27T22:46:56-05:00',
        'Lastmod': '2024-02-27T22:46:56-05:00',
        'PublishDate': '2024-02-27T22:46:56-05:00',
        'ExpiryDate': '0001-01-01T00:00:00Z',
        'Aliases': null,
        'BundleType': '',
        'Description': '',
        'Draft': false,
        'IsHome': false,
        'Keywords': null,
        'Kind': 'page',
        'Layout': '',
        'LinkTitle': 'Privacy Policy',
        'IsNode': false,
        'IsPage': true,
        'Path': '/privacy-policy',
        'Pathc': '/privacy-policy',
        'Slug': '',
        'Lang': 'en',
        'IsSection': false,
        'Section': '',
        'Sitemap': {'ChangeFreq': '', 'Priority': -1, 'Filename': 'sitemap.xml'},
        'Type': 'page',
        'Weight': 0,
      },
      'Children': null,
    },
    {
      'Identifier': '',
      'Parent': '',
      'Name': 'Terms & Conditions',
      'Pre': '',
      'Post': '',
      'URL': '',
      'PageRef': '',
      'Weight': 0,
      'Title': 'Terms & Conditions',
      'Params': null,
      'Menu': '',
      'ConfiguredURL': '',
      'Page': {
        'Date': '2024-02-27T22:46:56-05:00',
        'Lastmod': '2024-02-27T22:46:56-05:00',
        'PublishDate': '2024-02-27T22:46:56-05:00',
        'ExpiryDate': '0001-01-01T00:00:00Z',
        'Aliases': null,
        'BundleType': '',
        'Description': '',
        'Draft': false,
        'IsHome': false,
        'Keywords': null,
        'Kind': 'page',
        'Layout': '',
        'LinkTitle': 'Terms & Conditions',
        'IsNode': false,
        'IsPage': true,
        'Path': '/terms-and-conditions',
        'Pathc': '/terms-and-conditions',
        'Slug': '',
        'Lang': 'en',
        'IsSection': false,
        'Section': '',
        'Sitemap': {'ChangeFreq': '', 'Priority': -1, 'Filename': 'sitemap.xml'},
        'Type': 'page',
        'Weight': 0,
      },
      'Children': null,
    },
    {
      'Identifier': 'updates',
      'Parent': '',
      'Name': 'Updates',
      'Pre': '',
      'Post': '',
      'URL': '',
      'PageRef': '',
      'Weight': 0,
      'Title': 'Updates',
      'Params': null,
      'Menu': '',
      'ConfiguredURL': '',
      'Page': {
        'Date': '2024-02-27T22:46:56-05:00',
        'Lastmod': '2024-02-27T22:46:56-05:00',
        'PublishDate': '2024-02-27T22:46:56-05:00',
        'ExpiryDate': '0001-01-01T00:00:00Z',
        'Aliases': null,
        'BundleType': 'branch',
        'Description': '',
        'Draft': false,
        'IsHome': false,
        'Keywords': null,
        'Kind': 'section',
        'Layout': '',
        'LinkTitle': 'Updates',
        'IsNode': true,
        'IsPage': false,
        'Path': '/updates',
        'Pathc': '/updates',
        'Slug': '',
        'Lang': 'en',
        'IsSection': true,
        'Section': 'updates',
        'Sitemap': {'ChangeFreq': '', 'Priority': -1, 'Filename': 'sitemap.xml'},
        'Type': 'updates',
        'Weight': 0,
      },
      'Children': null,
    }]

After searching around in the documentation, this forum and the net in general, I can’t find anyone saying that they’ve faced a similar issue. At first, I thought that perhaps page items were not being picked up by Hugo because they had draft: true in them; I then set draft: false in all *.md files; that didn’t work so I then deleted draft:... entirely from all MD files.

After reading a few posts (including this one), I tweaked the content folder dir structure a few times thinking that the issue might be because I didn’t understand the diff between Leaf and Branch bundles correctly. To clarify, the Updates section/Branch Bundle folder originally looked like this:

content/
└── updates
    ├── _index.md
    ├── event1.md
    ├── event2
    │   └── index.md
    └── event3
        ├── _index.md
        ├── event4.md
        └── event5.md

But changing from the above to what I have currently (illustrated in the “Site/Content Structure” code block) didn’t make any difference… and I get the feeling that both versions should work correctly.

So… all said, I’m starting to suspect that the auto-generated menu that Hugo provides as a value for sectionPagesMenu doesn’t run recursively… which is why I’m reaching out for help. If it doesn’t generate recursive menus, it feels like a bit of a wasted opportunity.

Conclusion

To explain… the site I’m working on will have A LOT of “artwork” and “updates” pages, each living as a Leaf Bundle like so:

content/
├── _index.md # <-- This is the home page and is a Section/List Page, right?
├── artwork # <-- Branch Bundle?
│   ├── _index.md # <-- Section/List Page?
│   └── art-piece-00 # <-- Leaf Bundle?
│       ├── img # <-- All files within this directory are "Page Resources" right?
│       │   ├── primary
│       │   │   └── primary_768x1024_00.jpg
│       │   └── secondary
│       │   │   └── secondary_768x1024_00.jpg
│       │   │   └── secondary_768x1024_01.jpg
│       └── index.md # <-- This is a Single Page?
└── updates # <-- Another Branch Bundle?
    ├── _index.md # <-- List Page for the "Updates" Branch Bundle?
    ├── event1 # <-- Leaf Bundle
    │   └── index.md # <-- Single Page
    ├── event2
    │   └── index.md
    └── event3 # <-- Branch/Section Bundle
        ├── _index.md # <-- Branch/Section List Page
        └── subevent1 # <-- Leaf Bundle
            ├── event4.md # <-- Single Page (will this be rendered?)
            └── event5.md # <-- Single Page (will this be rendered?)

Could someone please confirm whether or not Hugo’s sectionPagesMenu / site.Menus.main value recurse through the site’s structure to generate a FULL and Children-Inclusive menu automatically?
If not, then, is there an automated way WITHOUT adding “menu/parent” values in individual Page front matter to “get” a fully recursive menu?
If there isn’t currently an “out-of-the-box” solution for a fully-recursive menu, then is there a way to use the existing Hugo API to generate this structure without having to define menu structures in YAML/TOML/JSON data (be it in Site Config or within Page Front Matter)? PS: I know I could update various archetype templates to automatically set the menu: parent... values but am really hoping this isn’t necessary as it “feels” messy and prone to potential error - esp. because I’m developing this site for use by non-technical/non-coder users.
To whomever can help me out here - please let me know if I’ve understood the nature of each directory/file’s role in the code block above? Esp. with regards to event4.md and event5.md? From some of the discussion threads I’ve read here, it looks like Leaf Bundles EXPECT a index.md file and ONLY THAT will be rendered as a valid, auto-indexed page. If this is the case, does that mean that event[4|5].md will not be rendered at all? OR, would they be considered headless pages?

jmooring · February 29, 2024, 4:15am

https://gohugo.io/content-management/menus/#define-automatically

To automatically define a menu entry for each top-level section of your site, enable the section pages menu in your site configuration.

If you have two top-level sections there will be two menu entries. There’s nothing recursive about this.

https://gohugo.io/templates/menu-templates/#example

This partial template recursively “walks” a menu structure, rendering a localized, accessible nested list.

But you need to create the menu structure before you can walk it.

You can also create a navigation panel by recursively walking your content structure.

anandkp · February 29, 2024, 6:54pm

Hi @jmooring, thank you very much for your assistance!

I think I understand your answers. I was hoping you could help out a bit more as follows:

(Part 1 of 3)

I asked:

You responded:

I’ve read that para several times and it never occurred to me that in it, “a menu entry” was literally referring to a single menu entry, as I believe you are indicating in your response. As mentioned in my OP, I’d thought that the sites.Menu.main “auto-generated” menu would be a fully recursively built menu and thus, in the para you quoted, where it says, “a menu entry for each top-level section”, I thought that, since Menu entities have a Children property in them, that the Children item would be a slice of next-depth Menu entries. I see now that the documentation is very literal in how it’s stated I think it may be helpful if the phrasing there was adjusted to clarify that section pages menu will not recurse and its automation is the creation of the “top-most level pages - i.e. only pages/sections in the root of the content folder”.

(Part 2 of 3)

I asked:

You responded:

Could you please point me in the right direction with regards to which part of the Hugo API and/or documentation would allow the recursive construction of a Menu object? I’ve come across the RegularPagesRecursive Method which seems likely to do the trick… I’ve also re-read the documentation on Page Kinds in the context of RegularPagesRecursive:

Two questions here:

Is this the sort of way in which you’re suggesting I can “create a navigation panel…recursively”?
It appears that List pages (section landing pages defined for e.g.: updates/_index.md) would not be part of the return value of RegularPagesRecursive nor .Site.GetPage (e.g. .Site.GetPage "section" "/updates"). Granted, I’ve yet to test this (I’m just starting my work day here) but I thought I’d ask this up front in hopes of hearing back from you over the course of the day today.

(Part 3 of 3)

I asked:

Given the site file/folder structure I originally provided (snippet follows for convenience):

content/
└── updates
    ├── _index.md
    ├── event7.md
    ├── event8.md
    ├── event1
    │   └── index.md
    ├── event2
    │   └── index.md
    └── event3
        ├── _index.md
        └── subevent1
            ├── event4.md
            └── event5.md

Could you (or someone else) please answer this question as well? I.e., in the structure above:

Will the following pages be rendered?: [event7.md, event8.md]
When generating a Recursive Section Menu using RegularPagesRecursive or .Site.GetPage, will the following List pages be in the returned data structure?: [updates/_index.md, event3/_index.md]?

As always, many thanks!

Anand

jmooring · February 29, 2024, 7:02pm

Here’s an example site that includes a side bar menu generated by walking the content.

git clone --single-branch -b hugo-forum-topic-42835 https://github.com/jmooring/hugo-testing hugo-forum-topic-42835
cd hugo-forum-topic-42835
hugo server

Files of interest:

layouts/partials/render-section-menu.html
layouts/_default/baseof.html (lines 40-46; calls the partial)

anandkp · February 29, 2024, 8:15pm

Hey @jmooring - am going through the code you provided - thank you!

Quick Q: in {{ partial "render-section-menu.html" (dict "currentPage" $ "nodes" .) }}, what does the $ between currentPage and nodes mean?

Full code block is:

{{ if eq .Section "documentation" }}
  {{ with (site.GetPage "/documentation").Pages }}
    {{ partial "render-section-menu.html" (dict "currentPage" $ "nodes" .) }}
  {{ end }}
{{ end }}

Am I correct in understanding that, within the {{with ...}} opening template tag, a variable is being set (site.GetPage ...).Pages and that, within the inner template tag, {{partial ... (dict "currentPage" $ "nodes" . ) }} the $ is referencing the dynamically set variable in the with tag?

So, in other words, {{with ...}} could have been:

  {{ $documentationPages := (site.GetPage "/documentation").Pages}}
  {{ with $documentationPages }}
      {{ partial "render-section-menu.html" (dict "currentPage" $documentationPages "nodes" .) }}

?

jmooring · February 29, 2024, 9:07pm

No. Please see docs.
https://gohugo.io/functions/go-template/with/#understanding-context

Use the $ to get the context passed into the template.

And please experiment with templating code yourself. It’s a great way to learn.

anandkp · February 29, 2024, 9:13pm

Thanks for that! I’ve been struggling with understanding which parts of code I see in templates are part of the Hugo framework vs. parts that are coming from Golang. I didn’t realise that with (and perhaps other Functions/Methods) are acting as parts of a DSL with their own idiosyncracies… as in this case, I thought that the $ was a keyword/symbol similar to :=.

jmooring · February 29, 2024, 9:17pm

The only parts “coming from Golang” are the functions, operators, and statements provided by Go’s text/template package. Again, see docs:
https://gohugo.io/functions/go-template/

anandkp · February 29, 2024, 9:22pm

Thanks again, you rock! Am a visual learner so, having found the following URLs:

Templating | Hugo and
Go Template Actions: An excellent place to start as it lists the basic structure and functionality of the Golang “Text Template” library that is used by Hugo.

I’m taking the time to watch over the following YT vid (and others I may come across like it if need be - sharing here for posterity’s sake in case other newbies like me need a rapid and quick way to wrap their heads around this subject matter):

anandkp · February 29, 2024, 10:47pm

Again, for posterity’s sake…

In the video I’m watching, “A Crash Course on Go Templates”, the presenter has a very good explanation of the difference between the “.” (“dot”) and “$” (“dollar”) symbols as used within Hugo/Go Templates:

A Crash Course on Go Templates: time code = 13min/10sec.: the gist of it is:

BOTH . and $ (NOTE: just $, the dollar sign on its own and not $someVar) refer to the context variable that is passed into a given template. The difference is, the . can change what it’s pointing/referring to within a template based upon whether it is being used in EITHER a with or range “action”. For example, the value that . is pointing to can change within with and range template actions. On the other hand, the $ symbol ALWAYS refers to the ORIGINAL context that was passed into a template and it never changes.

Examples:

file: layouts/_default/baseof.html has calls a “partial” with the file name, “partials/some-partial.html” like so:

{{- /* file: layouts/_default/baseof.html */ -}}
{{ $myFullName := slice "Abraa" "Cadabra" "Dobrinda"  }}
{{ partial "some-partial.html" $myFullName }}

then, within partials/some-partial.html

{{- /* `.` refers to the slice, `$myFullName` that was passed into the partial template. */ -}}
{{ delimit . " " }}<br>{{- /* Outputs "Abraa Cadabra Dobrinda"  */ -}}

<!-- `$` ALSO refers to the slice, `$myFullName` that was passed into the partial template.  */ -}}
{{ delimit $ " " }}<br>{{- /* Outputs the same as `.` "Abraa Cadabra Dobrinda"  */ -}}

{{ range . }}
  {{- /*
    In here, the `.` is referring to each individual element that the slice $myFullName has in it.
    Thus, it will render "Abraa" then "Cadabra" then "Dobrinda" individually. NOTE: here, the `.` "dot"
    context IS NO LONGER A SLICE and thus, cannot be used with the "collections.Delimit" function.
  */ -}}
  {{ . }}<br>
  {{- /*
    Conversely, the `$` STILL refers to the original/"root level context" that was passed in, namely:
    $myFullName. Thus, it will render "Abraa Cadabra Dobrinda" as a full string for every iteration
    of the range's loop.
  */ -}}
  {{ delimit $ " " }}<br>
{{ end}}

So the total output of of layouts/some-partial.html should look something like this:

Abraa Cadabra Dobrinda<br>

Abraa Cadabra Dobrinda<br>

Abraa<br>
Abraa Cadabra Dobrinda<br>
Cadabra<br>
Abraa Cadabra Dobrinda<br>
Dobrinda<br>
Abraa Cadabra Dobrinda<br>

I hope this helps someone else… I think it would be helpful to move this reply into it’s own thread but am unsure of how or whether to do that.

Cheers!

Arif · March 1, 2024, 9:57am

Copy paste into a new tips and tricks post.

anandkp · March 1, 2024, 7:35pm

Thanks for that @Arif - DONE!: Hugo Templates, their nature and accessing the data (“Context”) injected into them: A detailed explanation of the “.” (dot) and “$” (dollar) symbols as used in Hugo Templates - i.e. their purpose and the difference between them

system · March 3, 2024, 7:36pm

This topic was automatically closed 2 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.

Topic		Replies	Views
Section Menus for Lazy Bloggers with nested sections support	0	662	November 10, 2018
How are children menu entries detected? support	9	5121	November 14, 2019
Automated Nested Menus? support	1	438	February 8, 2023
How to generate the parent-child pages in the menu based on the folder structure? support	3	3240	November 13, 2018
Hierarchical Menus support	3	9473	June 25, 2020

The menu generated by `sectionPagesMenu` is not detecting Children items and does not seem to be Recursive in nature

(Part 1 of 3)

(Part 2 of 3)

(Part 3 of 3)

Related Topics