Скачать или смотреть Fixing the Active Menu Item Issue for Multi-Language Websites

Discover how to resolve the `Active Menu Item` problem when switching languages on your website, ensuring a seamless user experience.
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This video is based on the question https://stackoverflow.com/q/63841908/ asked by the user 'Pro Dedicated' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/14258406/ ) and on the answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/63846592/ provided by the user 'fdomn-m' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/2181514/ ) at 'Stack Overflow' website. Thanks to these great users and Stackexchange community for their contributions.

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Fixing the Active Menu Item Issue for Multi-Language Websites

When developing multilingual websites, one frequent issue developers encounter is the failure of the active menu item to update correctly when switching languages. This problem often arises when the URL structure changes, causing the JavaScript responsible for highlighting the current menu item to lose its functionality. In this guide, we will explore this problem in detail and provide a clear solution to ensure that your active menu item works flawlessly across all languages.

Understanding the Problem

The Scenario

Let's say you have a website with the following URL structure:

English Link: example.com/page/

Dutch Link: example.com/page/?lang=nl

When users navigate to the Dutch version of a page, the active class that indicates the current menu item does not get applied correctly due to the difference in URLs. The JavaScript code checks the window.location.pathname, which does not include query parameters like ?lang=nl. As a result, when the user switches languages, the active menu item fails to update.

Why This Happens

The problem lies in how the code is comparing the URLs:

When you check window.location.pathname for the English link, it returns example.com/page.

However, for the Dutch link, it returns the same base path, example.com/page, but lacks the language parameter.

Key Insight

The active class is not applied because the comparison does not take into account the query string (i.e., ?lang=nl), which is essential for the language-specific links.

Solution Overview

To address this issue, we can modify the regular expression used to match the URLs so that it accounts for optional query strings. Here’s how to do it step by step.

Step 1: Modify the Regular Expression

Change the existing regex in your JavaScript code to include a pattern that can match the query string. The modified line looks like this:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

This updated regex ensures that it matches not only the path but also any appended query string, which is crucial for language links.

Step 2: Implementation in JavaScript

Here’s a complete JavaScript function that demonstrates how to set the menu items correctly with the updated functionality:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Step 3: CSS Styling

To visually distinguish the active menu item, you can style it through CSS as shown below:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Full Navigation Example

Here’s an example of a navigation markup for both languages, ensuring they remain in sync with the updated JavaScript functionality:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

Conclusion

By implementing the suggested changes, the issue revolving around the active menu items not updating when switching languages can be effectively resolved. This small tweak ensures that your navigation remains intuitive and user-friendly, regardless of the language preference.

In summary, ensure your regular expressions accurately reflect the complexity of your URLs, especially when query parameters are involved. With these adjustments, your multilingual website can provide a seamless user experience!