Sections

Introduction

Base styles

Plugins

Section lists

Create custom section lists anywhere in the Help Center.

The objects available on each Zendesk page template are limited and can sometimes prevent you from creating the layouts that you want. The Section Lists plugin allows you to present a complete set of sections on any page using custom micro-templates.

Categories can also be included to help build more advanced layouts like lists of sections grouped by category.

Usage

Via data attributes

Use data-element="section-list" on an element to create a list of sections. The default template simply presents sections in an unstyled list.

If data attributes are used, you will need to ensure that the allow unsage HTML setting is enabled within Guide.

Via JavaScript

The Section List plugin can be initialized using JavaScript:

<div id="section-list">...</div>

<script type="text/javascript">
  ready(function() {
    var sectionList = document.getElementById('section-list');
    if (!sectionList) {
      return;
    }

    new Sections(sectionList, {
      // Options go here
    });
  });
</script>

When using a custom template additional data can be passed using the templateData option and it may be necessary to fetch and process objects from the REST API first. For example, the following code could be used on the Section page:

<div id="section-list">...</div>

<script type="text/javascript">
  ready(function() {
    var sectionList = document.getElementById('section-list');
    if (!sectionList) {
      return;
    }

    // Get categories, sections and articles
    Util.get(['categories', 'sections']).then(function(collection) {
      
      // Get the object representing the current section
      var currentSection = collection.sections.filter(function(section) {
        return section.id === {{section.id}};
      })[0];

      // Get the current category
      var currentCategory = collection.categories.filter(function(category) {
        return category.id === currentSection['html_url'];
      })[0];

      new Sections(sectionList, {

        // Pass the collection to the plugin to avoid fetching it again
        collection: collection,
      
        // Specify a custom template to use
        template: 'custom-section-list',
  
        // Pass additional data to the templating function
        templateData: {
          currentSection: currentSection,
          currentCategory: currentCategory
        }
      });
    });
  });
</script>

The custom template could then render the section list with access to all categories and as well as the current section and category objects.

The collection object containing sections (and possibly categories) is sorted and organized such that parent objects have a children property, which is an array of child objects. For example, if categories are fetched, a given category’s children array will contain all section objects belonging to that category.

Options

Options can be passed via data attributes or JavaScript.

For data attributes, append the option name to data-.

Name Type Default Description
collection object {} An object containing an array of objects representing sections (and possibly categories). If the collection is not provided, the plugin will fetch categories from the Zendesk REST API.
categories boolean true True if category objects should be returned with sections.
categoryId string
number
null		 null Limit sections to those in a given category.
properties array See below The list of properties from the REST API response to pass to the templating function.
template string
null		 null The name of the template to use.
templateData object {} Additional data to expose to the templating function.

The following article properties are passed to the templating function by default:

  • id
  • name
  • html_url
  • position

The following section and category properties are required by the plugin to sort the collection of articles and also available within custom templates:

  • parent_section_id
  • category_id

Events

Class Properties
sectionList.render Fires when the section list has been rendered.