The Admin Bar gives administrators a faster way to both understand and work with a page's current layout and Style Guide while viewing the community front end (it does not appear in the Dashboard).
If you have the required permission, the Admin Bar appears above the community header on supported front-end pages that use Layout Editor.
This helps you move directly from reviewing a page in the community to editing the layout or Style Guide that controls that experience. This makes it easier to manage communities with multiple custom layouts, subcommunities, Knowledge Bases, Groups, or language-specific Style Guides without first navigating through the Dashboard to determine which configuration controls the page.
IMPORTANT: The Admin Bar is available only on supported custom Layout Editor pages. It is not shown to community members, on mobile devices, or on legacy pages.
What it looks like
Admin Bar collapsed (click to expand)
Admin Bar expanded (click to collapse)
Use-cases
Use the Admin Bar when you want to:
- confirm which layout and/or Style Guide is active on the page you're viewing
- view or edit the active layout and/or Style Guide
- copy the active layout as a starting point for a new custom layout
- view the active Style Guide without first navigating through the Dashboard
- quickly check whether the current page is using a default or custom layout or Style Guide
The Admin Bar is especially useful when you are reviewing pages in your community and want to make updates without spending time tracing the correct layout or Style Guide in the Dashboard.
Permissions required
The Admin Bar is only available to Roles with the following permission:
Garden > Settings > Manage
Admin Bar options
Because the Admin Bar reflects the page you're currently viewing, the layout and Style Guide details are contextual. This makes it easier to identify the exact assets that control the page.
When the Admin Bar is expanded, it presents:
- layout information/actions on the left side and
- Style Guide information/actions on the right side.
TIP: Right click an edit or copy action and open it in a new browser tab to keep your front-end experience and action in their own tabs.
- Left-aligned layout context:
Layout: [Layout Name]Default badge when the active layout is the default layout
- Layout actions:
Edit Layout: Opens the active layout in Layout EditorCopy Layout: Creates a copy of the active layout in Layout Editor, with it being actively editable
- Right-aligned style guide context:
Style Guide: [Style Guide Name]Default badge when the active Style Guide is the default Style Guide
- Style Guide actions:
Edit Style Guide: Opens the active Style Guide for editing
NOTE: In the image above, you'll notice the Default pill displays next to the layout and Style Guide, meaning the page is currently using the default layout or default Style Guide for that page. If the active layout or Style Guide is not the default, the pill simply does not appear.
In other words:
Default layout/Style Guide = name + Default pill
Custom (non-default) layout/Style Guide = name only, no pill
When editing or copying layouts and Style Guides
Keep the following in mind when performing edit and copy actions from the Admin Bar:
- If you edit a Style Guide or layout, you must manually save it for your changes to be applied.
- If you copy a layout, it must be saved and applied before it will be used for the associated page.
These "work in-progress" measures are intentional to ensure you can work on layouts and Style Guides behind the scenes and only apply them to your live site when you're ready.
Supported pages
The Admin Bar displays on front-end pages that are powered by Layout Editor and are not legacy pages, such as:
- Home pages
- Recent post pages
- Category list pages
- Posting category pages
- Nested category pages
- Discussion pages
- Question pages
- Idea pages
- Create post pages
- Event pages
- Knowledge base layout pages
- Knowledge base home pages
- Help center home pages
- Help center category pages
- Help center article pages
- Guide article pages
- Group directory pages
- Group home pages
The Admin Bar does not display on pages that are not powered by Layout Editor, including:
- Profile pages
- Error pages
- Sign-in pages
- Badge pages
- Search pages
- Legacy layout pages
Can I customize the Admin Bar?
No. The Admin Bar features Higher Logic Vanilla's blue coloring, which cannot be changed.