website unable to put plain text entry into sidebar, like R4DS

[machow]

Bug description

Pages like https://quarto.org/docs/guide/ have a sidebar with sections of content. I'm looking to recreate that kind of sidebar, but with text headings for each section, similar to R for Data Science:

It looks like if you add a content item to the sidebar that's just text (e.g. "Some header"), then it doesn't appear:

  sidebar:
    - id: get-started
      # ...
      contents:
        - text: "Some header"

However, if you add a horizontal rule, then it shows up in the sidebar:

  sidebar:
    - id: get-started
      # ...
      contents:
        - text: "----------------"

quarto check Output

Note that this is on Mac OSX

[✓] Checking Quarto installation......OK
      Version: 1.0.20
      Path: /Applications/quarto/bin

[✓] Checking basic markdown render....OK

[✓] Checking Python 3 installation....OK
      Version: 3.10.2
      Path: /Users/machow/.virtualenvs/pyshiny-site/bin/python3
      Jupyter: 4.10.0
      Kernels: venv-siuba, venv-pins-python, venv-vetiver-test, venv-intro-to-siuba, venv-vetiver-python, venv-shiny-examples, venv-pyshiny-site, venv-notes, venv-siuba-docs, python3

[✓] Checking Jupyter engine render....OK

[✓] Checking R installation...........OK
      Version: 4.1.2
      Path: /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources
      LibPaths:
        - /Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Versions/4.1-arm64/Resources/library
      rmarkdown: 2.14

[✓] Checking Knitr engine render......OK

quarto tools check Output

[✓] Inspecting tools

Tool         Status            Installed     Latest
chromium     Not installed     ---           869685
tinytex      Not installed     ---           v2022.07

Checklist

• formatted your issue so it is easier for us to read?
• included a minimal, fully reproducible example in a single .qmd file? Please provide the whole file rather than the snippet you believe is causing the issue.
• documented the quarto version you're running, by pasting the output from running quarto check in the "Quarto Check Output" text area?
• documented the version of the quarto tools you're running, by providing the output from running quarto tools check in the "Quarto Tools Check Output" text area?
• documented the RStudio IDE version you're running (if applicable), by providing the value displayed in the "About RStudio" main menu dialog?
• documented which operating system you're running? If on Linux, please provide the specific distribution as well.
• upgraded to the latest version, including your versions of R, the RStudio IDE, and relevant R packages?

[jjallaire]

You need to use the section as described here: https://quarto.org/docs/websites/website-navigation.html#separators

[machow]

Thanks for the pointer! When I create a basic section without content--like in the example--it doesn't appear. I wonder if this and the issue with text are related?

Something like this:

website:
  sidebar:
    contents:
      - section: "First Section"
      - contents:
        - href: document1.qmd
        - href: document2.qmd
        - href: document3.qmd
      - section: "---"
      - section: "Second Section"
        contents:
          - href: document4.qmd
          - href: document5.qmd
          - href: document6.qmd

Produced a sidebar missing "First section" and missing the content items listed after it (but with Second Section intact).

[jjallaire]

@dragonstyle Could you take a look at this?

[dragonstyle]

Will do.

[t-kalinowski]

I'm seeing similar, section headings in the sidebar without any contents don't appear.

[dragonstyle]

I reproduced this issue (we basically we ignoring sections or items that were empty / text only). I have a proposed fix for review... Thanks for reporting!

[machow]

Thanks for the quick response here! I tested with the latest quarto release and it looks like:

• fixed: adding a section with no contents
• broken: adding only contents (w/o section)

Here is what I'm seeing marked on the separators example in the docs.

website:
  sidebar:
    contents:
    
    
      # WORKS ----
      
      - section: "First Section"


      # BROKEN: none of these content items get put in sidebar ----
      
      - contents:
        - href: document1.qmd
        - href: document2.qmd
        - href: document3.qmd


      # WORKS -----
      
      - section: "---"
      - section: "Second Section"
        contents:
          - href: document4.qmd
          - href: document5.qmd
          - href: document6.qmd

[machow]

Wait--looking at the quarto code, I wonder if there is just a typo in the doc example. It looks like laying things out flat works...

- section: "First Section"
- href: document1.qmd
- href: document2.qmd
- href: document3.qmd

So maybe the original example meant for section and contents to be together...

- section: "First Section"
  # note no hyphen before "contents"
  contents:
    - href: document1.qmd
    - href: document2.qmd
    - href: document3.qmd

[jjallaire]

I changed the docs to use text: "---" and the separator works:

@dragonstyle This code from our docs currently does not work:

  sidebar:
    contents:
      - section: "First Section"
      - contents:
        - href: document1.qmd
        - href: document2.qmd
        - href: document3.qmd
      - text: "---"
      - section: "Second Section"
        contents:
          - href: document4.qmd
          - href: document5.qmd
          - href: document6.qmd

[jjallaire]

Okay, this is indeed a documentation problem. This works as expected:

  sidebar:
    contents:
      - section: "First Section"
        contents:
          - href: document1.qmd
          - href: document2.qmd
          - href: document3.qmd
      - text: "---"
      - section: "Second Section"
        contents:
          - href: document4.qmd
          - href: document5.qmd
          - href: document6.qmd