Getting started

How to configure and use the Page Breadcrumbs app for SharePoint Online by Accelerator 365

The Page Breadcrumbs app from Accelerator 365 is a navigation aid for your SharePoint pages, allowing users to browse through related content. Page Breadcrumbs is designed to provide a seamless and intuitive experience for both readers and editors.

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Recommended setup considerations

The Page Breadcrumbs app has some pre-requisite configuration before use. Page Breadcrumbs uses a Site Pages column as a source of breadcrumbs in conjunction with native SharePoint functionality available from the content services in the SharePoint Term Store.


Create a term set

 A term set is required to display a breadcrumb trail in Page Breadcrumbs.

  1. Open the Term Store Management Tool.

    Tip: Page Breadcrumbs can work with terms created in either the global term store or the local term store.


    If you're a Global Administrator or SharePoint Administrator, you can access the Term Store Management Tool from the SharePoint Admin Centre.
    1. Open the SharePoint Admin Centre.
    2. In the left navigation, under Content services, choose Term store.
    If you need to edit the local taxonomy for a site, you can open the term store management tool from the site.
    1. For a site that you own, go to the Site Settings page.
    2. Under Site Administration, select Term store management.

  2. Select Add term group and type the name for your group followed by the enter key.
  3. Select Add term set in the term group. Type the name for your term set followed by the enter key.
  4. Select Add term in the term set. Terms can be created hierarchically to create a navigation breadcrumb trail to be used in Page Breadcrumbs.

     

Tip: you can assign other users permission to contribute to your term group. Details on assigning roles can be found here.


Create a managed metadata column

The managed metadata column will be used to connect your newly created terms to your SharePoint pages to form your breadcrumb trail in Page Breadcrumbs.

  1. In your SharePoint site, click the Settings icon on the SharePoint suite bar and navigate to Site contents. Go to the Site pages library.
  2. In the last column of the library, click on Add column and choose the Managed Metadata option. Then click Next.
    Graphical user interface, application

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  3. Enter a name for your column (e.g. Page Breadcrumbs) and select the term set you have created for Page Breadcrumbs. All other settings can remain the same. Click Save.

Configure the app for the first time

The Page Breadcrumbs app has several settings that can be edited when adding the app to a page.

  1. If you are not already in edit mode on your page, select Edit on the top right of the page.
  2. Click on the Page details button that appears in the page toolbar.
  3. Locate the managed metadata column you had previously created. Click on the Add tag icon and assign your page a term.
  4. Close the Page details pane to save your changes.
  5. Add the Page Breadcrumbs web part to your page. Select the Configure button located on the web part placeholder to open the properties pane.
  6. Click on the Property drop-down and select your managed metadata column.
  7. Your breadcrumb trail will appear in the web part.

    Note: you will need to repeat the page tagging steps for other pages in your SharePoint site for them to appear in the breadcrumb.


    Note: pages must be in a published state to be located by Page Breadcrumbs. The web part leverages SharePoint search to locate pages, and therefore changes may take up to 15 minutes to propagate.

  8. Setting the Home term is an optional step. If you do not wish to use the parent term in the term set to represent the first level of the breadcrumb, the Home term allows you to select a different term in the hierarchy.

Configure cross-site navigation

Page Breadcrumbs supports tagging pages from other SharePoint sites to allow users to navigate cross-site when interacting with the breadcrumbs.

Note: visitors must have permission to other sites where cross-site breadcrumbs are referenced.

  1. Follow the instructions from 'Create a managed metadata column' onwards to set up the Page Breadcrumbs tagging structure in two or more SharePoint sites.

    Note: the managed metadata column should use the same name and term set in all SharePoint sites using the cross-site feature.  

     

  2. Once all pages have been tagged with the relevant term in your sites and published, Page Breadcrumbs will automatically support cross-site navigation.

    By default, the Include pages only from the current site setting is disabled in the web part’s property pane. This means that the web part can locate tags used on other SharePoint sites allowing users to navigate cross-site when using the Page Breadcrumbs web part.

    Note: if multiple published pages are using the same term, Page Breadcrumbs will navigate to the page that was most recently published.