Hierarchy questions

[Alfa1]

Is it possible to have a setup so that pages and categories are separated?
Is it possible to create a tree / category structure that can be browsed?
So that it is clear what hierarchy of the top level categories and their children is?
Is there a sidebar widget that can be used?

What is the best approach to do this?

[pegasus]

It seems like you figured it out already, but you can use the area setting "Can Contain Content-Types" to keep pages and categories (and other things) separated.

Regarding a category tree widget: that widget is in the feature requests but it has not been done yet. But I would like to point out that there is no such thing as a top-level category. The design of categories allows infinite recursion and hierarchy "pyramids" upwards or downwards. So any widget would require the user to pick a category to start at.

You can already make your own sidebar widgets and at least link to your fake "top level categories" if you can do without AJAX browsing for now. At least that way, you can have persistent links to the important categories.

In Wiki Admin Panel > Content > Sidebar Blocks, create a sidebar widget with the "Custom HTML" type and put the links to the categories you want. Then adjust your area setting "Sidebar Blocks Shown in this Area" wherever you want it to appear.

[Alfa1]

I know that wiki has a flat and multi parent structure by default. Yet, humans do need navigation tools to browse a site. Else people get lost and leave. Navigation should show the user where they are and what lies above and below.
If a site uses an hierarchical area & category structure then a navigation widget should recognize that and display it.

I will try the html widget. Does it respect area permissions?

[pegasus]

You can set area-level permissions for your sidebar block if you want to exclude it from areas that show all blocks. There is a permissions option in the Sidebar Blocks admin page.

[Alfa1]

In Wiki Admin Panel > Content > Sidebar Blocks, create a sidebar widget with the "Custom HTML" type and put the links to the categories you want. Then adjust your area setting "Sidebar Blocks Shown in this Area" wherever you want it to appear.

I see now. Its just an empty html block. It would need js, html, titles and links added to it. Its quite far from a navigation menu block that can hold a 50-100 category links. it would be nice to see the same as XenForo media Gallery has.

[pegasus]

All I said was that for now you could use that block type to create persistent links to your main categories. Then when a real navigation block is available, you can switch it out.