Edit URL settings for apps to make them human readable

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02-12-2021 01:59 AM
Status: Open
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Anneka_France
Occasional Contributor III

I want to add StoryMaps as 'pages' in my hub site. This is because I want to share a lot of information on one page (rather than having to get users to keep clicking to a new page) and I'd like to be able to provide the navigation bar for users to skip down to the most relevant section, if they wish to do so. The look and feel of StoryMaps is also much smoother and has clean, consistent formatting compared to when I try to replicate the same content on a hub page. 

However, if I add a StoryMap as a link in the header, the URL defaults to the app's item ID - this is not human readable and makes it difficult to share these pages using the URL alone. If I try to embed the StoryMap in a hub page, using an iframe or app card, the height has to be set in px and does not automatically adjust to the size of the users screen or the application. It also results in two scroll bars on the right hand side, which is clunky and annoying. The same applies when embedding Survey123 forms, especially if there are conditional questions or multiple pages and the height of the form changes dynamically.

It would be great if we could change the URL of apps to a human readable format. This would make navigating and sharing site pages/apps much easier.

6 Comments
JustinPrather

@Anneka_France –

Thanks for the feedback and question.

Regarding human readable URLs for apps that are in your site header ... I'm capturing your feedback and will share it with our product team. 

In the mean time, I have a workaround using the embedded application that you mentioned. However, there's one difference that might be helpful. 

  1. Create a page for the story map that you want to have its own page.
  2. In your pace, use only one row, and set the row Layout to `Wide`.
  3. Add an App card to the row and choose the story map you want to use. 
  4. After you choose the story map, in the Options for that App card, set the height to `100vh`.
  5. Save and publish the page. 
  6. Optionally, add the page to the Header of your site.

This will replicate using the app page for the story map, but with a human-readable URL, and at least from my quick testing, doesn't add a second scroll bar on the right hand side. 

Lastly, I'd love to hear any feedback that you would be willing to share regarding the lack of consistent formatting in creating a Hub page. If you could do that in the replies here – great! We could also hold a short chat with our research team to capture your thoughts. 

Thank you, again!

Anneka_France

Hi @JustinPrather ,

Being able to assign human readable URLs to apps on the site would be a great improvement and I really hope this is something that could be possible one day.

The workaround is a really useful tip - thank you!

Unfortunately, I still get a double scrolling bar. I think that's because I've now added a footer to my site, as the extra scrolling bar now appears when I'm using the app URL or embedding the app on a page:

Anneka_France_3-1613388717325.png

This means that when I scroll to the end of the StoryMap, it jumps up and down a bit and gets 'stuck' before it switches to the other scroll bar and shows the footer. When I then scroll up again on the StoryMap, the footer stays at the bottom of the screen and the navigation bar of the StoryMap disappears:

Anneka_France_1-1613388635231.png

I'd be happy to have a quick chat with the research team about the page formatting and our bugbears with it. It would probably be quicker to capture in a conversation/screen share, but I can try to compile some notes if that would be useful.

Thank you!

 

JustinPrather

Hi @Anneka_France –

Bummer on the scrollbars ... again. I missed them in constructing my workaround, likely as I only tested on a Mac. I'll test on a PC with a tweak that I have in mind, and will get back to you.

I'll reach out to you separately with @KatherineCarl to discuss page formatting bugbears. (That is a new term to me and I rather enjoy it!)

Anneka_France

Hi @JustinPrather.

Really appreciate your help. Our hub is really starting to take shape now, so if we can just fix these little niggles then we will be ready to launch.

Thanks!

JustinPrather

Hi @Anneka_France –

@KatherineCarl sent you an email with a link to book a time with us. We just started trying Microsoft Bookings to schedule conversations. Please let us know if you have any troubles and we can schedule through other means.

Anneka_France

@JustinPrather I don't suppose there's been any progress with the double scroll bars?