Omega Menu Mobile View Causing Hundreds of Broken Links

[lesliekirk]

I have been going around in circles thinking this was a stupid (as in ignorant) spider issue but it turns out that this is an Omega Menu in the mobile view issue. It might be an issue with any Navigation Set menu that has a Navigation Item that is set to Link None. I mistakenly thought that a number of these SEO tools were picking up the base href. It wasn't until I took a closer look using Screaming Frog and it came up with hundreds of these 403 Forbidden links that all had Anchor Text. It was then when I realized my "assumption" was incorrect about it being the base href. Then I started recognizing the Anchor Text as part of the Omega Menu. I did the quick "mouseover" to see a link but in desktop view, nothing showed up. BUT when I went to mobile view and mouse over those same items, there it was - a link that looked like the base href.

So what is the fix? Adding a link defeats the purpose of the Navigation Set's ability to create headings that don't link.

[Matt Zimmermann]

Hi Leslie,

That seems odd to me since if the menu item is a link in desktop, it still is in in mobile. I am not familiar with Screaming Frog, but what happens when you test the demonstration site [ https://colossus.mivareadythemes.com/ ] in mobile?

[lesliekirk]

Hi Leslie,

That seems odd to me since if the menu item is a link in desktop, it still is in in mobile. I am not familiar with Screaming Frog, but what happens when you test the demonstration site [ https://colossus.mivareadythemes.com/ ] in mobile?

It looks like all of the items are linked to something in the demo site. I can send you the site so you can try it.

[Matt Zimmermann]

Hi Leslie,

Sure, post the link if you can. When you are editing the navigation items, I am assuming the "Link" value is set to "None". If you switch that value to something else, like "URL", is the value for the URL empty?

[lesliekirk]

Hi Leslie,

Sure, post the link if you can. When you are editing the navigation items, I am assuming the "Link" value is set to "None". If you switch that value to something else, like "URL", is the value for the URL empty?

FYI - here is a snippet of the source code

<li class="x-omega-navigation__list has-child-menu" data-hook="omega-child-menu">
<a class="x-omega-navigation__link" href="" target="_self">
Gray Cabinets
<span class="x-omega-navigation__link-carat u-hidden--l"><span class="u-icon-chevron-right"></span></span>
</a>

Notice how it wraps the link to include the name? Shouldn't it just be wrapped around the span tag?

If I try to switch to something else, like "URL" I must put a value in that field. Since it doesn't have something to link to I selected "None" and "assumed" it would not link to anything. I suspect even if it didn't have the link wrapping around the Anchor Text it would still have a "link" that the spiders are finding. Seems they don't like that empty href=""

[lesliekirk]

Hi Leslie,

That seems odd to me since if the menu item is a link in desktop, it still is in in mobile. I am not familiar with Screaming Frog, but what happens when you test the demonstration site [ https://colossus.mivareadythemes.com/ ] in mobile?

To answer this question about what happens when you test the demo site - take a look at Coffee > Featured Categories in mobile - it "links" to https://colossus.mivareadythemes.com/mm5/

[Matt Zimmermann]

Hi Leslie,

I think I've figured out what is going on. The navigation is designed to have a link for all items. The issue with "Featured Categories" was that the link had been removed in the administration portal. If you are looking for a way to have a header that doesn't link, then it will require some decent manipulation of the code and JavaScript.

[lesliekirk]

Hi Leslie,

I think I've figured out what is going on. The navigation is designed to have a link for all items. The issue with "Featured Categories" was that the link had been removed in the administration portal. If you are looking for a way to have a header that doesn't link, then it will require some decent manipulation of the code and JavaScript.

But Matt Zimmermann then why bother having the "None" as a Link value? What happens to all the other store owners that might be using the "None" value? I'd almost call this a bug in the Framework or at least call it a flaw.

[Matt Zimmermann]

Hi Leslie,

Link value of "None" will work fine in many situations. In the case of the Omega Menu, it is not a recommend use since you could end up with the results you are seeing. I will investigate modifying the functionality on Omega for Colossus 2.0.