Extend left side nav bar with custom entries to integrate 3rd party web applications easily with context from GitLab UI
Proposal
Summary
In a call (24th Feb 2022) with an existing 12k Ultimate customer and @mrleutz @manuel.kraft, the GitLab champion on the customer side explained that they would highly appreciate to have a possibility to extend the left side navigation in GitLab UI to more tighlty integrate 3rd party applications. Details below
Use case
The extension would massively help to integrate 3rd party applications of the customer, which rely on informations which are already visible / available in parts of the GitLab UI, for example a selected branch within a project or similar.
Users would be able to jump directly from the GitLab UI to another (web based) application and passing along information from the GitLab views to make the switch context aware.
For example, the customer already heavily uses GitLab issues with links to other applications, which include e.g. the project id or similar. But they would like to have a generic solution for jumping to external applications along with data from the corresponding GitLab UI the user has been using before.
By being able to have a dedicated sub menu of the left side nav bar, the customer could integrate 3rd party applications and make them context aware, based on which view the user left in GitLab.
Requirements
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Being able to configure custom entry in the left side nav bar including JS code to get executed, to evaluate the currently GitLab view / UX and potenial data which can be used to pass to the external application.
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Able to configure a dedicated icon for the custom menu entry.
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Being able to show the custom entries only when a specific GitLab view is visible to the user (because it provides required context data to pass in the jump to external application)
Example / Mockup
Modified left side nav bar with a custom entry for an external (web) app, which would use JS to collect context aware data from GitLab UI before opening the 3rd party (web) application with URL parameters.
Checklist
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If your proposal includes changes to the top-level menu items within the left sidebar, engage the Foundations Product Design Manager for approval. The Foundations DRI will work with UX partners in product design, research, and technical writing, as applicable. -
Follow the product development workflow validation process to ensure you are solving a well understood problem and that the proposed change is understandable and non-disruptive to users. Navigation-specific research is strongly encouraged. -
Engage the Foundations team to ensure your proposal is in alignment with holistic changes happening to the left side bar. -
Consider whether you need to communicate the change somehow, or if you will have an interim period in the UI where your nav item will live in more than one place.