The code sucks; rewrite suggested

[Kyle Alan Hale]

I just think the code sucks. Why not do it like this?

$(document).ready(function () {
    var breadcrumb = document.createElement('div');
    breadcrumb.setAttribute('id', 'pathnav');
    breadcrumb.setAttribute('class', 'nav');

    var links = document.location.pathname.split("/");
    var editing = !!document.location.toString().match(/action=edit/);
    var first, last;

    var url = "";
    var crumbs = '<ul>';

    for (i = 1; i < links.length; i++) {
        if (links[i] == "") continue;

        first = i == 1;
        last = i == links.length - 1;

        item = links[i];
        url += item;

        crumbs += '<li' + ( (first) ? ' class="first"' : ( (last && !editing) ? ' class="last"': '' ) ) + '>';
        crumbs += ( (last && !editing) ? '<b>' : '<a href="/' + ( (i == 1) ? '' : url ) + '">' );
        crumbs += ( (first) ? 'Home' : item );
        crumbs += ( (last && !editing) ? '</b>' : '</a>' );
        crumbs += '</li>';

        if (editing && last) crumbs += '<li class="last"><b>(editing)</b></li>';

        url += "/";
    }

    crumbs += '</ul>';

    breadcrumb.innerHTML = crumbs;



    var main = document.getElementById('main');
    main.insertBefore(breadcrumb, main.firstChild);
});

The CSS would look like this:

#pathnav {
    float: left;
    margin-left: -40px;
}
#content {
    padding-top: 2em;
}

These changes effect the following:

• Waits until the page is loaded before appending the new element.
• Uses a DOM insertion rather than document.write
• The breadcrumb is placed on the same level as the other wiki historical links (Index, History, etc.), and pushes down the content a bit to make room
• Makes the final item in the breadcrumb (the current page) bold instead of a link. It also looks for the 'edit' parameter in the query string and appends a crumb if present.
• Uses the "first" and "last" CSS classes to better the styling

My probs with my approach:

• It does use a mixture of DOM functions and innerHTML, which I'm usually against, but it seemed easiest in this case. At least, it was faster to code. Someone who knows dojo better could perhaps clean it up.
• Unfortunately, previews are done via POST, so the (editing) flag goes away after a preview.

Anyway, this is how I'm using it, and it's fantastic.

Thought others might like this change, even if you don't incorporate it.

[Kyle Alan Hale]

Forgot to mention though: great idea! I'm glad to have found this to begin with. I just think it could be even grander with some work.

[Ryan J Ollos]

Plugin is deprecated. See the BreadCrumbsNavPlugin.