The tree control is a hierarchical navigation display of departments, topics, and subtopics. It is used throughout the FAQ system and serves different purposes in various contexts. However, the control behaves the same way throughout the FAQ system.

The triangle indicator that points to the right indicates that an item in the tree control has a branch with options not currently displayed. The indicator and the label text serve as switches that open the underlying branch. By clicking on the indicator or the label text the branch expands.

When the indicator points downward the branch is expanded and all items on the subordinate level are displayed. The subordinate items may contain further branches that can be expanded. Clicking on the indicator or the label text collapses the branch.

A checkbox next to an item serves as selector. When the box is checked the item is selected.

The hierarchical relation between items is reflected by the horizontal position of an item.

The example on the left is taken from the Search page. In the example, the branch for the department Web is expanded. Below the department name are displayed all published topics.

The topic General Publishing has no further subtopics, while the topic labeled Dreamweaver has. You can open the branch with the subtopics by clicking on the indicator next to the word Dreamweaver or the label text itself.

Clicking on the indicator on the left of Web or the label text itself causes the branch to collapse. The topics display vanishes.

When the Tree control appears in the search context (i.e., on the FAQ search page or the Edit Questions screen) it allows the user to limit the search results to questions in the selected categories. Multiple selections are possible and items can be checked on any of the available levels.

Items that have multiple topics or subtopics are furnished with an All checkbox that allows for a complate search: All

If there are no selected items in the tree control when you submit a search, the search applies to all displayed departments, topics, and subtopics. All questions are displayed in the search results.

The tree control on the University-wide search page includes exclusively published departments, topics, and subtopics. The search returns only published questions. Departments can choose to serve their FAQs to the public or to keep them private. The University-wide search page shows only the departments that serve their FAQs to the general public.

In these two screens, the tree control is used to assign questions to specific topics or subtopics. Multiple assignments are possible and questions can be displayed in different topics or subtopics. The question number, the question text, and the answer are unique.

In the example on the left, a question is assigned to both Dreamweaver - Editing/Linking and Graphics in the Web department. The example also demonstrates that assignments can be made on the topic or the subtopic level. Any checkbox can be a valid assignment.

The assignments of a question are displayed as checked boxes. These boxes are visible even if the corresponding branch is collapsed. Unchecking a box removes the assignment. Please note that on the Question form you must apply assignment changes by clicking the Apply button.

When the tree control appears in an administrative context, it contains both published and unpublished items.

This example shows that the item ADA Compliance is published, while HTML Validation is unpublished.

The tree control displays differently according to the user's privileges. It displays the departments, topics, and subtopics in which the user has either administrator or contributor privileges.

Administrators
The tree control displays all departments in which the user has administrator privileges. It includes both published and unpublished departments, topics, and subtopics.

Contributors
The tree control shows all published and unpublished topics (including all subtopics) in which a user has contributor privileges.