How to Add a Red Border to One Item at a Time in Your Side Navigation

Learn how to ensure that only one item in your side navigation shows a `red border` when clicked, enhancing the user experience by making navigation more intuitive and organized.
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This video is based on the question https://stackoverflow.com/q/72495453/ asked by the user 'Matrion' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/19258933/ ) and on the answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/72495524/ provided by the user 'Louys Patrice Bessette' ( https://stackoverflow.com/u/2159528/ ) at 'Stack Overflow' website. Thanks to these great users and Stackexchange community for their contributions.

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How to Add a Red Border to One Item at a Time in Your Side Navigation

In web development, we often want to enhance the user experience by making our navigation elements more interactive. One common task is to highlight the active item in a sidebar navigation menu. In this post, we'll learn how to achieve this by displaying a red border for one active item at a time.

Imagine you've created a sidebar containing multiple menu items, and you want to clearly indicate which item is currently selected by showing a red border. We'll demonstrate how to modify your JavaScript and HTML for easy implementation.

Understanding the Problem

The original functionality allowed a user to click on multiple items in the navigation, which would lead to multiple items displaying a red border. We want to change this behavior, ensuring that only one item can be highlighted at any time.

The Solution: Step-by-Step

Let's go through the steps required to implement this feature effectively.

1. Modify Your JavaScript

The key to our solution lies in the JavaScript code. We need to make some adjustments to ensure that all previous active classes are cleared before a new one is added. This way, only one item will have the active state at any time.

Here’s how the code should look:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

2. CSS Code

Your CSS may not need a lot of changes, but ensure your active class has the appropriate style you want, like a red bottom border.

Here’s the CSS definition for the .active class:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

3. Sample HTML Structure

Let's look at how the HTML structure supports this:

[[See Video to Reveal this Text or Code Snippet]]

4. Putting It All Together

Combine the JavaScript, CSS, and HTML into your project. When you click on any menu item, all previously active items will lose their red borders, allowing only the selected item to highlight the current choice.

Conclusion

By following these guidelines, you can enhance your sidebar navigation to ensure that only one item shows a red border at any time. This approach not only clarifies which item is active but also improves user interaction, making your website feel more responsive and intuitive.

Feel free to implement this in your projects, and watch how it improves the overall navigation experience for your users!

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