Show or hide Breadcrumbs in APEX Apps

You may want to add a global control to show or hide the breadcrumbs below the page title. This blog post explains how you can do that. Since users can always return to the home page of your app, by clicking on the Application title, it is OK to hide the breadcrumbs in some situations.

A Region can be set to be Customizable, but that affects only the current page.    

You may want to give the users control to hide and show the Breadcrumbs when they don't need it, with a global switch. The control can be set by the online user via the Navigation Bar menu with the following method.

Add a Application Item

Name : APP_DISPLAY_BREADCRUMBS 

Add an Application Computation

Computation Item : APP_DISPLAY_BREADCRUMBS

Computation Point : On New Instance 

Computation Type : PL/SQL Expression 

Computation  : NVL(APEX_UTIL.GET_PREFERENCE(:OWNER || ':DISPLAY_BREADCRUMBS'), 'YES')

Add an Application Process

Name : Set Display Breadcrumbs

Sequence : 100 

Process Point : On Load: Before Header 

PL/SQL Code:

:APP_DISPLAY_BREADCRUMBS := case when :REQUEST = 'DISPLAY_BREADCRUMBS_ON' then 'YES' else 'NO' end;

APEX_UTIL.SET_PREFERENCE(:OWNER || ':DISPLAY_BREADCRUMBS', :APP_DISPLAY_BREADCRUMBS);

Condition Type : PL/SQL Expression 

Expression 1 : 

:REQUEST IN ('DISPLAY_BREADCRUMBS_ON','DISPLAY_BREADCRUMBS_OFF')

Add Navigation Bar entries 

Edit list 'Navigation Bar' and add 2 entries. 

first entry

Parent List Entry &APP_LOGIN_NAME 

Sequence : 100 

Image/Class : fa-toggle-on 

List Entry Label : Hide Breadcrumbs

Target type : Page in this Application 

Page : &APP_PAGE_ID.

Request : DISPLAY_BREADCRUMBS_OFF

Condition type : Value of Item / Column in Expression 1 = Expression 2 

Expression 1 : APP_DISPLAY_BREADCRUMBS 

Expression 2 : YES 

second entry

Parent List Entry &APP_LOGIN_NAME 

Sequence : 110 

Image/Class : fa-toggle-off 

List Entry Label : Display Breadcrumbs

Target type : Page in this Application 

Page : &APP_PAGE_ID.

Request : DISPLAY_BREADCRUMBS_ON

Condition type : Value of Item / Column in Expression 1 = Expression 2 

Expression 1 : APP_DISPLAY_BREADCRUMBS 

Expression 2 : NO 

Load each page that has a Breadcrumbs region 

Click on the Region named Breadcrumbs

Change the Server-side Condition 

Type : Item = Value 

Item : APP_DISPLAY_BREADCRUMBS

Value : YES 

or when you also whant to hide the region in printer friendly mode

Type : PL/SQL Expression 

PL/SQL Expression :

:PRINTER_FRIENDLY = 'NO' AND :APP_DISPLAY_BREADCRUMBS = 'YES'

The method is demonstrated in a demo app. After login click on the username menu entry in the top menu.

https://apex.oracle.com/pls/apex/f?p=48950:101