Structural Pages

Drupal 11 module that implements hierarchical editorial structure and contextual navigation for institutional sites. Designed for higher education institutions but generic enough for other institutional contexts.

Problem

In Drupal, content is added in a flat manner (non-hierarchical), and menus are traditionally used to organize content into hierarchical structures. This creates user experience problems because content editors typically do not have permission to administer menus.

Solution

The module implements two complementary structures:

1. Taxonomic Structure (primary) — Organization based on the site_sections hierarchical taxonomy vocabulary, applied to the section_page content type. Governs breadcrumbs and URLs via Pathauto.
2. Parent-Child Structure (subsidiary) — Direct hierarchy between pages via field_parent_page (Dynamic Entity Reference), applied to the content_page content type. Supports multiple parent entity types: nodes, taxonomy terms, users, and groups.

Requirements

• Drupal 11
• Core modules: node, taxonomy, views, field, text
• Contrib modules:
  • Token
  • Pathauto
  • Dynamic Entity Reference
• Optional:
  • content_translation — for multilingual taxonomy term names
  • Group — for group entity support (via structural_pages_group submodule)

Installation

drush en structural_pages -y
drush cr

The module automatically creates:

• Taxonomy vocabulary site_sections with default hierarchical terms
• Content types section_page and content_page with configured fields
• Pathauto patterns for both content types and taxonomy terms
• A child_pages View (block display)
• Content translations for term names (if content_translation is enabled)

Group support

drush en structural_pages_group -y

Requires the Group module. Adds group entities as a parent type for content pages.

Configuration

Settings form: /admin/config/local-modules/structural-pages

Allows administrators to select which entity types and bundles can be used as parents for content pages. Changes automatically update the field_parent_page field configuration.

Content Types

section_page

Pages organized by site section. Each page belongs to a site_sections taxonomy term.

Field	Type	Required	Description
field_site_section	Entity reference (taxonomy)	Yes	Site section
body	Formatted text	No	Page content

content_page

Pages with hierarchical parent-child structure. The parent can be a node, taxonomy term, user, or group.

Field	Type	Required	Description
field_parent_page	Dynamic entity reference	No	Parent entity
field_site_section	Entity reference (taxonomy)	Conditional	Site section (inherited or manual)
body	Formatted text	No	Page content

Site section inheritance rules:

• Parent is a taxonomy_term → uses the term as site section
• Parent is a node → inherits field_site_section from the parent node
• Parent is a user or group → clears field_site_section (context is the entity itself)
• No parent (root page) → must be filled manually

Features

Automatic breadcrumbs

Custom breadcrumb builder for section_page and content_page that traverses the parent chain:

• Taxonomy context: Home > Term Hierarchy > Parent Nodes > Current Page
• User context: Home > User Name > Parent Nodes > Current Page
• Group context: Home > Group Name > Parent Nodes > Current Page

Pathauto tokens

Token	Description	Example
[node:site-section-path]	Hierarchical path from taxonomy	undergraduate/courses
[term:hierarchy-path]	Term path including ancestors	institutional/news

Suggested URL pattern: [node:site-section-path]/[node:title] → /undergraduate/courses/software-engineering

Structural Pages Menu block

Dynamic menu block that renders hierarchical navigation based on content structure.

Option	Default	Description
Maximum depth	3	Number of levels to display (1-10)
Show ancestor title	Yes	Display ancestor entity title as header
Expand active trail	Yes	Highlight the path to current page

Child Pages View

Block display that lists child pages of the current content_page, filtered by field_parent_page.

Extensibility

The module uses an attribute-based plugin system (ParentEntityHandler) to support different parent entity types. Built-in handlers:

Handler	Entity Type	Clears Site Section	Bundle Restrictions
TaxonomyTermHandler	taxonomy_term	No	site_sections
NodeHandler	node	No	content_page, section_page
UserHandler	user	Yes	-
GroupHandler*	group	Yes	-

*Provided by the structural_pages_group submodule.

To add support for a new entity type, create a plugin in src/Plugin/ParentEntityHandler/:

#[ParentEntityHandler(
  id: 'my_entity',
  label: new TranslatableMarkup('My Entities'),
  entity_type_id: 'my_entity',
  clears_site_section: FALSE,
  sort_field: 'title',
)]
class MyEntityHandler extends ParentEntityHandlerBase {
  // Override methods as needed.
}

See docs/DESIGN.md for full architecture details and docs/PLUGIN_SYSTEM_PLAN.md for the plugin system design.