Structural Pages - Design Document

Overview

The structural_pages module implements a hierarchical editorial structure and contextual navigation for institutional sites in Drupal 11. The module was designed for higher education institutions but is 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 hierarchical taxonomy vocabulary
2. Parent-Child Structure (subsidiary): Direct hierarchy between pages for specific cases, supporting multiple entity types as parents

See docs/DESIGN.md for details.