With the 4.x.x release of the nativescript-ui-sidedrawer plugin the RadSideDrawer no longer has a dedicated showOverNavigation property. More details can be found below in the "Migrating from versions 3.x.x to the latest version" section.

Share a single RadSideDrawer throughout the entire life cycle of the application

By popular desire we have revisited the way the RadSideDrawer is, was and wanted to be used by the community. While there are a few cases where the current design API-wise was performing as desired we heard overwhelmingly from the community that the RadSideDrawer is a fundamental element in most mobile applications and should be easily shown everywhere inside of it. In the 3.x.x versions in order to show the element on each Page you would have to duplicate it in each XML declaration leading to less than perfect experience and making maintenance quite redundant. Having this in mind we revisited the API of the RadSideDrawer and implemented it in a way that the above "shared" use case is possible while not changing its API too much to avoid major breaking changes.

With the 4.x.x version of the plugin it is possible to use the RadSideDrawer as the root element of your application. This way it will be persisted and "shared" throughout the entire life cycle of the application. In order to use the element as a root simply:

• Declare it where you used to declare your Page instance in NativeScript 3.x.x
• Set the drawerContent as usual
• Set the mainContent to a Frame instance and set its defaultPage to the first Page of your application

For example:

<nsDrawer:RadSideDrawer xmlns:nsDrawer="nativescript-ui-sidedrawer">
    <nsDrawer:RadSideDrawer.drawerContent>
        <GridLayout>
            <Label text="Side Menu"></Label>
        </GridLayout>
    </nsDrawer:RadSideDrawer.drawerContent>
    <nsDrawer:RadSideDrawer.mainContent>
       <Frame defaultPage="./main-content-page"></Frame>
    </nsDrawer:RadSideDrawer.mainContent>
</nsDrawer:RadSideDrawer> 

By design when navigation is executed in the NativeScript application that navigation will be executed inside the Frame instance which means that the RadSideDrawer instance will be persisted during that navigation.

When using the RadSideDrawer as a root element it will by design always be shown over the navigation bar.

Figure 1. RadSideDrawer as a root element and over navigation bar (ActionBar)

Migrating from Versions 3.x.x to the Latest Version

With the latest 4.x.x and above versions the RadSideDrawer element has had a few changes to its API and usage. There have been two major changes:

• The showOverNavigation property has been removed and replaced by a change in the way the element is utilized. More details can be found below in the "Showing the RadSideDrawer over the navigation bar" section.
• The RadSideDrawer can be "shared" throughout the entire life cycle of the application

Showing the RadSideDrawer over the Navigation Bar

With the latest versions in showing RadSideDrawer element above or below the navigation bar has been re-designed and is no longer controlled by a property but rather by the way the element is utilized in the application. While hearing a lot of feedback from the community we noticed that the majority of it was changing the showOverNavigation property from its default value of false to true and also was duplicating the element on each Page. This is why we have introduced improvements in both cases by allowing the element to be persisted throughout the entire life cycle of the application which also by design will shown over the navigation bar. It is no longer necessary to set any property, simply set the RadSideDrawer as a root of your application. More details can be found above in the "Share a single RadSideDrawer throughout the entire life cycle of the application" section

How to Migrate from Duplicated RadSideDrawer to a Single Root Element

If you were using the RadSideDrawer element in 3.x.x you may have ended with duplicating its declaration in each Page you have in your app. With 4.x.x this is no longer needed but it is backward compatible and should work as expected. You can now truly "share" one declaration in the entire application which is also the recommended approach performance wise. Simply follow this common steps for migrating from 3.x.x to 4.x.x:

• Remove the duplicated RadSideDrawer declarations from your XML
• In the XML of the bootstrapped Page, replace that tag declaration with:

<nsDrawer:RadSideDrawer xmlns:nsDrawer="nativescript-ui-sidedrawer">
    ...
</nsDrawer:RadSideDrawer> 

• Set the mainContent to a Frame instance and set its defaultPage to the first Page of your application:

<nsDrawer:RadSideDrawer.mainContent>
    <Frame defaultPage="main-content-page"></Frame>
</nsDrawer:RadSideDrawer.mainContent>

• Change the bootstrapping of the application to the new run syntax:

import * as app from "application";

app.run({ moduleName: "main-page" });

If you find yourself in the need to access the RadSideDrawer from one of your Pages you can use the new application module's getRootView() function:

import { Application } from "@nativescript/core";
import { RadSideDrawer } from "nativescript-ui-sidedrawer";

let sideDrawer = <RadSideDrawer>Application.getRootView();