Problem/Motivation

It has been decided to replace the Drupal core Toolbar at the top, with a Navigation solution to the left in #3364215: Redesign the toolbar and https://www.drupal.org/project/navigation.

Some users may prefer to keep the Toolbar at the top, and find the new Navigation in the left side not ideal ...

What's the future of Admin Toolbar if Toolbar in Drupal core is removed? I hope it can carry on here in Admin toolbar, or maybe Drupal core Toolbar module can move to https://www.drupal.org/project/toolbar?

Update (Summer 2026):

Steps to reproduce

Try the new Drupal core Navigation module, and find that the existing Drupal core Toolbar module with Admin Toolbar contrib module works best.

Proposed resolution

Remaining tasks

User interface changes

API changes

Data model changes

Comments

ressa created an issue. See original summary.

dalemoore’s picture

dalemoore commented

I'm curious about the future of Admin Toolbar/Toolbar as well with work on Navigation in Core. There is also a submodule called "Navigation Top Bar" that isn't yet feature-complete that will offer the navigation at the top, not on the left. What Navigation can do is more advanced than what Toolbar can, allowing to add blocks into the nav area.

anruether’s picture

anruether
Primary language German
Location Bonn
commented

> There is also a submodule called "Navigation Top Bar" that isn't yet feature-complete that will offer the navigation at the top, not on the left.

Actually it does not offer "the navigation at the top", rather it is an additional region where local tasks and other contextual actions like workflow might be moved to.

As far as I know, the navigation layout only supports a special type of menu block.

dydave’s picture

dydave commented

Seems there is some activity around this topic and issues, see:
#3421969: [PLAN] New Navigation and Top Bar to replace Toolbar Roadmap: Path to Stable.

ressa’s picture

ressa
he/him
commented
Related issues: +#3484850: [meta] Tasks to deprecate Toolbar module

Thanks for sharing @dydave, I asked about it in that issue.

Perhaps, if the handling of menu items in Drupal core will be moved from Toolbar to Navigation, Admin Toolbar should be rebuild on top of Navigation instead of Toolbar, and offer an administration menu placed at the top of the screen, working much like the current one, with the same features?

Or if Drupal core Toolbar becomes a contrib module, Admin Toolbar could simply carry on, only based on the contrib module Toolbar?

poker10’s picture

poker10 commented

Seems like Navigation will not offer a horizontal menu (at least not now), which is huge degradation for a lot of our sites. So +1 to keep Admin Toolbar alive and offer a horizontal menu, if possible.

ressa’s picture

ressa
he/him
commented
Issue summary: View changes
Related issues: +#3618553: Move into core as setting?

Yes, luckily Toolbar has recently been been made a contrib module, with @dydave as maintainer, which is awesome. Thank you @dydave!

A horizontal Navigation solution has appeared with Admin Navigation. Perhaps, if it got a few more maintainers, and more eye balls to find bugs, add functionalities, and so on, it could eventually be included in Drupal core?

dydave’s picture

dydave commented

Thanks @ressa and sorry for not having been more active recently in the module, but I've mostly been waiting on a bunch of tickets to get fixed.

Finally, the Toolbar module has been officially deprecated : #3560123: Deprecate the Toolbar module

Along with a bunch of issues related with moving the dependencies in other core modules to the Toolbar.

So we're most likely going to be able to keep moving forward with this...

The admin navigation module looks great, thanks @ressa :
https://www.drupal.org/project/admin_navigation/

However, this issue and module is a bit larger, trying to provide long term support more globally for the core Toolbar ecosystem, which includes quite a lot of contrib modules.

ressa’s picture

ressa
he/him
commented

Hi @dydave, no problem at all, the Admin Toolbar module is in great shape, after your huge efforts during the last few years, and I am extremely grateful.

After the Toolbar module has been officially deprecated, it seems that making an official release is the final task, and I hope that the Gitlab issue Ensure that Toolbar does not get special core treatment, about fixing the drupal/toolbar-toolbar Composer name can get done, since it seems to be the last blocker, before you can advance.

It's great to see that it was marked "critical" a few hours ago.

But since this issue was created to figure out the future of Admin Toolbar, I am very glad to see that it indeed has a future: Toolbar was deprecated, and became a contrib module, and it has a great maintainer in you.

But maybe a few more hands on deck would be nice?

@anruether and @poker10: Since you already maintain contrib modules, perhaps you could consider joining as maintainers of Toolbar?

poker10’s picture

poker10 commented

@ressa Sorry, currently I do not have any extra available time besides the Security Team and Drupal Core contributions.

ressa’s picture

ressa
he/him
commented

I totally understand @poker10, there are only so many hours in the day, and I very much appreciate the great work you do in other areas of Drupal, like for security, and keeping Drupal core in tip-top shape.

dydave’s picture

dydave commented

I've got 2 weeks off @ressa around the 5th of October, plus augmented with AI ...
Let's see what we could do already?

I can start this week, the following and hopefully we'll have something more refined around the 20th of Oct.

If everything goes well, by then, the composer namespace issue will maybe have been resolved as well, so we would be almost in the position of releasing some stable code ... 🤞

Don't worry about my break: I had no plan of travelling and I'm looking forward to finding some quiet time to put my nose back in the code 😊

Thanks so much @ressa for your continued support and help! 🙏

EDIT: Just saw this super nice comment @ressa!
#3484850-52: [meta] Tasks to deprecate Toolbar module

ressa’s picture

ressa
he/him
commented

That sounds incredible @dydave! let's hope the Composer name problem can get fixed soon, so that people don't start using the wrong one. I saw another project yesterday with the same double-name oddity.

I'll be ready to test any MR's when they arrive, and am looking forward to getting Admin Toolbar Drupal 12-ready! But you also deserve some well earned time-off away from the screen, maybe spend in nature? It is also important :)

dydave’s picture

dydave commented

Ha! 😅

Thanks a lot @ressa! 🤩
I've started getting back a bit on my contrib! 🥳

Looks like we can start pushing the contrib Toolbar module as well! 👍

Seems that things are accelerating a bit... Could it be DrupalCon Rotterdam approaching?! 🤣

Of course, I'll keep you posted as soon as we've got anything ready for testing/reviewing! 🤞
Thanks again! 🙏

charles belov’s picture

charles belov
he/him
Primary language English
Location San Francisco, CA, US
commented
Related issues: +#3627522: Improve wording of status report message