# Shared Apps disappears with nav\_bar configured

**URL:** <https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/shared-apps-disappears-with-nav-bar-configured/4192>\
**Category:** Get Help\
**Tags:** question\
**Created:** [April 11, 2025, 11:27pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/shared-apps-disappears-with-nav-bar-configured/4192 "2025-04-11T23:27:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![hansen-m](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/discourse.openondemand.org/hansen-m/32/2200_2.png) [@hansen-m](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/hansen-m)\
**Post date:** [April 11, 2025, 11:27pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/shared-apps-disappears-with-nav-bar-configured/4192/1 "2025-04-11T23:27:24Z")

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Unsure if this is expected behavior or not, but I recently modified the nav\_bar section in an ondemand.d conf file. It seems that if I configure nav\_bar then the “Shared Apps” section at the top of the left-hand sidebar on “My Interactive Sessions” page disappears. If I remove the nav\_bar conf and restart then it will return.

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**Author:** ![Christian-bustelo](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/discourse.openondemand.org/christian-bustelo/32/2685_2.png) [@Christian-bustelo](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/Christian-bustelo)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2025, 8:50am UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/shared-apps-disappears-with-nav-bar-configured/4192/3 "2025-04-16T08:50:55Z")

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Hi Matt

I’m not sure if I’m understanding your problem, is this “Sharded Apps” a section in your “Interactive Apps” or is it another new section of apps declared by you?

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**Author:** ![hansen-m](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/discourse.openondemand.org/hansen-m/32/2200_2.png) [@hansen-m](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/hansen-m)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2025, 10:30am UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/shared-apps-disappears-with-nav-bar-configured/4192/4 "2025-04-16T10:30:47Z")

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Hi @Christian-bustelo, thanks for the reply.

This is the `usr` type apps [Peer to Peer Sharing](https://osc.github.io/ood-documentation/latest/how-tos/app-development/app-sharing.html#peer-to-peer-executable-sharing) feature, which displays at the top of the left sidebar on the dashboard/batch\_connect/sessions page.

Adding the `nav_bar` config causes this entire “Shared Apps” section to disappear from the sidebar. It doesn’t seem to matter what is configured in `nav_bar`. I’ve tested this with the default list.

 ![Screenshot 2025-04-16 at 06.22.04](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/osc/original/2X/6/609901039a1c866418cef3cc656a391d096cd734.png)

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**Author:** ![hansen-m](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/discourse.openondemand.org/hansen-m/32/2200_2.png) [@hansen-m](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/hansen-m)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2025, 10:40am UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/shared-apps-disappears-with-nav-bar-configured/4192/5 "2025-04-16T10:40:28Z")

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The documentation suggests including `- usr/*` in the pinned\_apps configuration but I’m already using pinned\_apps to display a fixed list of items on the dashboard page. So this “Shared Apps” sidebar is the interface for users to find for these apps directly. Although they do still appear in the “All Apps” apps/index directory.

If the nav\_bar configuration removing the Shared Apps section is expected behavior and not a bug, then maybe I can submit a feature request to be able to create multiple named instances of pinned\_apps because it would be great to be able to create a custom dashboard page with just the `usr/*` apps displayed in pinned\_apps.

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**Author:** ![jeff.ohrstrom](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/discourse.openondemand.org/jeff.ohrstrom/32/136_2.png) [@jeff.ohrstrom](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/jeff.ohrstrom)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2025, 2:05pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/shared-apps-disappears-with-nav-bar-configured/4192/6 "2025-04-16T14:05:01Z")

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Thanks @Christian-bustelo for jumping in!

I tracked this down to this ticket which boiled down to `"if it's in the navbar it should be in this left hand panel"`

> <https://github.com/OSC/ondemand/issues/2326>
>
> \# Story Description
> Add support to configure the list of applications/links tha…t appear in the left hand menu on the \`Interactive Apps\` and \`My Interactive Sessions\` page.
> 
> Now that we can fully customize the Main navigation, the \`Interactive Apps\` navigation item might be custom or not defined.
> To have control of what appears in the left hand side menu, we should support its customization.
> 
> This is a requirement for the IQSS Sid project.
> 
> Relates to #2223 
> 
> Part of the work related to user profiles: https://github.com/OSC/ondemand/issues/2126
> 
> \## Technical Notes
> The default behaviour when a custom navigation is defined is to scan all the applications that have been used to configure the navigation and use these apps to render the new left hand side navigation.
> There is a new menu title:\` t('dashboard.batch\_connect\_apps\_menu\_title')\`
> The apps will be sorted and arranged as per their custom navigation subcategories defined in the new navigation.
> 
> This behaviour can be overridden with a new custom UserConfiguration property to fully define the items in this navigation.
> 
> 
> 
> ┆Issue is synchronized with this \[Asana task\](https://app.asana.com/0/1202821104799596/1203149572295355) by \[Unito\](https://www.unito.io)

It appears that maybe shared apps was missed? It sounds like a bug to me, like if you have it in the navigation bar then you should have them here too.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![hansen-m](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/discourse.openondemand.org/hansen-m/32/2200_2.png) [@hansen-m](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/hansen-m)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2025, 2:49pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/shared-apps-disappears-with-nav-bar-configured/4192/7 "2025-04-16T14:49:31Z")

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Hm, maybe I’m not fully understanding how the menus and lists are linked.

I haven’t done (at least intentionally) any manual configuration of the left-hand list in My Interactive Sessions. I use the auto-categorization for that. As far as I know, the “Shared Apps” section has never appeared in the top “Interactive Apps” drop-down list on the dashboard. It would appear automatically as grouping at the top of the left-hand menu on “My Interactive Sessions” whenever the user had permission to access the apps.

My nav\_bar configuration is fairly simple, I just re-created the default because I wanted to be able to add custom\_pages into the Clusters menu and it seemed to be the only way to do that. But in my testing it doesn’t appear to matter what is in the `nav_bar` config. If it exists, then “Shared Apps” stops automatically appearing in the left-hand menu.

```auto
nav_bar:
  # 'apps' drop-down menu is shown if you've set 'pinned_apps'.
  - apps
  - files
  - jobs
# - clusters
  - title: "Clusters"
    links:
      - group: "System Information"
      - title: "Available Modules"
        icon: "fa://spider" # optional, defaults to fas://cog
        page: "modules"
      - group: ""
      - title: "RC Shell Access"
        icon: "fa://terminal"
      - "sys/shell"
  - interactive apps
  - my interactive sessions

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jeff.ohrstrom](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/discourse.openondemand.org/jeff.ohrstrom/32/136_2.png) [@jeff.ohrstrom](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/jeff.ohrstrom)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2025, 2:56pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/shared-apps-disappears-with-nav-bar-configured/4192/8 "2025-04-16T14:56:41Z")

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I’ve created this bug ticket upstream. The premise was `whatever's in the navbar should appear in this menu`, but I believe that that only applies to system installed apps, it would seem that shared apps were missed here.

> <https://github.com/OSC/ondemand/issues/4286>
>
> From discourse: https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/shared-apps-disappears-with…-nav-bar-configured/4192/7
> 
> I tracked this down to #2326 which boiled down to \`"if it's in the navbar it should be in this left hand panel"\`, but it appears that's only for system installed apps. It appears that shared apps was not considered here.
> 
> So, this left hand panel should respond to shared apps as well.

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/osc/original/2X/b/bae70bd0ed39a3ae769c2108155f4cb3e9da8385.png) [@system](https://discourse.openondemand.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [October 13, 2025, 2:57pm UTC](https://discourse.openondemand.org/t/shared-apps-disappears-with-nav-bar-configured/4192/9 "2025-10-13T14:57:25Z")

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Closed on October 13, 2025, 2:57pm UTC

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