SPO 2013 - Hiding/showing navigation items automatically regarding user's permissions

Question

We are using O365/Sharepoint Online 2013.

We are using the structured navigation on our root site (https://sitename.sharepoint.com) and when we adjust our permission levels for users, pages and sub-sites, the navigation items automatically shows/hides regarding what permissions the user has.

We would like to have the same kind of navigation functionality in our search site (https://sitename.sharepoint.com/search) also, but somehow it does not work even when set up the same way as the root site. What's the problem? Am I missing something obvious?

EDIT: I tried to meddle with managed navigation also but it did not automatically hide/show the menu items either.

EDIT 2/Additional information: Our search site is the default search center so our search actions brings us to the search center and the URL is "https://sitename.sharepoint.com/search/Pages/results.aspx?k=[YourQuerystring]". Also we are using the left panel in the search center for the refiners.

That being said, our goal is to get the top navigation menu look and act the same way as our top navigation on our root site does. On our root site we have structured navigation that automatically hides and shows the menu items depending on the user's permissions.

We tried to create an identical top navigation menu on our search center site but somehow it shows every menu item to every user regardless of the permissions of the users. Permissions are still working because if a user clicks a menu item that should be hidden, he gets an error message saying it's restricted. So only the automatic hide/show function is not working in our search center top navigation menu.

I'm eternally grateful for any solutions regarding this matter!

Answer 1

Usually the search site you're refering to, is a different site collection which doesn't have the same navigation as the site collection you're searching from. You can test this by adding a search query and see where you're result page is.

If you see the following URL as the result page, then this is your case:

https://sitename.sharepoint.com/search/Pages/results.aspx?k=[YourQuerystring]

If that's not the case, your search result URL probably looks like this:

https://sitename.sharepoint.com/_layouts/15/start.aspx#/_layouts/15/osssearchresults.aspx?u=https%3A%2F%2Fsitename%2Esharepoint%2Ecom&k=[YourQuerystring]

The important part is the page name osssearchresults.aspx. The left hand navigation is replaced by the faceted search options, where users can filter the query to result type, author and modificeation date out of the box.

These filters are a good thing, and replacing them with a left menu wouldn't let users filter their results. But you should still have the top navigation menu as the same from your site collection top menu.

You also have the option to set which search option to use in the search settings in the site collection administration section of the site setting. Eg: Gear Icon > Site Settings > Search Settings.

If you provide more information, I could help you further resolving your issue, when I understand what you're trying to accomplish. Top navigation or Left menu navigation?