Navigation: Submenu + Icon disappears when focusing a submenu navigation link

[jeryj]

When a submenu navigation link block receives focus, the + icon to add another submenu link disappears.

To reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. In the editor, click a top level navigation link that has a submenu (or create one and do this)
2. See the + is visible to click to add a new submenu item
3. Click an existing submenu item to give it focus
4. See the + to add a new submenu item is no longer visible

Expected behavior
Previously, the + icon was available to add another submenu item in this situation. As it stands, the only way to add a new submenu item is to click back to the top-level item so it will show the + to add a submenu item again 😢

Screenshots

Desktop (please complete the following information):

• OS: Mojave MacOs
• Browser Chrome, Safari, and Firefox
• Version: latest

Additional context

• Gutenberg 7.3.0-rc.1

[jeryj]

It's caused by 24c0e60#diff-2e071f8429cd2c500b830947ffde4239R200, but maybe it was intentional per discussion here: #19598.

Not sure the best course, as the whole submenu is in redesign mode.

[draganescu]

Hey @jeryj , it was intentional, as there is the toolbar icon for adding a submenu icon. See @mtias 'comment here and the followup exchange #19598 (comment)

I also find it somewhat weird but it does provide a cleaner UI as a result.

[jeryj]

@draganescu Thanks for pointing me there. I read through, and there's a lot of brain power involved in trying to track if the discussion is around adding a new submenu level vs an additional submenu item on the same level 😝

I made two gifs to illustrate what I'm talking about to make sure we're on the same page. My specific UX focus here is creating a new submenu link item (not a new submenu).

Here's a gif of a PR I'm working on with the current state:

Here's the flow if you revert back to showing the appender:

In the current state, creating a submenu with multiple items (which I imagine is a common thing), is quite annoying. If the appender is present, it's so much smoother. The current state requires you to reselect the parent of the submenu before you can see the appender to add another item to that submenu.

I think your PR cleaned up a lot of the annoying trailing appenders all over the place, and is much better overall. I'd still like to see the appender for the current submenu level, even if you're on an item within that though.

What do you think would be a good way forward here?

[jeryj]

@draganescu, I put in a PR #19846 that changes it slightly. There's still a chance of getting multiple + appenders next to each other, but it still greatly reduces the visible appenders while hopefully showing you the ones you need at the moment.