Convert ToC parent nodes to only expand/collapse

[tdykstra]

• In the Tables of Contents for Azure services, grouping nodes that have article nodes under them do not themselves link to an article -- they only expand or collapse the group. For consistency, we should follow suit.
• Other ToC's also do not duplicate their ToC link lists in index.md files; we should eliminate those as well.

Fixed by #9133

[guardrex]

On several Index pages, I added the topic descriptions to help the reader understand more about what's in each topic.

For example, see:

• Performance Index
• Docker Index
• DP config Index

These examples have a single lead-in line to orient the reader to the node's articles. (I think the single line in these cases can be further improved.)

I like Fundamentals: Hosting because it provides an expanded introduction blurb about what the whole section pertains to (better than a single line), then it has the links+descriptions.

I speculate that eliminating Index pages in most cases forces readers to click on several topics in the node to see what each section of the TOC is about and what each topic covers (if the titles aren't very descriptive), while a well-crafted Index page aids in navigation and understanding.

Therefore, I suggest considering the wise use of Index pages before removing them. If you would like to see a further example of what I propose, allow me to present you with a before and after example using one of the existing link-list-formatted pages. For example, I could take DP implementation Index, do a quick number on it (it would only take a few minutes), and then you could see what I mean.

[tdykstra]

• Not all clicks are created equal. 😄 Browse through Azure Functions, for example. Expanding and collapsing a node is instantaneous, no need to wait for a page to load. You can quickly find what you need (within the limitations of a ToC structure that puts doc type at the top level).
• ToC entries, though short, do give a good feel for what you could expect to find -- the descriptive text in Performance Index, for example, is not that much more informative than the ToC node names.
• Duplicate content is more work to maintain and it gets out of sync when people update one copy (the ToC, for instance) and not the other copy (the index file). If we kept index-file-links on parent nodes, I would still be inclined to eliminate the duplicate copy of ToC section links.

[guardrex]

TL;DR Shortening down to ...

I don't want to draw conclusions without testing.

The Index pages that are link-lists are useless, yes. However, I don't recommend a wholesale deletion of the pages. I think these pages should be assessed on a case-by-case basis to see which ones can be enhanced into something useful. Just a suggestion.

[tdykstra]

We're planning to do some experimentation/user testing with the ToC, so this will be one of the areas we'll look at. But I think all or none should be expand/collapse, so you know what to expect when you click a parent node.

[guardrex]

The silly GooberRex:tm: disagrees :smile:, but thanks for hearing me out.