[Tex/LaTex] Custom navigation dots in beamer headline

Question

I am working on my slides in beamer and I would like to include some dots in the header indicating the current section (left) and subsection (right). The names of the sections/subsections should not be included.

Here is a MWE:

\documentclass{beamer}

\makeatletter
\setbeamertemplate{headline}
{%
    \leavevmode%
    \hbox{%
        \begin{beamercolorbox}[wd=0.5\paperwidth,ht=2.25ex,dp=1ex,left]{section in head/foot}
            section dots
        \end{beamercolorbox}%
        \begin{beamercolorbox}[wd=0.5\paperwidth,ht=2.25ex,dp=1ex,right]{section in head/foot}
            subsection dots (of current section)
        \end{beamercolorbox}}%
}
\makeatother

\begin{document}    
    \section{Section1}
    \begin{frame}
        \frametitle{Frame11}
    \end{frame}

    \subsection{Subsection1}
    \begin{frame}
        \frametitle{Frame12}
    \end{frame}

    \subsection{Subsection2}
    \begin{frame}
        \frametitle{Frame13}
    \end{frame}


    \section{Section2}
    \begin{frame}
        \frametitle{Frame21}
    \end{frame}

    \subsection{Subsection1}
    \begin{frame}
        \frametitle{Frame22}
    \end{frame}

    \subsection{Subsection2}
    \begin{frame}
        \frametitle{Motivation}
    \end{frame}

    \subsection{Subsection3}
    \begin{frame}
        \frametitle{Frame23}
    \end{frame}
\end{document}

For this specific number of frames, I want two dots in the top-left corner indicating the sections and two or three dots in the top-right corner indicating the subsections of section 1 and section 2, respectfully. Obviously, I want a general solution that is not specific to this example.

Is this done easily in my current setup or is something entirely different needed?

Answer 1

There are probably much better ways to do this, but instead of messing with beamer navigation I wanted to try something new and play with the xcntperchap package.

\documentclass{beamer}
\usepackage{tikz}

\usepackage{totcount}
\regtotcounter{section}

\usepackage{xcntperchap}
\RegisterCounters{section}{subsection}

\newcounter{totalsubsection}
\setcounter{totalsubsection}{0}
\usepackage{etoolbox}

\preto\frame{\ifnum\thesection>0\setcounter{totalsubsection}{\ObtainTrackedValueExp[\thesection]{section}{subsection}}\fi}

\setbeamertemplate{headline}{%
\hbox{%
\begin{beamercolorbox}[wd=.48\paperwidth,ht=2.25ex,dp=1ex]{section in head/foot}%
\hfill%
\ifnum\totvalue{section}>0%
\ifnum\thesection>0%
\foreach\x in {1,...,\totvalue{section}}{%
\ifnum\x=\thesection%
\usebeamertemplate{mini frame}~%
\else%
\usebeamertemplate{mini frame in other section}~%
\fi%
}%
\fi%
\fi%
\end{beamercolorbox}%
\qquad%
\begin{beamercolorbox}[wd=.48\paperwidth,ht=2.25ex,dp=1ex]{subsection in head/foot}%
\ifnum\thetotalsubsection>0%
\foreach\x in {1,...,\thetotalsubsection}{%
\ifnum\x=\thesubsection%
\usebeamertemplate{mini frame}~%
\else%
\usebeamertemplate{mini frame in other subsection}~%
\fi%
}%
\fi%
\end{beamercolorbox}%
}}

\title{title}
\author{author}

\begin{document}

    \begin{frame}
        \titlepage
    \end{frame}


\section{Section1}

\frame{}

\subsection{Subsection1}
\begin{frame}
\frametitle{Frame11}
\end{frame}

\subsection{Subsection2}
\begin{frame}
\frametitle{Frame12}
\end{frame}

\section{Section2}
\begin{frame}
\frametitle{Frame2}
\end{frame}

\subsection{Subsection1}
\begin{frame}
\frametitle{Frame21}
\end{frame}

\subsection{Subsection2}
\begin{frame}
\frametitle{Frame22}
\end{frame}

\subsection{Subsection3}
\begin{frame}
\frametitle{Frame23}
\end{frame}

\section{Section3}
\begin{frame}
\frametitle{Frame3}
\end{frame}

\end{document}