Find the API documentation here

• Introduction
  • Installation
• Creating a Menu
  • Setup the Service Provider
  • Create the New Menu
  • Add items to the menu
  • Registering the menu
  • Extending a menu
  • Accessing menu items in a menu instance
  • Setting variables to a menu item
• Views
  • Item iteration in views
• Tips

Introduction

This package is yet another menu library. This library is different than the others because:

• It is lazy loaded
• Any menu is extendable
• It is not loaded in a middleware
• Each menu declaration is in it's own class

This structure makes it perfect to modularize and extend your menus through the usage of different module libraries the laravel framework can support.

Installation

Vynatu/Menu only uses a single service provider.

First, install with composer:

composer require vynatu/menu

Then, add the service provider to app.php:

<?php 

'providers' => [
    ...
    Vynatu\Menu\MenuServiceProvider::class,
]

Vynatu/Menu does not require an alias. You can call the menu manager directly using app('menu').

Creating a Menu

Setup the Service Provider

You can register menus in any service provider you use, but I prefer making a new service provider called MenuServiceProvider.

This allows you to better separate what the AppServiceProvider does and the new MenuServiceProvider that is solely used to register and extend menus.

Create a new service provider (using Artisan):

artisan make:provider MenuServiceProvider

Don’t forget to register it in the providers!:

<?php 

'providers' => [
    ...
    App\Providers\MenuServiceProvider::class,
]

Create the New Menu

Vynatu/Menu comes with a console command that lets you create menu classes very easily.

artisan make:menu MainMenu

We suggest you put your Menus in a sub-folder (app/Menus).

Or you can make the class yourself:

<?php
namespace App\Menus;

use Vynatu\Menu\MenuInstance;

class AdminMainMenu extends MenuInstance
{
    public function generate()
    {
        //
    }
}

After creating your menu class, an instance of \Vynatu\Menu\RootMenuItem will automatically be injected in your MenuInstance.

Add items to the menu

You can add items to the menu by using the $this->menu instance.

<?php

function generate()
{
    $this->menu->add('Dashboard')->url('/home');                // Method 1
    $this->menu->add('My Account', '/');                        // Method 2
    $this->menu->add('List Users', 'route:users.list');         // Method 3
    $this->menu->add('Seperator')->section();                   // Method 4
    $this->menu->add('Edit Myself', 'route:users.edit|id:5');   // Method 5
    $this->menu->add('Logout')->route('auth.logout');           // Method 6
    $this->menu->add('Some Other Link', ['url' => '/link']);    // Method 7
    
}

Method Number	What does add() return	Additional Info
1	A new MenuItem	Sets the url to Dashboard
2	The $this->menu instance	The route is set already by the second argument using an absolute URL. Useful for quick url assignment
3	The $this->menu instance	The route is associated using the route: prefix. Useful for quick route assignment
4	A new MenuItem	Useful to create a section. URLs or routes don't have to be set. When a function with no argument is called, a variable with the function's name is set to true.
5	The $this->menu instance	The route is associated with arguments, useful to create a quick route with parameters.
6	A new MenuItem	The route is assigned using the fluent interface, which makes the code look cleaner. You can also add an array of route parameters as the second argument.
7	The $this->menu instance	You can pass an array as the second argument to immediately issue all the variables to the menu item, when you don't want to use the fluent interface.

Registering the menu

In the menu service provider you have previously created, add this to the boot method:

<?php

function boot(\Vynatu\Menu\MenuManager $menu)
{
    $menu->register('main_menu', \App\Menus\MainMenu::class);
}

You don't have to use dependency injection. You can use app('menu')->register(...) instead.

Extending a menu

Do the same steps as creating and registering a menu, but instead of using the register method:

<?php

function boot(\Vynatu\Menu\MenuManager $menu)
{
    $menu->extend('main_menu', \App\Menus\MainMenuExtender::class);
}

Accessing menu items in a menu instance

You can access any menu items in a menu instance this way:

<?php

public function generate()
{
    $this->menu->management->add(...);
}

The management variable is created automatically when a new menu item is added. snake_case is used to create the variable name.

This means that if you created an item like $this->menu->add('Management'), a new variable called management will exist and can be accessed by the local menu instance or any menu extender.

If you use _t to create menu names (which means the slug name will always change), you can set the slug name statically:

<?php

public function generate()
{
    $this->menu->add(_t('menus.management'))->route('admin.management')->slug('management');
}

This allow your other extenders to access the management menu item and, for example, change its icon:

<?php

public function generate()
{
    $this->menu->management->icon('fa fa-home');
}

Setting variables to a menu item

There are two ways to do this.

The first one, using a function. It is useful to conserve the fluent API:

<?php

public function generate()
{
    $this->menu->management->icon('fa fa-home');
}

The second one, using a direct variable assignment:

<?php

public function generate()
{
    $this->menu->management->icon = 'fa fa-home';
}

Everything can be changed in an extender, including the route and URL.

Views

Item iteration in views

Here is an example using bootstrap navbar:

File Name: menus.main_menu

<nav class="navbar navbar-default">
    <div class="container-fluid">
        <div class="navbar-header">
            <button type="button" class="navbar-toggle collapsed" data-toggle="collapse" data-target="#navbar"
                    aria-expanded="false" aria-controls="navbar">
                <span class="sr-only">Toggle navigation</span>
                <span class="icon-bar"></span>
                <span class="icon-bar"></span>
                <span class="icon-bar"></span>
            </button>
            <a class="navbar-brand" href="#">Some Menu Example</a>
        </div>
        <div id="navbar" class="navbar-collapse collapse">
            <ul class="nav navbar-nav">
                @include('menu::bootstrap.default', ['menu' => $menu])
            </ul>
        </div><!--/.nav-collapse -->
    </div><!--/.container-fluid -->
</nav>

File Name: menu_elements (Also available under view('menu::bootstrap.default'))

@foreach($menu->items() as $item)
    @if($item->hasSubItems())
        <li class="dropdown">
            <a href="#" class="dropdown-toggle" data-toggle="dropdown" role="button" aria-haspopup="true"
               aria-expanded="false">{{ $item->title }}<span class="caret"></span></a>
            <ul class="dropdown-menu">
                @include('menu_elements', ['menu' => $item])
            </ul>
        </li>
    @else
        <li @if($item->active()) class="active" @endif>
            <a href="{{ $item->url }}">{{ $item->title }}</a>
        </li>
    @endif
@endforeach

This should achieve a menu looking like the default bootstrap navbar

Tips

• The __construct of your menu class works with dependency injection. Simply type hint the stuff you need in the parameter list and we'll ask Laravel to inject the stuff you need.