Application - Navigation

Navigation files define the sidebar or top menu structure of your application. CApp automatically renders the navigation based on these definitions.

Navigation Location

Navigation files are stored in the navs/ directory of your application:

application/{app_code}/default/navs/

The default navigation file is nav.php. You can create additional navigation files (e.g. admin.php, docs.php) and load them by name.

Basic Navigation

Create a navs/nav.php file that returns an array of navigation items:

<?php
return [
    [
        'name' => 'dashboard',
        'label' => c::__('Dashboard'),
        'uri' => 'home/index',
        'icon' => 'home',
    ],
    [
        'name' => 'users',
        'label' => c::__('Users'),
        'uri' => 'admin/user/index',
        'icon' => 'ti-user',
    ],
    [
        'name' => 'settings',
        'label' => c::__('Settings'),
        'uri' => 'admin/setting/index',
        'icon' => 'ti-settings',
    ],
];

Navigation Item Properties

Nested Navigation

Create multi-level menus using the subnav property:

<?php
return [
    [
        'name' => 'dashboard',
        'label' => c::__('Dashboard'),
        'uri' => 'app/home/index',
    ],
    [
        'name' => 'master',
        'label' => c::__('Master Data'),
        'subnav' => [
            [
                'name' => 'master.products',
                'label' => c::__('Products'),
                'uri' => 'admin/master/product/index',
            ],
            [
                'name' => 'master.categories',
                'label' => c::__('Categories'),
                'uri' => 'admin/master/category/index',
            ],
        ],
    ],
];

Organizing Navigation Files

For large navigation structures, split your navigation into separate files and include them:

navs/admin.php

<?php
return [
    [
        'name' => 'dashboard',
        'label' => c::__('Dashboard'),
        'uri' => 'app/home/index',
    ],
    [
        'name' => 'master',
        'label' => c::__('Master Data'),
        'subnav' => include __DIR__ . '/admin/master.php',
    ],
    [
        'name' => 'reports',
        'label' => c::__('Reports'),
        'subnav' => include __DIR__ . '/admin/reports.php',
    ],
];

navs/admin/master.php

<?php
return [
    [
        'name' => 'master.products',
        'label' => c::__('Products'),
        'uri' => 'admin/master/product/index',
    ],
    [
        'name' => 'master.categories',
        'label' => c::__('Categories'),
        'uri' => 'admin/master/category/index',
    ],
];

Loading Navigation in CApp

Set which navigation to use from your controller:

<?php
$app = c::app();
$app->setNav('admin');   // loads navs/admin.php

return $app;

Custom Navigation Renderer

Override how the navigation is rendered using a custom callback:

<?php
$app->setNavRenderer(function ($navs) use ($category, $page) {
    return c::view('custom.nav', [
        'navs' => $navs,
        'category' => $category,
        'page' => $page,
    ])->render();
});