This project will not be updated for Laravel 5.

NavigationBuilder

A navigation HTML generator for Laravel.

Installation

"require": {
	"bhoeting/navigation-builder": "*"
}

Run composer install

Add the service provider to the providers array in app/config/app.php

'bhoeting\NavigationBuilder\NavigationServiceProvider',

Then add the facade to the aliases array

'Navigation' => 'bhoeting\NavigationBuilder\Navigation'

Usage

Basic

{{ Navigation::create(['home', 'about', 'contact'] }}

Will generate:

<ul class="nav navbar-nav">
	<li class="">
		<a href="http://localhost:8000/home">Home</a>
	</li>
	<li class="active">
		<a href="http://localhost:8000/about">About</a>
	</li>
	<li class="">
		<a href="http://localhost:8000/contact">Contact</a>
	</li>
</ul>

By default, a Bootstrap template is used to generate the HTML. See Advanced on how you can create your own templates. Also note that the about item has an a class of active. This is because the current URL is the same as the about item's link. Items are also active when the current URL matches a pattern of the item's link. For instance, http://localhost:8000/about/who-we-are will also make the about item active.

The display text and URL for each item are based on the strings provided in the array. You can specify your own like so:

{{ Navigation::create(['home' => ['url' => '/'], 'about' => ['text' => 'about-us'], 'contact' => ['route' => 'contact.us']]) }}

Output:

<ul class="nav navbar-nav">
	<li class="">
		<a href="http://localhost:8000/">Home</a>
	</li>
	<li class="active">
		<a href="http://localhost:8000/about">About-us</a>
	</li>
	<li class="">
		<a href="http://localhost:8000/contact">Contact</a>
	</li>
</ul>

You can also associate a Font Awesome Icon to be displayed next to the Item's text.

{{ Navigation::create(['home' => ['url' => '/', 'icon' => 'user']]) }}

Will output:

...
<li class="">
	<i class="fa fa-user"></i> Home
</li>

Advanced

You can easily re-use and configure Navigations by extending the provided AbstractNavigaiton and specify your own templates, active class, and Items.

// app/Acme/Navigation/MasterNavigation.php

<?php namespace Acme\Navigation;

use bhoeting\NavigationBuilder\AbstractNavigation;

class MasterNavigation extends AbstractNavigation {

	protected $items = [
		'home'    => ['url' => '/'],
		'about'   => ['text' => 'About us'],
		'contact' => ['route' => 'contact.page']
	];


	protected $itemTemplate = 'navigation.item';

	protected $containerTemplate = 'navigation.container';

}

Create the templates: app/views/navigation/item.blade.php

<li class="{{ $item->makeActive('aDifferentActiveClass') }}">
	<a href="{{ $item->makeUrl() }}">
		{{ $item->getText() }}
	</a>
</li>

app/views/navigation/container.blade.php

<ul class="nav navbar-nav">
	{{ $navigation->getItemHtml() }}
</ul>

Then in your view:

{{ Navigation::create('Acme\Navigation\MasterNavigation') }}

You can also store Navigation items in the database. First, create a migration like the one below:

// app/database/migrations/CreateMasterNavItemsTable.php

<?php

use Illuminate\Database\Schema\Blueprint;
use Illuminate\Database\Migrations\Migration;

class CreateNavigationTable extends Migration {

	public function up()
	{
		Schema::create('master_nav_items', function(Blueprint $table)
		{
			$table->increments('id');
			$table->string('name');
			$table->string('url')->nullable();
			$table->string('route')->nullable();
			$table->string('text')->nullable();
		});
	}

	public function down()
	{
		Schema::drop('master_nav_items');
	}

}

Now in your extension of AbstractNavigation

<?php namespace Acme\Navigation;

use bhoeting\NavigationBuilder\AbstractNavigation;

class MasterNavigation extends AbstractNavigation {
	
	protected $table = 'master_nav_items';

	protected $itemTemplate = 'navigation.item';

	protected $containerTemplate = 'navigation.container';

}