Composable menu builder and renderer for CakePHP applications.

This branch is for CakePHP 5.3+. See the version map for details.

Features:

• nested menu trees with string and Cake-style array URLs
• active-state matching with alternate routes, named routes, and fuzzy matching
• helper-managed named menus and breadcrumb integration
• extensible resolvers and renderers for app-specific rules

composer require dereuromark/cakephp-menu

Load the plugin:

bin/cake plugin load CakeMenu

Load the helper in your AppView:

use Cake\View\View;

class AppView extends View
{
    public function initialize(): void
    {
        parent::initialize();

        $this->loadHelper('CakeMenu.Menu');
    }
}

use CakeMenu\Menu;

$menu = Menu::create(['class' => 'nav']);
$menu->addItem('Dashboard', ['controller' => 'Dashboard', 'action' => 'index']);

$account = $menu->addItem('Account', '#', [
    'attributes' => ['class' => 'nav-item'],
]);
$account->getSubMenu()->setAttributes(['class' => 'submenu']);
$account->add($menu->newItem('Profile', ['controller' => 'Users', 'action' => 'profile']));
$account->add($menu->newItem('Logout', ['controller' => 'Users', 'action' => 'logout']));

echo $this->Menu->render($menu);

Full documentation lives at https://dereuromark.github.io/cakephp-menu/.

• Getting Started
• Building Menus
• Resolvers & Active State
• Rendering
• Recipes
• Extending

https://sandbox.dereuromark.de/menu-sandbox

Menu callbacks accept Closure; use $service->method(...) for method references. Sort with CakeMenu\SortDirection::Asc or Desc. Authentication data accepts CakeMenu\Resolver\AuthState or its backed string; unknown strings throw.

The helper uses attributes when building a menu. Build options (attributes, overwrite, cache, rebuild) do not become render defaults. Registration closures receive the menu and helper. renderBreadcrumbs($menu, $options) uses BreadcrumbRenderer; use populateBreadcrumbs() before calling Cake's Breadcrumbs->render() yourself.

PermissionResolver calls can($identity, $permission, $item). RegexResolver takes a server request and supports dataKey and maxDepth options. MenuInterface exposes collect() and item-class accessors; setItemClass() propagates to new submenus. See the upgrade guide for migration examples.