Update from 8/23

As of today, this plugin has been completely refactored in a number of ways that will undoubtedly break your existing code.

Unless you are comfortable digging in to the plugin code to figure out how it works now, I'd recommend holding off updating until I release updated documentation.

Some of the major changes include:

MenuGathererComponent has become MenuBuilderComponent (since you're building menus within the component)
MenuBuilderHelper has become MenuRendererHelper (since all it's really doing is rendering pre-built menus)
MenuBuilder->build('name') has become MenuRenderer->render('name')
Both files are now backed by a new library, 'MenuLib' defining some simple and easily extendible classes
MenuRenderer does not output its own HTML, but instead relies on a defined set of MenuRenderer class instances. This means it can easily be extended to, for example, output a mega-menu.

MenuBuilder Helper

A dynamic menu building helper for CakePHP

Background

This is a menu building helper with lot of customization options. Check out the Usage section.

Now it supports menus built with ACL Menu Component by Mark Story

Features

Generate menu based on current user type/group/permission/level (Can be used with Auth, Authsome, etc Components)
Provide various useful CSS class
Multi-level menu support
Supports ACL Menu Component by Mark Story
CakePHP Unit Test (100% Code coverage)

Requirements

Built for PHP 5.* I'm not interested about PHP 4 but you can modify it easily :)
CakePHP 1.3.*. Untested with the 1.2.x series, but should work fine

Installation

Manual

Download this: http://github.com/torifat/cake-menu_builder/zipball/master
Unzip that download.
Copy the resulting folder to app/plugins
Rename the folder you just copied to menu_builder

GIT Submodule

In your app directory type:

git submodule add git://github.com/torifat/cake-menu_builder.git plugins/menu_builder
git submodule init
git submodule update

GIT Clone

In your plugin directory type

git clone git://github.com/torifat/cake-menu_builder.git menu_builder

Usage

Minimal Setup

To use this helper add the following to your AppController:

<?php
...
var $helpers = array(..., 'MenuBuilder.MenuBuilder');

function beforeFilter() {
    ...
    // Define your menu
    $menu = array(
        'main-menu' => array(
            array(
                'title' => 'Home',
                'url' => array('controller' => 'pages', 'action' => 'home'),
            ),
            array(
                'title' => 'About Us',
                'url' => '/pages/about-us',
            ),
        ),
        'left-menu' => array(
            array(
                'title' => 'Item 1',
                'url' => array('controller' => 'items', 'action' => 'view', 1),
                'children' => array(
                    array(
                        'title' => 'Item 3',
                        'url' => array('controller' => 'items', 'action' => 'view', 3),
                    ),
                    array(
                        'title' => 'Item 4',
                        'url' => array('controller' => 'items', 'action' => 'view', 4),
                    ),
                )
            ),
            array(
                'title' => 'Item 2',
                'url' => array('controller' => 'items', 'action' => 'view', 2),
            ),
        ),
    );

    // For default settings name must be menu
    $this->set(compact('menu'));
    ...
}
?>

Now to build your main-menu use the following code in the View:

<?php 
    echo $menuBuilder->build('main-menu');
?>

You'll get the following output in the Home (/pages/home) page:

<ul id="main-menu"> 
    <li class="first-item active"><a title="Home" href="https://github.com/bmcclure/CakePHP-Menu-Plugin/blob/cake-2.0/pages/home">Home</a></li> 
    <li><a title="About Us" href="https://github.com/bmcclure/CakePHP-Menu-Plugin/blob/cake-2.0/pages/about-us">About Us</a></li> 
</ul>

And to build your left-menu use the following code in the View:

<?php 
    echo $menuBuilder->build('left-menu'); 
?>

You'll get the following output in your 'Item 4' (/items/view/4) page:

<ul id="left-menu"> 
    <li class="first-item active has-children"> 
        <a title="Item 1" href="https://github.com/bmcclure/CakePHP-Menu-Plugin/blob/cake-2.0/items/view/1">Item 1</a> 
        <ul> 
            <li class="first-item"> 
                <a title="Item 3" href="https://github.com/bmcclure/CakePHP-Menu-Plugin/blob/cake-2.0/items/view/3">Item 3</a> 
            </li> 
            <li class="active"> 
                <a title="Item 4" href="https://github.com/bmcclure/CakePHP-Menu-Plugin/blob/cake-2.0/items/view/4">Item 4</a> 
            </li> 
        </ul> 
    </li> 
    <li> 
        <a title="Item 2" href="https://github.com/bmcclure/CakePHP-Menu-Plugin/blob/cake-2.0/items/view/2">Item 2</a> 
    </li> 
</ul>

You can pass optional parameter in build function like -

<?php
    echo $menuBuilder->build('main-menu', array('class' => array('fun', 'red'));
    // OR
    echo $menuBuilder->build('main-menu', array('class' => 'fun green');
?>

Advance Setup

You can provide advance options in the array like the following:

<?php
...
var $helpers = array(
    ...
    'MenuBuilder.MenuBuilder' => array(/* array of settings */)
);
?>

Default Settings

if you do not provide any settings then the following settings will work.

$settings = array(
    'activeClass' => 'active', 
    'firstClass' => 'first-item', 
    'childrenClass' => 'has-children', 
    'evenOdd' => false, 
    'itemFormat' => '<li%s>%s%s</li>',
    'wrapperFormat' => '<ul%s>%s</ul>',
    'noLinkFormat' => '<a href="#">%s</a>',
    'menuVar' => 'menu',
    'authVar' => 'user',
    'authModel' => 'User',
    'authField' => 'group',
);

Settings Details

activeClass CSS classname for the selected/current item and it's successors. (default - 'active')

firstClass CSS classname for the first item of each level. (default - 'first-item')

childrenClass CSS classname for an item containing sub menu. (default - 'has-children')

evenOdd If it is set to true then even/odd classname will be provided with each item. (default - false)

<ul id="main-menu"> 
    <li class="first-item odd"> 
        <a title="Home" href="https://github.com/bmcclure/CakePHP-Menu-Plugin/blob/cake-2.0/pages/home">Home</a> 
    </li> 
    <li class="even"> 
        <a title="About Us" href="https://github.com/bmcclure/CakePHP-Menu-Plugin/blob/cake-2.0/pages/about-us">About Us</a> 
    </li> 
</ul>

itemFormat if you want to use other tag than li for menu items (default - '<li%s>%s%s</li>')

wrapperFormat if you want to use other tag than ul for menu items container (default - '<ul%s>%s</ul>')

noLinkFormat Format for empty link item (default - '<a href="#">%s</a>')

Example Setting

'MenuBuilder.MenuBuilder' => array(
    'itemFormat' => '<div%s>%s%s</div>',
    'wrapperFormat' => '<div%s>%s</div>',
    'noLinkFormat' => '<div>%s</div>',
),

Example Output (an extra item added to explain noLinkFormat)

<div id="main-menu"> 
    <div class="first-item"> 
        <a title="Home" href="https://github.com/bmcclure/CakePHP-Menu-Plugin/blob/cake-2.0/pages/home">Home</a> 
    </div> 
    <div> 
        <a title="About Us" href="https://github.com/bmcclure/CakePHP-Menu-Plugin/blob/cake-2.0/pages/about-us">About Us</a> 
    </div>
    <div> 
        Empty
    </div> 
</div>

menuVar Name of the variable that contains all menus (default - 'menu')

Following settings will be used for permission based menu (see below)

authVar Name of the variable that contains the User data (default - 'user')

authModel Name of the authentication model (default - 'User')

authField Name of the field that contains the user's type/group/permission/level (default - 'group')

Permission Based Menu

Suppose you have a users table like the following one:

CREATE TABLE `users` (
    `id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
    `email` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
    `password` char(40) NOT NULL,
    `group` enum('user','manager','admin') NOT NULL DEFAULT 'user',
    `name` varchar(255) NOT NULL,
    PRIMARY KEY (`id`),
    UNIQUE KEY (`email`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;

Now suppose you are using the CakePHP auth component for authentication so add the following to your AppController:

<?php
...
function beforeFilter() {
    ...
    $user = $this->Auth->user();
    $this->set(compact('user'));
}
?>

But, If you are using Authsome component for authentication then add the following to your AppController:

<?php
...
function beforeFilter() {
    ...
    $user = Authsome::get();
    $this->set(compact('user'));
}
?>

Now we have to define permissions in our menu like this:

<?php
...
function beforeFilter() {
    ...
    // Define your menu
    $menu = array(
        'main-menu' => array(
            // Anybody can see this
            array(
                'title' => 'Home',
                'url' => array('controller' => 'pages', 'action' => 'home'),
            ),
            // Users and Admins can see this, Guests and Managers can't
            array(
                'title' => 'About Us',
                'url' => array('controller' => 'pages', 'action' => 'about-us'),
                'permissions' => array('user','admin'),
            ),
            // Only Guests can see this
            array(
                'title' => 'Login',
                'url' => array('controller' => 'users', 'action' => 'login'),
                'permissions' => array(''),
            ),
        ),
        ...
    );        
    // For default settings name must be menu
    $this->set(compact('menu'));
    ...
}
?>

You're Done!

Other Menu Options

permissions Array of type/group/permission/level whose can view that item (default - array())

partialMatch Normally url matching are strict. Suppose you are in /items/details and your menu contains an entry for /item then by default it'll not set active. But if you set partialMatch to true then it'll set active . (default - false)

id Provide CSS id to the item (default - null)

class Provide CSS class to the item (default - null)

separator If you want to define some separator in your menu, below is a nice example of what you can do with it. (default - false)

Example Setting

'MenuBuilder.MenuBuilder' => array(
    'itemFormat' => '<dd%s>%s%s</dd>',
    'wrapperFormat' => '<dl%s>%s</dl>',
    'noLinkFormat' => '<dd>%s</dd>',
),

Example Menu

<?php
...
var $helpers = array(..., 'MenuBuilder.MenuBuilder');

function beforeFilter() {
    ...
    // Define your menu
    $menu = array(
        'main-menu' => array(
            array(
                'separator' => '<dt>Main Menu</dt>',
            ),
            array(
                'title' => 'Home',
                'url' => array('controller' => 'pages', 'action' => 'home'),
            ),
            array(
                'title' => 'About Us',
                'url' => '/pages/about-us',
            ),
        )
    );

    // For default settings name must be menu
    $this->set(compact('menu'));
    ...
}
?>

Example Output

<dl id="main-menu"> 
    <dt>Main Menu</dt> 
    <dd class="first-item"> 
        <a title="Home" href="https://github.com/bmcclure/CakePHP-Menu-Plugin/blob/cake-2.0/pages/home">Home</a> 
    </dd> 
    <dd> 
        <a title="About Us" href="https://github.com/bmcclure/CakePHP-Menu-Plugin/blob/cake-2.0/pages/about-us">About Us</a> 
    </dd> 
</dl>

More to come :)

ToDo

Add More Test Cases

License

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

bmcclure / CakePHP-Menu-Plugin

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