Building Dynamic and Maintainable Menus in Laravel

Managing navigation menus can become challenging in Laravel applications as they grow, especially with dynamic elements like role-based access controls. This blog post explores how to simplify and structure your menus using a Menu Builder system, making them easier to maintain, extend, and scale.

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The Problem

In many Laravel projects, Blade templates handle menu visibility using conditionals:

@can('viewAdmin')
    <a href="%7B%7B%20route('administration.index')%20%7D%7D">
        {{ __('Administration') }}
    </a>
@endcan

While this approach works for simple applications, it becomes cluttered and unmanageable as the number of menus increases.

---

The Solution

A Menu Builder system encapsulates menu logic into reusable classes, improving:

1. Maintainability: Centralised menu definitions.
2. Scalability: Dynamically generating menus based on roles or permissions.
3. Reusability: Sharing menus across views.

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Step-by-Step Implementation

1. Define a Gate for viewAdmin

To control access to the administration menu, define a viewAdmin gate in your AuthServiceProvider:

use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Gate;
use App\Models\User;

class AuthServiceProvider extends ServiceProvider
{
    public function boot()
    {
        $this->registerPolicies();

        Gate::define('viewAdmin', function (User $user) {
            return $user->hasRole('admin'); // Replace with your app's role-checking logic
        });
    }
}

---

2. Create the MenuItem Class

The MenuItem class defines all attributes of a menu item, such as label, URL, icon, and visibility:

<?php namespace App\Actions\Builder;

use CleaniqueCoders\Traitify\Contracts\Builder;
use InvalidArgumentException;

class MenuItem implements Builder
{
    private string $label;
    private string $url;
    private string $target = '_self';
    private array $attributes = [];
    private array $children = [];
    private string $icon = 'o-squares-2x2';
    private ?string $description = null;
    private ?string $tooltip = null;
    private $visible = true;
    private array $output = [];

    public function setLabel(string $label): self
    {
        $this->label = $label;

        return $this;
    }

    public function setUrl(string $url): self
    {
        $this->url = $url;

        return $this;
    }

    public function setTarget(string $target): self
    {
        $this->target = $target;

        return $this;
    }

    public function addAttribute(string $key, string $value): self
    {
        $this->attributes[$key] = $value;

        return $this;
    }

    public function addChild(MenuItem $child): self
    {
        $this->children[] = $child;

        return $this;
    }

    public function setIcon(string $icon): self
    {
        $this->icon = $icon;

        return $this;
    }

    public function setDescription(string $description): self
    {
        $this->description = $description;

        return $this;
    }

    public function setTooltip(string $tooltip): self
    {
        $this->tooltip = $tooltip;

        return $this;
    }

    public function setVisible($visible): self
    {
        if (! is_bool($visible) && ! is_callable($visible)) {
            throw new InvalidArgumentException('The visible property must be a boolean or a callable.');
        }

        $this->visible = $visible;

        return $this;
    }

    public function isVisible(): bool
    {
        return is_callable($this->visible) ? call_user_func($this->visible) : $this->visible;
    }

    public function build(): self
    {
        $this->output = [
            'label' => $this->label,
            'url' => $this->url,
            'target' => $this->target,
            'attributes' => $this->attributes,
            'icon' => $this->icon,
            'description' => $this->description,
            'tooltip' => $this->tooltip,
            'children' => array_filter(
                array_map(fn (MenuItem $child) => $child->build()->toArray(), $this->children),
                fn (array $child) => ! empty($child) 
            ),
        ];

        return $this;
    }

    public function toArray(): array
    {
        return $this->output;
    }

    public function toJson(int $options = 0): string
    {
        return json_encode($this->toArray(), $options, 512);
    }
}

---

3. Create the Menu Builder

The Menu builder resolves and constructs menus dynamically:

namespace App\Actions\Builder;

class Menu
{
    public static function make()
    {
        return new self;
    }

    public function build(string $builder)
    {
        $class = match ($builder) {
            'navbar' => Navbar::class,
            'sidebar' => Sidebar::class,
            'administration' => Administration::class,
            default => Navbar::class,
        };

        $builder = new $class;
        return $builder->build();
    }
}

Access the menus using a helper function:

<?php use App\Actions\Builder\Menu;

if (! function_exists('menu')) {
    function menu(string $builder)
    {
        return Menu::make()->build($builder)->menus();
    }
}

---

4. Administration Menu

Define administration-specific menu items in the Administration class:

<?php namespace App\Actions\Builder\Menu;

use App\Actions\Builder\MenuItem;
use CleaniqueCoders\Traitify\Contracts\Builder;
use CleaniqueCoders\Traitify\Contracts\Menu;
use Illuminate\Support\Collection;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Gate;

class Administration implements Builder, Menu
{
    private Collection $menus;

    public function menus(): Collection
    {
        return $this->menus;
    }

    public function build(): self
    {
        $this->menus = collect([
            (new MenuItem)
                ->setLabel(__('Issues'))
                ->setUrl(url(config('telescope.path')))
                ->setTarget('_blank')
                ->setVisible(fn () => Gate::allows('viewTelescope'))
                ->setTooltip(__('View Telescope issues'))
                ->setDescription(__('Access application issues using Laravel Telescope'))
                ->setIcon('o-bug'), // Heroicon outline for a bug

            (new MenuItem)
                ->setLabel(__('Queues'))
                ->setUrl(url(config('horizon.path')))
                ->setTarget('_blank')
                ->setVisible(fn () => Gate::allows('viewHorizon'))
                ->setTooltip(__('Manage queues'))
                ->setDescription(__('Access Laravel Horizon to monitor and manage queues'))
                ->setIcon('o-cog'), // Heroicon outline for settings/tasks

            (new MenuItem)
                ->setLabel(__('Access Control'))
                ->setUrl(route('security.access-control.index'))
                ->setVisible(fn () => Gate::allows('viewAccessControl'))
                ->setTooltip(__('Manage access control'))
                ->setDescription(__('Define and manage access control rules'))
                ->setIcon('o-lock-closed'), 

            (new MenuItem)
                ->setLabel(__('Users'))
                ->setUrl(route('security.users.index'))
                ->setVisible(fn () => Gate::allows('viewUser'))
                ->setTooltip(__('Manage users'))
                ->setDescription(__('View and manage user accounts'))
                ->setIcon('o-user-group'), 

            (new MenuItem)
                ->setLabel(__('Audit Trail'))
                ->setUrl(route('security.audit-trail.index'))
                ->setVisible(fn () => Gate::allows('viewAudit'))
                ->setTooltip(__('View audit trails'))
                ->setDescription(__('Audit logs for security and activity tracking'))
                ->setIcon('o-document-text'), 
        ])->reject(fn (MenuItem $menu) => ! $menu->isVisible())
            ->map(fn (MenuItem $menu) => $menu->build()->toArray());

        return $this;
    }
}

---

5. Define Routes

Add the following route configuration for the administration page:

<?php use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;

Route::middleware(['auth:sanctum', 'verified', 'can:viewAdmin'])
    ->as('administration.')
    ->prefix('administration')
    ->group(function () {

        Route::view('/', 'administration.index')->name('index');

    });

---

6. Usage in Blade Templates

Navigation Menu (navigation-menu.blade.php):

@can('viewAdmin')
    <a href="%7B%7B%20route('administration.index')%20%7D%7D">
        <x-icon name="o-computer-desktop"></x-icon>
        {{ __('Administration') }}
    </a>
@endcan

Administration Menu (administration/index.blade.php):

<x-app-layout>
    <x-slot name="header">{{ __('Administration') }}</x-slot>
    <div>




<hr>

<p><strong>Output</strong></p>

<p>Here the final output that you can have:</p>

<p><img src="/static/imghwm/default1.png" data-src="https://img.php.cn/upload/article/000/000/000/173418649412401.jpg?x-oss-process=image/resize,p_40" class="lazy" alt="Building Dynamic and Maintainable Menus in Laravel"></p>
<blockquote>
<p>Support my mission to empower the developer community by sponsoring my work—your contributions help me build and share valuable tools, insights, and resources: Learn more here.</p>
</blockquote>


<hr>

<h3>
  
  
  <strong>Conclusion</strong>
</h3>

<p>This <strong>Menu Builder system</strong> simplifies navigation management in Laravel by:</p>

<ol>
<li>Centralising menu definitions for better maintainability.</li>
<li>Dynamically controlling menu visibility using roles or permissions.</li>
<li>Reusing menu logic across views and layouts.</li>
</ol>

<p>By adopting this approach, you can scale your navigation system seamlessly, even in complex applications. </p>

<p>You may want to load your menu details from database and construct the menus that you want. But for me, this is good enough. I don't have projects require me to use database driven menu configuration.</p>

<p>The codes can be found here. </p>

<p>Try it out and share your thoughts! ?</p>


<hr>

<p>Photo by LinedPhoto on Unsplash</p>


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