Having Fun with the Menu

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Our menu on the left is getting a little long and... kind of confusing... since we now have two question links. To make this more user-friendly, let's divide this into a sub-menu. We do that inside of DashboardController... because that's, of course, where we configure the menu items.

To create a sub-menu, say yield MenuItem::subMenu() and then give that a name - like Questions - and an icon... just like we do with normal menu items.

To populate the items in this menu, say ->setSubItems(), pass this an array, and then we'll wrap our other two menu item objects inside of this. Of course, now we need to indent, remove the yield, and... replace the semicolons with commas.

Perfect! Now change Questions to... how about All... and let's play with the icons. Change the first to fa fa-list... and the second to fa fa-warning.

            
            136 lines
            
            src/Controller/Admin/DashboardController.php
        
                                                    ... lines 1 - 24
                            
            class DashboardController extends AbstractDashboardController
        
            {
        
                                                    ... lines 27 - 57
                            
                public function configureMenuItems(): iterable
        
                {
        
                                                    ... line 60
                            
                    yield MenuItem::subMenu('Questions', 'fa fa-question-circle')
        
                        ->setSubItems([
        
                            MenuItem::linkToCrud('All', 'fa fa-list', Question::class)
        
                                ->setController(QuestionCrudController::class)
        
                                ->setPermission('ROLE_MODERATOR'),
        
                            MenuItem::linkToCrud('Pending Approval', 'fa fa-warning', Question::class)
        
                                ->setPermission('ROLE_MODERATOR')
        
                                ->setController(QuestionPendingApprovalCrudController::class),
        
                        ]);
        
                                                    ... lines 70 - 73
                            
                }
        
                                                    ... lines 75 - 134
                            
            }

Let's try that. Move over... refresh and... ahhh, much cleaner!

But wait, there's more we can do with the menu... like adding separators... technically called "sections". Right after linkToDashboard(), add yield MenuItem::section() and pass it Content.

            
            138 lines
            
            src/Controller/Admin/DashboardController.php
        
                                                    ... lines 1 - 57
                            
                public function configureMenuItems(): iterable
        
                {
        
                                                    ... line 60
                            
                    yield MenuItem::section('Content');
        
                                                    ... lines 62 - 75
                            
                }
        
                                                    ... lines 77 - 138

Let's put one more down here - yield MenuItem::section()... but this time leave the label blank. So unlike sub-menus, which wrap menu items, you can just pop a section anywhere that you want a separator.

            
            138 lines
            
            src/Controller/Admin/DashboardController.php
        
                                                    ... lines 1 - 57
                            
                public function configureMenuItems(): iterable
        
                {
        
                                                    ... lines 60 - 72
                            
                    yield MenuItem::linkToCrud('Users', 'fas fa-users', User::class);
        
                    yield MenuItem::section();
        
                    yield MenuItem::linkToUrl('Homepage', 'fas fa-home', $this->generateUrl('app_homepage'));
        
                }
        
                                                    ... lines 77 - 138

Let's go check it out. Refresh and... very nice! Separator one says "Content"... and separator two gives us a little gap without any text.

External Links

We saw earlier that you can add menu links to point to a dashboard, other CRUD sections... or just any URL you want, like the Homepage. So, not surprisingly, you can also link to external sites. For instance, let's say that I love StackOverflow so much, that I want to link to it. We can tweak the icons, and for the URL, pass whatever you want, like https://stackoverflow.com.

            
            139 lines
            
            src/Controller/Admin/DashboardController.php
        
                                                    ... lines 1 - 57
                            
                public function configureMenuItems(): iterable
        
                {
        
                                                    ... lines 60 - 75
                            
                    yield MenuItem::linkToUrl('StackOverflow', 'fab fa-stack-overflow', 'https://stackoverflow.com');
        
                }
        
                                                    ... lines 78 - 139

Oh, but let me fix my icon name. Great! Now when we refresh... no surprise, that works fine.

If you look closer at these menu items, you'll see that they have a lot of options on them! We know we have things like setPermission() and setController(), but we also have methods like setLinkTarget(), setLinkRel(), setCssClass(), or setQueryParameter(). For this case, let's ->setLinkTarget('_blank')... so that now if I click "StackOverflow", it pops up in a new tab.

            
            140 lines
            
            src/Controller/Admin/DashboardController.php
        
                                                    ... lines 1 - 57
                            
                public function configureMenuItems(): iterable
        
                {
        
                                                    ... lines 60 - 75
                            
                    yield MenuItem::linkToUrl('StackOverflow', 'fab fa-stack-overflow', 'https://stackoverflow.com')
        
                        ->setLinkTarget('_blank');
        
                }
        
                                                    ... lines 79 - 140

Next: what if we need to disable an action on an entity-by-entity basis? Like, we want only want to allow questions to be deleted if they are not approved. Let's dive into that.

What PHP libraries does this tutorial use?

// composer.json
{
    "require": {
        "php": ">=8.1.0",
        "ext-ctype": "*",
        "ext-iconv": "*",
        "composer/package-versions-deprecated": "^1.11", // 1.11.99.4
        "doctrine/doctrine-bundle": "^2.1", // 2.5.5
        "doctrine/doctrine-migrations-bundle": "^3.0", // 3.2.1
        "doctrine/orm": "^2.7", // 2.10.4
        "easycorp/easyadmin-bundle": "^4.0", // v4.0.2
        "handcraftedinthealps/goodby-csv": "^1.4", // 1.4.0
        "knplabs/knp-markdown-bundle": "dev-symfony6", // dev-symfony6
        "knplabs/knp-time-bundle": "^1.11", // 1.17.0
        "sensio/framework-extra-bundle": "^6.0", // v6.2.5
        "stof/doctrine-extensions-bundle": "^1.4", // v1.7.0
        "symfony/asset": "6.0.*", // v6.0.1
        "symfony/console": "6.0.*", // v6.0.2
        "symfony/dotenv": "6.0.*", // v6.0.2
        "symfony/flex": "^2.0.0", // v2.0.1
        "symfony/framework-bundle": "6.0.*", // v6.0.2
        "symfony/mime": "6.0.*", // v6.0.2
        "symfony/monolog-bundle": "^3.0", // v3.7.1
        "symfony/runtime": "6.0.*", // v6.0.0
        "symfony/security-bundle": "6.0.*", // v6.0.2
        "symfony/stopwatch": "6.0.*", // v6.0.0
        "symfony/twig-bundle": "6.0.*", // v6.0.1
        "symfony/ux-chartjs": "^2.0", // v2.0.1
        "symfony/webpack-encore-bundle": "^1.7", // v1.13.2
        "symfony/yaml": "6.0.*", // v6.0.2
        "twig/extra-bundle": "^2.12|^3.0", // v3.3.7
        "twig/twig": "^2.12|^3.0" // v3.3.7
    },
    "require-dev": {
        "doctrine/doctrine-fixtures-bundle": "^3.3", // 3.4.1
        "symfony/debug-bundle": "6.0.*", // v6.0.2
        "symfony/maker-bundle": "^1.15", // v1.36.4
        "symfony/var-dumper": "6.0.*", // v6.0.2
        "symfony/web-profiler-bundle": "6.0.*", // v6.0.2
        "zenstruck/foundry": "^1.1" // v1.16.0
    }
}

Edit on GitHub

TRACK

Symfony 6 >

COURSE

EasyAdmin! For an Awesomely Powerful Admin Area

Having Fun with the Menu

Keep on Learning!

Adding a Sub Menu

Menu Sections

External Links

More Menu Item Options

Leave a comment!

What PHP libraries does this tutorial use?

	... lines 1 - 24
	class DashboardController extends AbstractDashboardController
	{
	... lines 27 - 57
	public function configureMenuItems(): iterable
	{
	... line 60
	yield MenuItem::subMenu('Questions', 'fa fa-question-circle')
	->setSubItems([
	MenuItem::linkToCrud('All', 'fa fa-list', Question::class)
	->setController(QuestionCrudController::class)
	->setPermission('ROLE_MODERATOR'),
	MenuItem::linkToCrud('Pending Approval', 'fa fa-warning', Question::class)
	->setPermission('ROLE_MODERATOR')
	->setController(QuestionPendingApprovalCrudController::class),
	]);
	... lines 70 - 73
	}
	... lines 75 - 134
	}

	... lines 1 - 57
	public function configureMenuItems(): iterable
	{
	... line 60
	yield MenuItem::section('Content');
	... lines 62 - 75
	}
	... lines 77 - 138

	... lines 1 - 57
	public function configureMenuItems(): iterable
	{
	... lines 60 - 72
	yield MenuItem::linkToCrud('Users', 'fas fa-users', User::class);
	yield MenuItem::section();
	yield MenuItem::linkToUrl('Homepage', 'fas fa-home', $this->generateUrl('app_homepage'));
	}
	... lines 77 - 138

	... lines 1 - 57
	public function configureMenuItems(): iterable
	{
	... lines 60 - 75
	yield MenuItem::linkToUrl('StackOverflow', 'fab fa-stack-overflow', 'https://stackoverflow.com');
	}
	... lines 78 - 139