Menu Maker

Flexible solution to build HTML menus in any Ruby framework.

• Declare your menus with a beaultiful high level syntax
• Suitable for simple or complex HTML menus
• The menu building logic is kept separate from the rendering logic, that means you can provide your own renderers
• Supports any depth of submenus
• Supports distinct renderers for any number of submenus
• Supports restful paths to build the menu state
• Comes with a Rails helper
• Flexible OO; you can pass menu objects around and build'em the way you want.

Note that this gem doesn't bundle CSS or javascripts for you, mostly because every menu out there is different; you must provide you own assets, or build another gem to pack your setup.

This gem makes it easy to build complex HTML menus, keeping your code neat and clean. It also provides tools to work with menus. Actually, it can be used to create non-HTML menus, but you have to supply your own renderers for that.

This gem was born when I needed to build a complex menu, and couldn't figure out anything suited for the task. So I began like lots of Rails developers do: I quickly crafted a very big and messy procedural helper method, that was very hard to change, test and maintain. The monster was born and I wasn't happy at all, so I refactored for fun. The code is small for the flexibility it provides, and much easier to work with.

• Ruby >= 2.0
• Any Ruby application

Add it to your Gemfile:

gem 'menu_maker'

Run the following command to install it:

bundle install

The default renderer creates a simple menu, with unordered list markup. The Rails helper is aware of the current URL, and therefore puts an "active" class in the li which matches the current URL. Here's what the generated markup looks like with the default renderer:

<ul>
  <li>
    <a href="/first/item">First item</a>
  </li>
  <li class="active">
    <a href="/second/item">Second item</a>
  </li>
  <li>
    <a href="/third/item">Third item</a>
    <ul>
      <li>
        <a href="/first/submenu/item">First submenu item</a>
      </li>
    </ul>
  </li>
</ul>

To create a menu like that, use the following code on your view:

<%= menu_maker do |menu| %>
  <% menu.add 'First item',  first_item_path %>
  <% menu.add 'Second item', second_item_path %>
  <% menu.add 'Third item', third_item_path do |submenu| %>
    <%= submenu.add 'First submenu item', first_item_submenu_path %>
  <% end %>
<% end %>

The Rails helper builds and outputs the HTML menu all at once, which is mostly likely what you'll want.

You can also provide more than one path for a menu item - useful when it needs to be active in the context of other paths or request methods:

<%= menu_maker do |menu| %>
  <% menu.add 'Create user', new_user_path, [:post, users_path] %>
<% end %>

For instance, the Create User menu item needs to be active whether with a GET new or a POST create restful action; that's because if the saving fails, the create action will render back the "new" template. Note that the very first path will be used in the HTML anchor; MenuMaker will assume the request method is GET when not specified.

First you need to instantiate a renderer:

renderer = MyRenderer.new(self)

The first parameter is optional, and provides some helpers that the renderer might use. Inside a Rails helper, for example, the self object points to all other helpers. The second parameter is the current URL, also optional - the renderer will use it to build the menu state. If you are using Rails, the renderer will find the current URL using the helper context.

Second, create a Menu instance with the renderer as the first argument, and don't forget to call the render method to output the HTML:

menu_maker = MenuMaker::Menu.new(renderer) do |menu|
  menu.add 'Item', some_path
end

menu_maker.render

You can supply any number of paths for a menu item:

MenuMaker::Menu.new(renderer) do |menu|
  menu.add 'Create user', new_user_path, [:post, users_path]
end

MenuMaker will match all the paths you provide, to build the state of a particular menu item. The first path shall be the main one, used in the HTML anchor. When you don't specify the request method for a path, MenuMaker will assume the GET method.

There is also a Path conversion protocol:

MenuMaker::Menu.new(renderer) do |menu|
  menu.add 'Create user', Path(new_user_path), Path(:post, users_path)
end

Path inputs are maleable; whatever you provide, MenuMaker will do its best to understand. Actually, even if you don't use the conversion method explicitly, paths will be handled behind the curtains.

You can also provide custom options for each menu item:

MenuMaker::Menu.new(renderer) do |menu|
  menu.add 'First link', [:get, dashboard_path], icon: 'fa fa-dashboard'
end

In the last example, the icon option wil be available for the renderer to do whatever it wants with it.

If your logic is reasonably complex, your custom renderer should be a subclass of MenuRenderer. This approach is also recommended if you want to use built-in helpers.

You must call the render class method in your subclass body:

class MyRenderer < MenuRenderer
  render do
    # Place your core rendering logic here
  end
end

The MenuRenderer class has a build_menu method, which helps you render each menu item:

class MyRenderer < MenuRenderer
  render do
    items_output = build_menu do |item|
      "<li><a href="#{item.path}">#{item.title}</a></li>"
    end

    "<ul>#{items_output}</ul>"
  end
end

You can query your item, for example, to determine if it needs custom CSS classes:

class MyRenderer < MenuRenderer
  render do
    items_output = build_menu do |item, css_class|
      css_class << 'dropdown' if item.has_submenu?
      css_class << 'active'   if item.has_path?(current_path)

      klass = if css_class.any?
        %{ class="#{css_class.join(' ')}"}
      else
        ''
      end

      "<li#{klass}><a href="#{item.path}">#{item.title}</a></li>"
    end

    "<ul>#{items_output}</ul>"
  end
end

MenuRenderer has a build_html helper method, which automatically calls html_safe for you (if you are using Rails). Remember to use it in each HTML part (except for build_menu, which implicitly uses it):

class MyRenderer < MenuRenderer
  render do
    items_output = build_menu do |item, css_class|
      title = render_title(item)
      # item rendering logic
    end

    "<ul>#{items_output}</ul>"
  end

  private
  
  def render_title(item)
    build_html do
      # title rendering logic
    end
  end
end

If you are using Rails, you can use regular helpers to clean up your code:

class MyRenderer < MenuRenderer
  render do
    items_output = build_menu do |item, css_classes|
      helpers.content_tag :li do
        helpers.link_to item.title, item.path
      end
    end

    # You can also use the h method, instead of the verbose helpers
    helpers.content_tag :ul { items_output }
  end
end

Here is a short example of a Rails helper:

module MyHelper
  def my_menu
    renderer = MyRenderer.new(self)

    menu = Menu.new(renderer) do |m|
      # Build your menu here
    end

    menu.render
  end
end

You can use any object which responds to call as a renderer. We will use raw HTML to illustrate these examples, so you can see how a proc renderer works without any conceptual overhead; You can use HTML helpers to make things cleaner.

Proc renderers are recommended when your logic is short and simple; for complex logic we recommend extending the MenuRenderer class, which also provides useful helpers to assist you, so you don't have to worry about nasty details like calling html_safe on you strings (html_safe hell), and other related concerns.

renderer = proc do |menu|
  items = menu.inject('') do |html, item|
    %{#{html} <li><a href="#{item.path}">#{item}</a></li>}
  end

  "<ul>#{items}</ul>"
end

menu_maker = MenuMaker::Menu.new(renderer) do |menu|
  menu.add 'Item', '/some/path'
end

# outputs <ul><li><a href="/some/path">Item</li></ul>
menu_maker.render

If you want to render submenus, you must explicitly call render_submenu on the menu item:

renderer = proc do |menu|
  items = menu.inject('') do |html, item|
    %{#{html} <li><a href="#{item.path}">#{item}</a>#{item.render_submenu}</li>}
  end

  "<ul>#{items}</ul>"
end

menu_maker = MenuMaker::Menu.new(renderer) do |menu|
  menu.add 'Item', '/some/path' do |submenu|
    submenu.add 'Subitem', '/some/path/new'
  end
end

menu_maker.render

It becomes much more useful when you create a renderer like this:

renderer = proc do |menu|
  items = menu.inject('') do |html, item|
    # has_path? Also checks for submenu paths
    li_class = ' class="active"' if item_has_path?(request.path)
    link     = %{<a href="#{item.path}">#{item}</a>}

    "#{html} <li#{li_class || ''}>#{link} #{item.render_submenu}</li>"
  end

  "<ul>#{items}</ul>"
end

We are adding an active class to the li, if the request path matches. You can also check if the item has a submenu and add a dropdown class to the li, like so:

renderer = proc do |menu|
  items = menu.inject('') do |html, item|
    li_class = ' class="dropdown"' if item.has_submenu?
    link     = %{<a href="#{item.path}">#{item}</a>}

    "#{html} <li#{li_class || ''}>#{link} #{item.render_submenu}</li>"
  end

  "<ul>#{items}</ul>"
end

You can also create renderers for any submenu level: use a MenuRendererCollection object to hold your renderers, and pass the collection into the Menu instance:

CustomMenuRenderer < MenuRenderer
  render do
    # menu rendering logic
  end
end

CustomSubmenuRenderer < MenuRenderer
  render do
    # submenu rendering logic
  end
end

renderers = MenuRendererCollection.new do |collection|
  collection.add CustomMenuRenderer.new(self)
  collection.add CustomSubmenuRenderer.new(self)
end

final_menu = Menu.new(renderers) do |menu|
  menu.add 'Item 1', 'my/path'
  menu.add 'Item 2', 'my/path' do |submenu|
    submenu.add 'Item 2.1', 'my/path'
  end
end

final_menu.render

Here the first renderer of the collection will render the main menu; the second renderer will render the submenu.

You can easily pack your setup with custom helpers.

• Fork the project
• Create a feature branch
• Make your code changes with tests
• Make a Pull-Request

This project uses MIT_LICENSE