Most of the time, I need to do small developpement in my job and I need to do it quickly. I have to think how to improve my developpement.For example, recently, I need to add menu items quickly and when you read the code of your web site you've made few month later, it 's sometimes quite difficult.
That's why I decided to save my menu in database. Now, menu is auto-generated.
Why do I need to save a menu in database ?
In my work, I made a business web site with cake-php 3.9.X , Postgresql database and Bootstrap.
The goal of this tool is to display reports (generated automatically in pdf with Businness Object).Every report has a specific name.If click on an item of my menu, I need severeal paremeters in order to display the correct report like name, date, enable or disable...
Here is an example of a menu :
I've met a problem when I wanted to add a submenu, I need to write to much codes :
<?php
//
$ssdomain='INFORMATION';
if($selectedSSDomain == $ssdomain) {
$ssdomainLabel = "<span class='navbar-custom'>CONTACT</span>";
} else {
$ssdomainLabel = "CONTACT";
}
echo "<form method='post' action='index.php' id='form_contact'>";
echo "<input type='hidden' name='domain' value='Information'/>";
echo "<input type='hidden' name='ssdomain' value='CONTACT'/>";
echo "<input type='hidden' name='startWithReport' value='key_1'/>";
if (isset($_POST['chooseReportDate'])) {
$tmpDate = $_POST['chooseReportDate'];
echo "<input type='hidden' name='chooseReportDate' value=\"$tmpDate\"/>";
}
if(isset($_POST['select_org']) ) {
$code = $_POST['select_org'];
echo "<input type='hidden' name='select_org' value=\"$code\"/>";
}
echo "<a class='dropdown-item' onclick=\"document.getElementById('form_contact').submit(); return false;\" >$ssdomainLabel</a>";
echo "</form>";
In my business, it happens quite often (every 6 month) and I need to remember all parameters !That's why I decided to save my menu in database. Now, it's really easy to add a new menu !
Table Menu
First, we need to add all your menu information in a table of our database as text, position, enable...
Here is the Menu table :
drop table yuzu.menu;
CREATE TABLE yuzu.menu (
id int primary key ,
id_parent int,
shortkey varchar(50) NOT NULL,
name varchar(50) NOT NULL,
position int,
grey bool
);
This table contains :
- id : menu id
- id_parent : To indicate that the menu is a submenu
- shortkey : Use to identify the choosen menu
- position : We need to order menu.
For each level of menu, we indicated the position. For example, HOME is first (position 1) then INFORMATION is second.
The submenu is also sortered with CONTACT in second position and PROFILE in the first position :
HomeController
In my controller, I retreived the Menu table and stored it in a session.
Display auto generated menu
I wrote some code to display the menu automatically. To achieved that, I defined one method : function displayMenu($menus){}
Here is the code of two methods :
<?php
function getSortedMenu($menus, $currentIdParent) {
$mainMenus = array();
// Sort Menu
foreach ($menus as $arr) {
$submenus = $arr[0];
$idParent = $submenus['id_parent'];
if ($idParent == $currentIdParent) {
$position = $submenus['position'];
$mainMenus[$position]=$submenus;
}
}
ksort($mainMenus);
return $mainMenus;
}
function displayMenu($menus) {
$mainMenus = getSortedMenu($menus, 0);
foreach($mainMenus as $levelOnes) {
echo "<li class=\"nav-item dropdown\">";
$shortkey = "dropdown_".$levelOnes['shortkey'];
echo "<a class=\"nav-link dropdown-toggle text-menu\" id='$shortkey' data-toggle=\"dropdown\" href='#'>".$levelOnes['name']."</a>";
echo "<div class='dropdown-menu' aria-labelledby='$shortkey'>";
foreach ($menus as $arr) {
$menu = $arr[0];
if($menu['id_parent']==$levelOnes['id']) {
$shortkey = "form_".$menu['shortkey'];
echo "<form method='post' action='/home' id='".$shortkey."'>";
$disabled="";
if ($menu['grey']) {
$disabled='disabled';
}
echo "<input type='hidden' name='menu_selected_id' value='".$menu['id']."'/>";
echo "<a class='dropdown-item $disabled text-menu' href='#'>" . $menu['name'] . "</a>";
echo "</form>";
}
}
echo "</div>";
echo "</li>";
}
}
?>
This code used bootstrap and will certainly be improved.I think it's often a good way to auto-generated things. I hope it will give you some idea for your source code.
Notes :
- We have only two levels because I didn't need a level three of my menu.
- The next step is to manage authorization !
Versions :
CakePHP 3.9
Postgresql 9.6
Bootstrap 4.2.1
