Navigatrix

Navigation generation for Rails and Sinatra.

Installation

Add gem "navigatrix" to your Gemfile and run bundle install.

The Simplest Possible Navigation

<%= render_navigation({
  "Home"     => "/",
  "About Us" => "/about-us",
  "Blog"     => "/blog",
  "Contact"  => "/contact"
}) %>

Assuming we're on the "/about-us" path, the resulting HTML will look like this:

<ul>
  <li><a href="/">Home</a></li>
  <li class="active">About Us</li>
  <li><a href="/blog">Blog</a></li>
  <li><a href="/contact">Contact</a></li>
</ul>

A More Sophisticated Configuration

<%= render_navigation({
  "Home" => "/",
  "Users" => {
    :path   => "/users",
    :active_states => [
      {:path => "/my_account"},
      {:path  => /\/users\/\d*/},
    ]
  },
  "Sign In" => {
    :path   => "/sign_in",
    :render? => !user_signed_in?
  },
  "Sign Out" => {
    :path   => "/sign_out",
    :render? => user_signed_in?
  }
}, {
  :active_class    => "active-nav-item",
  :html_attributes => {
    :class => "nav"
  }
}) %>

Assuming we're on the "/users/1" path, and a User is signed in, the resulting HTML will look like this:

<ul class="nav">
  <li><a href="/">Home</a></li>
  <li class="active-nav-item">Users</li>
  <li><a href="/sign_in">Sign In</a></li>
</ul>

The "Users" item is active because the path "/users/1" matches the pattern /\/users\/\d*/. The item is linked because we are not on the path "/users".

List Item Configuration Options

:path

Specifies where the navigation item should link to.

:active_states

An array of state specification hashes used to control when a list item is considered "active". By default, when an item is active, it receives an HTML class of "active". For example:

active_states: [
  {controller: "users", actions: ["index"]},
  {path: "/my-account"}
]

The first state specification dictates that the item will be active when the current controller is the UsersController and the current controller action is index. If we wanted the item to be active for any UsersController action, the specification should be {controller: "users"}.

The second state specification dictates that the item will be active with the current path is "/my-account". :path can be a string or regular expression.

:unlinked_states

Also an array of state specification hashes (like :active_states). The state specifications determine if the item should be linked. By default, the item is unlinked if the current path is the same as the item path. The :unlinked_states option can be used to override this behavior.

:html_attributes

HTML attributes added to an item.

  "Item 3" => {
    :path => "/item_path"
    :html_attributes => {:id => "nav-3"}
  }

Results in the following HTML.

<li id="nav-3"><a href="item_path">Item 3</a></li>

:children

Used for creating nested navigations. The :children should contain a navigation configuration.

"Parent" => {
  :path => "/parent_path"
  :children => {
    "Child 1" => "/child_1_path",
    "Child 2" => {
      :path => "/child_2_path",
      :children => {
        "Grandchild" => "/grandchild_path"
      }
    }
  }
}

Results in the following HTML.

<ul>
  <li>
    <a href="/parent_path">Parent</a>
    <ul>
      <li><a href="/child_1_path">Child 1</a></li>
      <li>
        <a href="/child_2_path">Child 2</a>
        <ul>
          <li href="/grandchild_path">Grandchild</li>
        </ul>
      </li>
    </ul>
  </li>
</ul>

:render?

Determines if the navigation item is rendered.

List Configuration Options

:html_attributes

HTML attributes added to an the list.

:active_class

Determines which HTML class is applied to list items when the item is active.

:inactive_class

Determines which HTML class is applied to list items when the item is not active.