Sidebar and Navigation

Overview

The dashboard sidebar is driven by a built-in sidebar system and configured centrally in app/sidebar.php.

This makes the navigation tree predictable and easy to extend.

Sidebar Item API

Each sidebar item supports:

Method / Property	Purpose
title(...)	Display label
icon(...)	Icon class
route(...)	Route name and optional parameters
url(...)	Raw URL
external(...)	Marks item as external
children(...)	Nested child items
hidden(...)	Static boolean or closure

Internally, items also track:

• parent
• parameters
• active

Visibility Rules

A sidebar item can be removed from the final rendered menu when:

• the target route fails route_allowed(...)
• the item is marked hidden
• a hidden closure returns true
• all children of a dropdown were filtered out

Active State Rules

An item becomes active when:

• the current route exactly matches the item route
• the current route matches the item route as a wildcard, replacing .index with .*

If a child item is active, its parent dropdown is marked active too.

Built-In Sidebar Structure

Dashboard

• dashboard.index

Website Management

• dashboard.users.index
• dashboard.static-pages.index

Utilities

• dashboard.memos.index
• dashboard.qr-code.index
• dashboard.shortened-urls.index
• dashboard.impersonate-admins.create
• dashboard.impersonate-users.create

Settings

• dashboard.profile.edit
• dashboard.roles.index
• dashboard.admins.index
• dashboard.settings.edit
• dashboard.languages.index

Practical Guidance

When adding a new module to navigation:

1. add the route first
2. decide whether the item should be permission-gated
3. add a sidebar item or child item in app/sidebar.php
4. use a hidden closure only when the module really depends on runtime state