Chapter 8. Menu Configuration

The main menu of the backend is created automatically based on the entities configuration. The default menu displays a list of links pointing to the list view of each entity.

Most of the times there is no need to configure a custom menu. Keep reading this chapter only if your backend is complex enough to require a menu with custom labels, icons and submenus.

Reordering Menu Items

The easiest way to reorder the menu items is to reorder the contents of the entities option in the backend configuration file. However, when the configuration is too complex or its contents are scattered into several files, it’s easier to define the menu option under the global design option.

Just provide the names of the entities in the order you want to display them in the menu:

# config/packages/easy_admin.yaml
easy_admin:
    design:
        menu: ['User', 'Product', 'Category']
    # ...
    entities:
        Category:
            # ...
        Product:
            # ...
        User:
            # ...

Customizing the Labels, Icons and Targets of the Menu Items

Labels

Menu items related to entities display the value of the entity's `label` option
(if defined) or the entity's name. If you want to customize this value, use the
`label` option of the menu item (which must use the expanded configuration
format):

``` yaml
# config/packages/easy_admin.yaml
easy_admin:
    design:
        menu: ['User', 'Product', { entity: 'Category', label: 'Tags' }]
    # ...
```

Consider using this alternative YAML syntax to make menu configuration easier
to maintain:

``` yaml
# config/packages/easy_admin.yaml
easy_admin:
    design:
        menu:
            - User
            - Product
            - { entity: 'Category', label: 'Tags' }
    # ...
```

Icons
~~~~~

Menu items display a default icon next to their labels. Use the `icon` option to
customize any of these icons. The value of the `icon` option is the name of the
FontAwesome icon without the ``fa-`` prefix (in the next example, `user` will
display the ``fa-user`` icon):

``` yaml
# config/packages/easy_admin.yaml
easy_admin:
    design:
        menu:
            - { entity: 'User', icon: 'user' }
            - Product
            - { entity: 'Category', label: 'Tags', icon: 'tag' }
    # ...
```

If you want to remove the default icon and only display the menu label, define
the `icon` option and leave it empty or set it to `null`:

``` yaml
# config/packages/easy_admin.yaml
easy_admin:
    design:
        menu:
            - { entity: 'Product', icon: '' }
    # ...
```

CSS Classes

Applications that need full customization, for example to display each menu item with a different color or style, can define the css_class option for one or more menu items:

# config/packages/easy_admin.yaml
easy_admin:
    design:
        menu:
            - { entity: 'User', css_class: 'menu--user' }
            - { entity: 'Product', css_class: 'menu--product text-bold text-center' }
            - { entity: 'Category', css_class: 'default' }
    # ...

The CSS class is applied to the <a> element that wraps both the icon and the label of the menu item.

Targets

By default, when clicking on a menu item, the linked resource is displayed in
the same browser tab. If you prefer to open the resource in a new tab or in a
specific HTML frame, define the link target using the `target` option of the
menu item:

``` yaml
# config/packages/easy_admin.yaml
easy_admin:
    design:
        menu:
            - { entity: 'Product', target: '_blank' }
            - { entity: 'User', target: '_parent' }
            - { entity: 'Category', target: '_self' }
    # ...
```

Link Types

By default, the links of the menu items don’t include any rel attribute. If you want to customize their rel attributes, define the rel config option and use any of the valid link types:

# config/packages/easy_admin.yaml
easy_admin:
    design:
        menu:
            - { entity: 'Product', rel: 'dns-prefetch preconnect' }
            - { label: 'Homepage', url: 'http://example.com', rel: 'index' }
    # ...

.. tip::

To avoid leaking internal backend information to external websites, if the
menu item links to an external URL and doesn't define its `rel` option,
the ``rel="noreferrer"`` attribute is added automatically.

Permissions

By default, all backend users can see all menu items. If some of them should be
restricted for certain kind of users, use the `permission` option. The value
of this option is either a string or array which defines the
[Symfony security roles](https://symfony.com/doc/current/security.html#roles) that the user must have to see those menu items:

``` yaml
# config/packages/easy_admin.yaml
easy_admin:
    design:
        menu:
            # no permission defined, so all users can see this menu item
            - { entity: 'Product' }

            # only users with the ROLE_SUPER_ADMIN role will see this menu item
            - { entity: 'User', permission: 'ROLE_SUPER_ADMIN' }

            # when defining multiple roles, the user must have at least one of them
            # or all of them, depending on the configuration of your Symfony application
            # by default: user must have at least one of the roles
            # see https://symfony.com/doc/current/security/access_control.html#access-enforcement
            - { entity: 'Category', permission: ['ROLE_BETA', 'ROLE_ADMIN'] }
    # ...
```

## Changing the Backend Index Page

By default, when accessing the index page of the backend, you are redirected to
the `list` view of the first configured entity. To change this, add
``default: true`` to any other item of your custom menu configuration:

``` yaml
# config/packages/easy_admin.yaml
easy_admin:
    design:
        menu:
            - User
            - { entity: 'Product', default: true }
            - Category
    # ...
```

## Linking Menu Items to Other Actions

By default menu items link to the `list` view of the entities. This can be
customized using the `params` option of any menu item:

``` yaml
# config/packages/easy_admin.yaml
easy_admin:
    design:
        menu:
            - { entity: 'User', params: { action: 'new' } }
            - Product
            - { entity: 'Category', params: { action: 'edit', id: 341 } }
    # ...
```

The `params` option is also useful to change the sort field or sort direction
of the `list` action:

``` yaml
# config/packages/easy_admin.yaml
easy_admin:
    design:
        menu:
            - { entity: 'User', params: { sortField: 'createdAt' } }
            - { entity: 'Product', params: { sortDirection: 'ASC' } }
            - { entity: 'Category', params: { sortField: 'name', sortDirection: 'ASC' } }
    # ...
```

## Adding Menu Items not Based on Entities

The main menu can also display items not related to the backend entities.

Menu dividers

These items display a non-clickable label which acts as a divider in the menu. They are created by adding a menu item which only defines the label option. In this example, Inventory and Users are non-clickable labels which separate the menu items:

# config/packages/easy_admin.yaml
easy_admin:
    design:
        menu:
            - { label: 'Inventory' }
            - Product
            - Category
            - { label: 'Users' }
            - Customers
            - Providers
    # ...

Absolute or Relative URLs

These items display a clickable label which points to the given absolute or
relative URL. They are useful to integrate external applications in the backend.
They are created by adding a menu item which defines the `url` option:

``` yaml
# config/packages/easy_admin.yaml
easy_admin:
    design:
        menu:
            - { label: 'Public Homepage', url: 'http://example.com' }
            - { label: 'Search', url: 'https://google.com' }
            - { label: 'Monitor Systems', url: '/monitor.php' }
    # ...
```

Symfony Routes
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

These items display a clickable label which points to the path generated with
the given Symfony route name. They are useful to integrate controllers which are
defined anywhere in your application.

They are created by adding a menu item which defines the route name in the
`route` option and optionally some route parameters in the `params` option:

``` yaml
# config/packages/easy_admin.yaml
easy_admin:
    design:
        menu:
            - { label: 'Public Homepage', route: 'homepage' }
            - { label: 'Some Task', route: 'user_some_task' }
            - { label: 'Other Task', route: 'other_task', params: { max: 7 } }
    # ...
```

## Adding Submenus

The main menu items can be displayed in two-level submenus, which is very useful
for complex backends that manage lots of entities. Creating a submenu is as
easy as adding an empty menu item and defining its `children` option:

``` yaml
# config/packages/easy_admin.yaml
easy_admin:
    design:
        menu:
            - label: 'Clients'
              children: ['Invoice', 'Payment', 'User', 'Provider']
            - label: 'Products'
              children: ['Product', 'Stock', 'Shipment']
    # ...
```

In the above example, the main menu displays two "empty" elements called
`Clients` and `Products`. Click on any of these items and the second level
submenu will be displayed. In this example, the submenu items just display
regular links to the `list` view of some entities.

Combining all the options explained in the previous sections you can create very
advanced menus with two-level submenus and all kind of items:

``` yaml
# config/packages/easy_admin.yaml
easy_admin:
    design:
        menu:
            - label: 'Clients'
              icon: 'users'
              children:
                - { label: 'New Invoice', icon: 'file-new', route: 'createInvoice' }
                - { label: 'Invoices', icon: 'file-list', entity: 'Invoice', permission: 'ROLE_ACCOUNTANT' }
                - { label: 'Payments Received', entity: 'Payment', params: { sortField: 'paidAt' } }
            - label: 'About'
              children:
                - { label: 'Help', route: 'help_index' }
                - { label: 'Docs', url: 'http://example.com/external-docs' }
                - { label: '%app.version%', permission: 'ROLE_ADMIN' }
```

## 
Next chapter: :doc:`complex-dynamic-backends`