Menu System

The sidebar (and optional top-nav) menu is defined as an array under the menu key in config/adminlte.php. Each element of the array is a single menu item described by an associative array. Items pass through a filter pipeline before they are rendered by resources/views/partials/menu-item.blade.php.

• Config: config/adminlte.php ('menu' array, 'filters' array)
• Builder: src/AdminLte.php
• Helpers: src/Menu/MenuItemHelper.php
• Filters: src/Menu/Filters/*.php
• View: resources/views/partials/menu-item.blade.php

Item Types

Section Header

A non-clickable label that groups items. Rendered as <li class="nav-header">.

['header' => 'PAGES'],

MenuItemHelper::isHeader() returns true when an item has a header key.

Link

A standard navigation link. Requires text plus a destination (url or route).

[
    'text'  => 'Dashboard',
    'url'   => '/',
    'icon'  => 'bi bi-speedometer',
],

MenuItemHelper::isLink() returns true for any item with text that is not a search box.

Treeview / Submenu

An item with a submenu array becomes a collapsible treeview. Submenus can be nested to any depth — the menu-item view includes itself recursively.

[
    'text' => 'Widgets',
    'icon' => 'bi bi-box-seam-fill',
    'submenu' => [
        ['text' => 'Small Box', 'url' => 'demo/widgets/small-box', 'icon' => 'bi bi-circle'],
        ['text' => 'Info Box',  'url' => 'demo/widgets/info-box',  'icon' => 'bi bi-circle'],
        [
            'text' => 'Nested',
            'icon' => 'bi bi-circle',
            'submenu' => [
                ['text' => 'Deep Item', 'url' => '#', 'icon' => 'bi bi-record-circle-fill'],
            ],
        ],
    ],
],

A treeview parent uses href="#"; the route/url keys are not needed on it. MenuItemHelper::isSubmenu() returns true when submenu is an array. A parent is automatically expanded (menu-open) and marked active when any descendant is active.

Search Box

A navbar search input, identified by type => 'navbar-search'.

[
    'type'        => 'navbar-search',
    'method'      => 'get',     // normalized default
    'placeholder' => 'Search',  // normalized default
    'url'         => 'search',   // normalized default '#'
    'topnav_right' => true,
],

SearchFilter fills in method (get), placeholder (Search), and url (#) when they are omitted.

Badges & Icon Colors

Both link and treeview items support a badge and a colored icon.

['text' => 'Inbox', 'url' => 'admin/mailbox', 'icon' => 'bi bi-envelope', 'label' => 12, 'label_color' => 'danger'],
['text' => 'Important', 'url' => '#', 'icon' => 'bi bi-circle', 'icon_color' => 'danger'],

• label renders a badge: <span class="nav-badge badge text-bg-{label_color}">.
• label_color defaults to primary if omitted.
• icon_color adds text-{icon_color} to the <i class="nav-icon ...">.

URL vs Route Resolution (HrefFilter)

HrefFilter computes the final href for each item (and recurses into submenus). Resolution order:

1. If href is already set, it is kept as-is.
2. Headers and navbar-search items get no href.
3. route → resolved with Laravel's route() helper.
   • String form: route($item['route']).
   • Array form: route($item['route'][0], $item['route'][1] ?? []) for params.
4. url → external URLs (matching //, mailto:, tel:) are used verbatim; otherwise passed through url().
5. If none of the above, href falls back to '#'.

['text' => 'Users',   'route' => 'users.index'],            // route('users.index')
['text' => 'Edit',    'route' => ['users.edit', ['id' => 1]]], // route with params
['text' => 'Docs',    'url'   => 'https://example.com', 'target' => '_blank'], // external, kept as-is
['text' => 'Local',   'url'   => 'admin/users'],            // url('admin/users')

Active-State Marking (ActiveFilter)

ActiveFilter decides whether an item is highlighted as the current page:

• If active is already a boolean, it is respected as-is.
• If active is a pattern (or list of patterns), the item is active when the current request matches any pattern via Request::is().
• If no active pattern is given, one is auto-derived from url: for a URL admin/users it matches both admin/users and admin/users/*. A url of '/' matches only the site root; '#' is never auto-matched.
• A submenu parent becomes active if any child is active (recursively).

// Explicit patterns:
['text' => 'Users', 'url' => 'admin/users', 'active' => ['admin/users*', 'admin/people*']],

In the view, an active item gets the active class; an active treeview parent also gets menu-open so it renders expanded.

Gate Filtering (GateFilter)

GateFilter removes items the current user is not authorized to see:

• Only items with a can key are checked; others pass through untouched.
• can may be a single ability string or an array of abilities. The item is shown if the user passes any of them (Gate::allows).
• can_params is forwarded to the gate as the model/argument.
• Returning null from the filter drops the item from the menu entirely.

['text' => 'Admin Panel', 'url' => 'admin', 'can' => 'access-admin'],
['text' => 'Edit Post',   'route' => 'posts.edit', 'can' => 'update', 'can_params' => $post],

The Filter Pipeline

Filters are listed in config('adminlte.filters') and run in array order by AdminLte::buildFiltered(). Each filter implements FilterInterface with a single method:

public function transform(array $item): ?array;

It returns the (possibly modified) item, or null to remove it entirely. The default pipeline order is:

The result is cached on the AdminLte instance for the request. Add custom filters by appending your own FilterInterface class to the filters array.

Scoped Menus

AdminLte is registered as a singleton; resolve it via app('adminlte'). The menu() method returns the filtered menu for a given scope:

app('adminlte')->menu('sidebar');       // items not flagged topnav-only
app('adminlte')->menu('navbar-left');   // items with 'topnav' => true
app('adminlte')->menu('navbar-right');  // items with 'topnav_right' => true
app('adminlte')->menu();                // the full filtered list

Scope rules (see MenuItemHelper):

• sidebar: items where both topnav and topnav_right are empty.
• navbar-left: items with a truthy topnav key.
• navbar-right: items with a truthy topnav_right key.

// Place an item in the right side of the top navbar instead of the sidebar:
['text' => 'Help', 'url' => 'help', 'icon' => 'bi bi-question-circle', 'topnav_right' => true],

Runtime Additions (addAfter)

Items can be appended at runtime (e.g. from a service provider's boot()), which is useful for package- or permission-driven menus:

app('adminlte')->addAfter('some-key',
    ['header' => 'REPORTS'],
    ['text' => 'Sales', 'route' => 'reports.sales', 'icon' => 'bi bi-graph-up'],
);

Note: the current implementation appends the given items to the end of the menu and clears the cached filtered list so the additions are picked up on the next menu() call. The $itemKey argument is accepted for forward compatibility but items are not yet spliced relative to it.

Because the menu builder is a singleton, runtime additions persist for the rest of the request and reset on the next request.

Realistic Example

'menu' => [
    // Section header
    ['header' => 'MAIN'],

    // Simple link
    [
        'text' => 'Dashboard',
        'route' => 'dashboard',
        'icon' => 'bi bi-speedometer',
    ],

    // Treeview with a badge on the parent and an authorization gate
    [
        'text' => 'Shop',
        'icon' => 'bi bi-bag',
        'label' => 3,
        'label_color' => 'danger',
        'can' => 'manage-shop',
        'submenu' => [
            ['text' => 'Orders',   'route' => 'orders.index',   'icon' => 'bi bi-circle'],
            ['text' => 'Products', 'route' => 'products.index', 'icon' => 'bi bi-circle'],
        ],
    ],

    ['header' => 'OTHER'],

    // External link opening in a new tab
    [
        'text' => 'Documentation',
        'url' => 'https://adminlte.io/docs',
        'icon' => 'bi bi-book',
        'target' => '_blank',
    ],

    // Colored-icon link
    [
        'text' => 'Important',
        'url' => '#',
        'icon' => 'bi bi-exclamation-triangle',
        'icon_color' => 'warning',
    ],
],