Dynamic Sidebar &| Menu

[blondie63]

I was thinking about managing my menus dynamically from DB. Does it make sense with Backpack v6 or v7? I looked at https://github.com/Laravel-Backpack/MenuCRUD, but I see it's very old, and I wonder if it still works.
What do you think?

[backpack-ai-bot[bot]]

Based on the knowledge sources, managing menus dynamically from a database is definitely possible with Backpack v6, and the MenuCRUD package is still a viable option.

MenuCRUD Package Status

The MenuCRUD package is listed as one of Backpack's official free add-ons. It's described as an "interface to create/update/reorder menu items" and is marked as FREE. While the GitHub repository might appear old, it's still officially supported as part of the Backpack ecosystem.

According to the documentation, the free add-ons "only provide basic functionality" which "will be enough for most projects. They do not intend to be a complete solution for all use cases."

Current Menu Management in v6

In Backpack v6, the standard approach is to define menu items in resources/views/vendor/backpack/ui/inc/menu_items.blade.php using menu item components:

<x-backpack::menu-item title="Tags" icon="la la-tag" :link="backpack_url('tags')" />

<x-backpack::menu-separator title="Some text for separation" />

<x-backpack::menu-dropdown title="Authentication" icon="la la-group">
    <x-backpack::menu-dropdown-item title="Users" icon="la la-user" :link="backpack_url('user')" />
    <x-backpack::menu-dropdown-item title="Roles" icon="la la-group" :link="backpack_url('role')" />
</x-backpack::menu-dropdown>

These components are theme-agnostic, meaning they work across different Backpack themes without modification.

Recommendation

If you need dynamic menu management from a database, the MenuCRUD package should work with Backpack v6. However, if you need more customization than what MenuCRUD provides, you can extend it or build your own solution by copying and modifying the package code, as suggested in the documentation for all free add-ons.

ℹ️ Please note our AI Bot does not reply to follow-ups, this will be the only AI answer in this thread. If the AI helped you find the answer, please mark it as answered or write details below so it can learn. Then close the conversation. If not, please give more information for when a human reads this. ℹ️

Relevant sources:

Introduction|Need to Know
Github Issue (closed): [Feature][3.4] Set initial CrudPanel properties on CrudController
Introduction|Need to Know
Github Issue (closed): [v6][Feature Request] Theme-agnostic menu items
Github Issue (closed): Is Backpack 3.6 compatible with Laravel 7 ?
Features (Free vs Paid)|Add-ons
Github Issue (closed): V6 multilevel menu items
Github Issue (closed): [Bug] Use ui config and blade directory as ultimate fallbacks for themes
Official Add-ons|Official Add-ons Part 2
FAQs for the admin UI|FAQs for the admin UI
[v6][Feature] View components for menus
Replace sidebar content command with menu content
Install Optional Packages|MenuCrud