hugo/docs/content/extras/menus.md

+++ title = "Menus" weight = 20 prev = "/extras/livereload" next = "/extras/permalinks" date = 2014-05-14T02:36:37Z [menu] [menu.main] parent = "extras" +++

Hugo has a simple yet powerful menu system that permits content to be placed in menus with a good degree of control without a lot of work.

Some of the features of Hugo Menus:

• Place content in one or many menus
• Handle nested menus with unlimited depth
• Create menu entries without being attached to any content
• Distinguish active element (and active branch)

What is a menu?

A menus is a named array of menu entries accessible on the site under .Site.Menus by name. For example if I have a menu called main I would access it via .Site.Menus.main.

A menu entry has the following properties:

• Url string
• Name string
• Menu string
• Identifier string
• Pre template.HTML
• Post template.HTML
• Weight int
• Parent string
• Children Menu

And the following functions:

• HasChildren bool

Additionally there are some relevant functions available on the page:

• IsMenuCurrent (menu string, menuEntry *MenuEntry ) bool
• HasMenuCurrent (menu string, menuEntry *MenuEntry) bool

Adding content to menus

Hugo supports a couple of different methods of adding a piece of content to the front matter.

Simple

If all you need to do is add an entry to a menu, the simple form works well.

A single menu:

---
menu: "main"
---

Multiple menus:

---
menu: ["main", "footer"]
---

Advanced

If more control is required, then the advanced approach gives you the control you want. All of the menu entry properties listed above are available.

---
menu:
  main:
    parent: 'extras'
    weight: 20
---

Adding (non-content) entries to a menu

You can also add entries to menus that aren’t attached to a piece of content. This takes place in the site wide config file.

Here’s an example (in toml):

[[menu.main]]
    name = "about hugo"
    pre = "<i class='fa fa-heart'></i>"
    weight = -110
    identifier = "about"
[[menu.main]]
    name = "getting started"
    pre = "<i class='fa fa-road'></i>"
    weight = -100

Nesting

All nesting of content is done via the parent field.

The parent of an entry should be the identifier of another entry. Identifier should be unique (within a menu).

The following order is used to determine identity Identifier > Name > LinkTitle > Title. This means that the title will be used unless linktitle is present, etc. In practice Name and Identifier are never displayed and only used to structure relationships.

In this example, the top level of the menu is defined in the config file and all content entries are attached to one of these entries via the parent field.

Rendering menus

Hugo makes no assumptions about how your rendered HTML will be structured, instead it provides all of the functions you will need to be able to build your menu however you want.

The following is an example:

<!--sidebar start-->
<aside>
    <div id="sidebar"  class="nav-collapse ">
        <!-- sidebar menu start-->
        <ul class="sidebar-menu">
          {{ $currentNode := . }}
          {{ range .Site.Menus.main }}
              {{ if .HasChildren }}

            <li class="sub-menu{{if $currentNode.HasMenuCurrent "main" . }} active{{end}}">
            <a href="javascript:;" class="">
                {{ .Pre }}
                <span>{{ .Name }}</span>
                <span class="menu-arrow arrow_carrot-right"></span>
            </a>
            <ul class="sub">
                {{ range .Children }}
                <li{{if $currentNode.IsMenuCurrent "main" . }} class="active"{{end}}><a href="{{.Url}}"> {{ .Name }} </a> </li>
                {{ end }}
            </ul>
          {{else}}
            <li>
            <a class="" href="{{.Url}}">
                {{ .Pre }}
                <span>{{ .Name }}</span>
            </a>
          {{end}}
          </li>
          {{end}}
            <li> <a href="https://github.com/spf13/hugo/issues" target="blank">Questions and Issues</a> </li>
            <li> <a href="#" target="blank">Edit this Page</a> </li>
        </ul>
        <!-- sidebar menu end-->
    </div>
</aside>
<!--sidebar end-->