Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs help visitors understand their current location within your site. This component is designed to make breadcrumb management simple and flexible.

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Adding breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs are typically managed in both your controller and your view.

To add breadcrumbs in a controller, you can use method chaining:

public function aboutAction()
{
    $this->view->getBreadcrumbBag()
               ->addOne('Home page', '/')
               ->addOne('About us'); // Last breadcrumb has no link (it is active)
}

You can also add breadcrumbs using an array — recommended when generating them dynamically (e.g., building from a tree):

public function aboutAction()
{
    $breadcrumbs = [
        [
            'name' => 'Home page',
            'link' => '/'
        ],
        [
            'name' => 'About us'
        ]
    ];

    $this->view->getBreadcrumbBag()->add($breadcrumbs);
}

Rendering beadcrumbs

After populating the breadcrumb bag in your controller, you can render the breadcrumbs in the view.

There are two primary approaches:

Via widget

This is the simplest and preferred method. In your template:

<?php

use Krystal\Widget\Breadcrumbs\BreadcrumbWidget;

?>

<nav>
    <?= $this->widget(new BreadcrumbWidget()); ?>
</nav>

Example output:

<ol class="breadcrumb">
    <li class="breadcrumb-item"><a href="#">Home</a></li>
    <li class="breadcrumb-item active">About us</li>
</ol>

You can customize default classes using the widget options:

<?= $this->widget(new BreadcrumbWidget([
    'ulClass'    => 'custom <ul> class',
    'itemClass'  => 'custom <li> class',
    'linkClass'  => 'custom <a> class'
])); ?>

Rendering manually

If you need completely custom markup, you may manually iterate through the breadcrumb array:

<?php if ($this->view->getBreadcrumbBag()->has()): ?>
    <?php foreach ($this->view->getBreadcrumbBag()->getBreadcrumbs() as $breadcrumb): ?>

        <?php $breadcrumb->isFirst();   // Returns boolean ?>
        <?php $breadcrumb->getName();   // Returns breadcrumb name ?>
        <?php $breadcrumb->getLink();   // Returns breadcrumb link (string or null) ?>
        <?php $breadcrumb->isActive();  // Returns true if this is the last (active) item ?>

    <?php endforeach; ?>
<?php endif; ?>

Additional methods

Additional methods cover extra use cases and provide more insight into breadcrumb data.

The BreadcrumbBag instance ($this->view->getBreadcrumbBag()) supports the following utility methods:

removeFirst()

Removes the first breadcrumb

clear()

Removes all breadcrumbs

getNames()

Returns an array of all breadcrumb names

getFirstName()

Returns the name of the first breadcrumb

getLastName()

Returns the name of the last breadcrumb

getCount()

Returns the total number of breadcrumbs