Helper Methods

In addition to storing variables in config.php, you can also define helper methods by adding a key with the name of the function and returning a closure. Helper methods are called by referencing the method name from the $page object in any Blade template.

The method's closure automatically receives the current $page as its first parameter. Additional parameters can be specified as well, and passed to the method when it is called in your template.

For instance, you can add a method that identifies if the current page belongs to a particular section, for highlighting the current section in a menu template:

config.php

 1<?php
 2 
 3use Illuminate\Support\Str;
 4 
 5return [
 6    'company' => 'Tighten',
 7    'selected' => function ($page, $section) {
 8        return Str::contains($page->getPath(), $section) ? 'selected' : '';
 9    },
10];

This method is accessible by calling $page->selected() from any page.

Now, we can build a menu partial that highlights the current menu item for each page:

_menu.blade.php

1<a class="{{ $page->selected('about') }}" href="{{ $page->baseUrl }}/about">About Us</a>
2<a class="{{ $page->selected('projects') }}" href="{{ $page->baseUrl }}/projects">Projects</a>
3<a class="{{ $page->selected('posts') }}" href="{{ $page->baseUrl }}/posts">Blog</a>

Alternatively, global helper methods can be stored in a separate helpers.php file, located at the root level of your project. This file should return an array, and will be merged into config.php automatically if present.