Breadcrumbs

API reference › yii › widgets › Breadcrumbs

class	`yii\widgets\Breadcrumbs`
Extends	`yii\base\Widget` » `yii\base\Component` » `yii\base\BaseObject`
Implements	`yii\base\ViewContextInterface`, `yii\base\Configurable`
Since	2.0
Source	`framework/widgets/Breadcrumbs.php`

Breadcrumbs displays a list of links indicating the position of the current page in the whole site hierarchy.

For example, breadcrumbs like “Home / Sample Post / Edit” means the user is viewing an edit page for the “Sample Post”. He can click on “Sample Post” to view that page, or he can click on “Home” to return to the homepage.

To use Breadcrumbs, you need to configure its $links property, which specifies the links to be displayed. For example,

// $this is the view object currently being used
echo Breadcrumbs::widget([
    'itemTemplate' => "<li><i>{link}</i></li>\n", // template for all links
    'links' => [
        [
            'label' => 'Post Category',
            'url' => ['post-category/view', 'id' => 10],
            'template' => "<li><b>{link}</b></li>\n", // template for this link only
        ],
        ['label' => 'Sample Post', 'url' => ['post/edit', 'id' => 1]],
        'Edit',
    ],
]);

Because breadcrumbs usually appears in nearly every page of a website, you may consider placing it in a layout view. You can use a view parameter (e.g. $this->params['breadcrumbs']) to configure the links in different views. In the layout view, you assign this view parameter to the $links property like the following:

// $this is the view object currently being used
echo Breadcrumbs::widget([
    'links' => isset($this->params['breadcrumbs']) ? $this->params['breadcrumbs'] : [],
]);

Properties

Property	Type	Description	Defined by
`$activeItemTemplate`	`string`	The template used to render each active item in the breadcrumbs. Default: `"<li class=\"active\">{link}</li>\n"`.	`Breadcrumbs`
`$autoIdPrefix` static	`string`	The prefix to the automatically generated widget IDs. Default: `'w'`.	`yii\base\Widget`
`$behaviors` read-only	`array<yii\base\Behavior<static>>`	List of behaviors attached to this component.	`yii\base\Component`
`$encodeLabels`	`bool`	Whether to HTML-encode the link labels. Default: `true`.	`Breadcrumbs`
`$homeLink`	`array\|null`	The first hyperlink in the breadcrumbs (called home link). Default: `null`.	`Breadcrumbs`
`$id`	`string`	Id of the widget.	`yii\base\Widget`
`$itemTemplate`	`string`	The template used to render each inactive item in the breadcrumbs. Default: `"<li>{link}</li>\n"`.	`Breadcrumbs`
`$links`	`array`	List of links to appear in the breadcrumbs. Default: `[]`.	`Breadcrumbs`
`$options`	`array`	The HTML attributes for the breadcrumb container tag. Default: `[]`.	`Breadcrumbs`
`$tag`	`string`	The name of the breadcrumb container tag. Default: `'ul'`.	`Breadcrumbs`
`$view`	`yii\web\View`	The view object that can be used to render views or view files.	`yii\base\Widget`
`$viewPath` read-only	`string`	The directory containing the view files for this widget.	`yii\base\Widget`

Methods

Method	Description	Defined by
`__construct()`	Constructor.	`yii\base\BaseObject`
`__call()`	Calls the named method which is not a class method.	`yii\base\Component`
`__clone()`	This method is called after the object is created by cloning an existing one.	`yii\base\Component`
`__get()`	Returns the value of a component property.	`yii\base\Component`
`__isset()`	Checks if a property is set, i.e. defined and not null.	`yii\base\Component`
`__set()`	Sets the value of a component property.	`yii\base\Component`
`__unset()`	Sets a component property to be null.	`yii\base\Component`
`afterRun()`	This method is invoked right after a widget is executed.	`yii\base\Widget`
`attachBehavior()`	Attaches a behavior to this component.	`yii\base\Component`
`attachBehaviors()`	Attaches a list of behaviors to the component.	`yii\base\Component`
`beforeRun()`	This method is invoked right before the widget is executed.	`yii\base\Widget`
`begin()` static	Begins a widget.	`yii\base\Widget`
`behaviors()`	Returns a list of behaviors that this component should behave as.	`yii\base\Component`
`canGetProperty()`	Returns a value indicating whether a property can be read.	`yii\base\Component`
`canSetProperty()`	Returns a value indicating whether a property can be set.	`yii\base\Component`
`className()` static	Returns the fully qualified name of this class.	`yii\base\BaseObject`
`detachBehavior()`	Detaches a behavior from the component.	`yii\base\Component`
`detachBehaviors()`	Detaches all behaviors from the component.	`yii\base\Component`
`end()` static	Ends a widget.	`yii\base\Widget`
`ensureBehaviors()`	Makes sure that the behaviors declared in `behaviors()` are attached to this component.	`yii\base\Component`
`getBehavior()`	Returns the named behavior object.	`yii\base\Component`
`getBehaviors()`	Returns all behaviors attached to this component.	`yii\base\Component`
`getId()`	Returns the ID of the widget.	`yii\base\Widget`
`getView()`	Returns the view object that can be used to render views or view files.	`yii\base\Widget`
`getViewPath()`	Returns the directory containing the view files for this widget.	`yii\base\Widget`
`hasEventHandlers()`	Returns a value indicating whether there is any handler attached to the named event.	`yii\base\Component`
`hasMethod()`	Returns a value indicating whether a method is defined.	`yii\base\Component`
`hasProperty()`	Returns a value indicating whether a property is defined for this component.	`yii\base\Component`
`init()`	Initializes the object.	`yii\base\Widget`
`off()`	Detaches an existing event handler from this component.	`yii\base\Component`
`on()`	Attaches an event handler to an event.	`yii\base\Component`
`render()`	Renders a view.	`yii\base\Widget`
`renderFile()`	Renders a view file.	`yii\base\Widget`
`run()`	Renders the widget.	`Breadcrumbs`
`setId()`	Sets the ID of the widget.	`yii\base\Widget`
`setView()`	Sets the view object to be used by this widget.	`yii\base\Widget`
`trigger()`	Triggers an event.	`yii\base\Component`
`widget()` static	Creates a widget instance and runs it.	`yii\base\Widget`
`renderItem()` protected	Renders a single breadcrumb item.	`Breadcrumbs`

Events

Event	Type	Description	Defined by
`EVENT_INIT`	`yii\base\Event`	An event that is triggered when the widget is initialized via `init()`. Event name: `'init'`. Available since 2.0.11.	`yii\base\Widget`
`EVENT_BEFORE_RUN`	`yii\base\WidgetEvent`	An event raised right before executing a widget. Event name: `'beforeRun'`. Available since 2.0.11.	`yii\base\Widget`
`EVENT_AFTER_RUN`	`yii\base\WidgetEvent`	An event raised right after executing a widget. Event name: `'afterRun'`. Available since 2.0.11.	`yii\base\Widget`

Property details

$activeItemTemplate

public string $activeItemTemplate = "<li class=\"active\">{link}</li>\n"

The template used to render each active item in the breadcrumbs.

The token {link} will be replaced with the actual HTML link for each active item.

$homeLink

public array|null $homeLink = null

The first hyperlink in the breadcrumbs (called home link).

Please refer to $links on the format of the link. If this property is not set, it will default to a link pointing to Application::$homeUrl with the label ‘Home’. If this property is false, the home link will not be rendered.

$itemTemplate

public string $itemTemplate = "<li>{link}</li>\n"

The template used to render each inactive item in the breadcrumbs.

The token {link} will be replaced with the actual HTML link for each inactive item.

$links

public array $links = []

List of links to appear in the breadcrumbs.

If this property is empty, the widget will not render anything. Each array element represents a single link in the breadcrumbs with the following structure:

[
    'label' => 'label of the link',  // required
    'url' => 'url of the link',      // optional, will be processed by Url::to()
    'template' => 'own template of the item', // optional, if not set $this->itemTemplate will be used
]

If a link is active, you only need to specify its “label”, and instead of writing ['label' => $label], you may simply use $label.

Since version 2.0.1, any additional array elements for each link will be treated as the HTML attributes for the hyperlink tag. For example, the following link specification will generate a hyperlink with CSS class external:

[
    'label' => 'demo',
    'url' => 'https://example.com',
    'class' => 'external',
]

Since version 2.0.3 each individual link can override global $encodeLabels param like the following:

[
    'label' => '<strong>Hello!</strong>',
    'encode' => false,
]

Method details

run()

public function run(): mixed

Renders the widget.

Returns

mixed

renderItem()

protected function renderItem(array $link, string $template): string

Renders a single breadcrumb item.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
`$link`	`array`	The link to be rendered. It must contain the “label” element. The “url” element is optional.
`$template`	`string`	The template to be used to rendered the link. The token “{link}” will be replaced by the link.

Returns

string: The rendering result

Throws

yii\base\InvalidConfigException: if $link does not have “label” element.