Create menu from array which can be hooked up from anywhere on the script

Question

I' am trying to make a menu something like WordPress does but in more simple way. In WordPress you can hook up Admin sidebar menu from any php scripts, thats what I' am trying to do.

This are all the array that contains the menu information

$admin_menu_page = array();
    $admin_submenu_page = array();

    $admin_menu_page[] = array("Dashboard", "dashboard");
    $admin_menu_page[] = array("Pages", "pages");
    $admin_menu_page[] = array("Setings", "setings");

    $admin_submenu_page['dashboard'] = array("Home", "home");
    $admin_submenu_page['dashboard'] = array("Update", "update");

    $admin_submenu_page['pages'] = array("Add New Page", "new");
    $admin_submenu_page['pages'] = array("All Pages", 'pages');

    $admin_submenu_page['setings'] = array("SMTP", "smtp");
    $admin_submenu_page['setings'] = array("Theme Options", "theme-options");

This is the html part that renders that menu in the page

echo '<ul>';
foreach($admin_menu_page as $menu){
    echo '<li>';
    echo '<a href="#">';
    echo $menu[0];
    echo '<ul>';
        foreach($admin_submenu_page[$menu[1]] as $submenu){
            echo '<li>';
            echo '<a href="#">';
            echo $submenu;
            echo '</a>';
            echo '</li>';
        }
    echo '</ul>';
    echo '</a>';
    echo '</li>';
}
echo '</ul>';

This is what it looks like at the moment from the above code This is how the end result should be like

Answer 1

$main_menu = array() ;

$sub_menu = array() ;
$sub_menu['dashboard'][] = array( "title" => "Home" , "action" => "home" ) ;
$sub_menu['dashboard'][] = array( "title" => "Update" , "action" => "update" ) ;

$main_menu['dashboard']['title'] = 'Dashboard' ;
sort( $sub_menu['dashboard'] ) ;
$main_menu['dashboard']['submenu'] = $sub_menu['dashboard'] ;

$sub_menu['pages'][] = array( "title" => "All Pages" , "action" => "pages" ) ;
$sub_menu['pages'][] = array( "title" => "Add New Page" , "action" => "new" ) ;

$main_menu['pages']['title'] = 'Pages' ;
sort( $sub_menu['pages'] ) ;
$main_menu['pages']['submenu'] = $sub_menu['pages'] ;

$sub_menu['setings'][] = array( "title" => "SMTP" , "action" => "smtp" ) ;
$sub_menu['setings'][] = array( "title" => "Theme Options" , "action" => "theme-options" ) ;

$main_menu['setings']['title'] = 'Setings' ;
sort( $sub_menu['setings'] ) ;
$main_menu['setings']['submenu'] = $sub_menu['setings'] ;

foreach ( $main_menu as $key => $menu ) {
    echo '<li>' ;
    echo '<a href="#">' ;
    echo $menu['title'] ;
    echo '<ul>' ;

    foreach ( $menu['submenu'] as $item ) {
        echo '<li>' ;
        echo "<a href=\"#{$item['action']}\">" ;
        echo $item['title'] ;
        echo '</a>' ;
        echo '</li>' ;
    }
    echo '</ul>' ;
    echo '</li>' ;
}

Note that this solution serve only to submenu 1 to 1, for submenu N to N submenu you should optimize this script using recursion:

See -> http://www.php.net/manual/pt_BR/regexp.reference.recursive.php

Answer 2

First you have to properly create submenus, you are missing brackets:

Instead:

$admin_submenu_page['dashboard'] = array("Home", "home");
$admin_submenu_page['dashboard'] = array("Update", "update");

$admin_submenu_page['pages'] = array("Add New Page", "new");
$admin_submenu_page['pages'] = array("All Pages", 'pages');

$admin_submenu_page['setings'] = array("SMTP", "smtp");
$admin_submenu_page['setings'] = array("Theme Options", "theme-options");

Do:

$admin_submenu_page['dashboard'][] = array("Home", "home");
$admin_submenu_page['dashboard'][] = array("Update", "update");

$admin_submenu_page['pages'][] = array("Add New Page", "new");
$admin_submenu_page['pages'][] = array("All Pages", 'pages');

$admin_submenu_page['setings'][] = array("SMTP", "smtp");
$admin_submenu_page['setings'][] = array("Theme Options", "theme-options");

Second on the render, change:

echo $submenu;

to

echo $submenu[0];