Tatter\Menus basics

I am trying to use Tatter\Menus and have some very basic questions. I installed Tatter\Menus via Composer at /vendor/tatter and can't figure out how to get the example menu working, MainMenu.php.

Where should I put MainMenu.php - in app/Views? Or somewhere else?

Documentation says "Since Menu is Stringable it can be used in your view or layout files as is. ".   If I create a view (eg, TatterExampleView.php), I don't understand how to access MainMenu in the view file to display the menu? I looked at the Spatie page to see if it had any additional guidance and did not see anything.

I really appreciate the work that was done to provide this library.

Code:

<? php
class MainMenu extends \Tatter\Menus\Menu
{
  public function __toString(): string
  {
    return $this->builder
    ->link(site_url('/'), 'Home')
    ->link(site_url('/about'), 'About')
    ->html('<hr>')
    ->link(site_url('/contact'), 'Contact')
    ->render();
  }
}

MainMenu is a PHP class. You can put anywhere if the CI4 autoloader can autoload it.
That is you must respect PSR-4.

For example, app/Menus/MainMenu.php

And you can instantiate it and convert to string.

PHP Code:

$mainMenu = (string) new \App\Menus\MainMenu(); 


PHP Code:

echo new \App\Menus\MainMenu() 


But Tatter\Menus has a controller filter. It seems using it is easier.
https://github.com/tattersoftware/codeig...#deploying

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MainMenu is a PHP class. You can put anywhere if the CI4 autoloader can autoload it.
That is you must respect PSR-4.

For example, app/Menus/MainMenu.php

And you can instantiate it and convert to string.

PHP Code:

$mainMenu = (string) new \App\Menus\MainMenu(); 


PHP Code:

echo new \App\Menus\MainMenu() 


But Tatter\Menus has a controller filter. It seems using it is easier.
https://github.com/tattersoftware/codeig...#deploying

Thank you for the feedback. When I put it in app/Menus and instantiate it in a simple controller, I get an error exception 

PHP Code:

ErrorException #64

Cannot declare class Tatter\Menus\MainMenu, because the name is already in use 


Looking at the the Files tab in the debugger, I don't see multiple instances of MainMenu being loaded. Do you have any suggestions on how to troubleshoot this?

Code:

<?php
// app/Menus/MainMenu.php
namespace Tatter\Menus;

class MainMenu extends  Menu
{
  public function __toString(): string
  {
   return $this->builder
   ->link(site_url('/'), 'Home')
   ->link(site_url('/about'), 'About')
   ->html('<hr>')
   ->link(site_url('/contact'), 'Contact')
   ->render();
  }
}

Code:

<?php
// TatterMenu.php

namespace App\Controllers;

class TatterMenu extends MY_Controller
{
  public function index(){
    $mainMenu = (string) new \App\Menus\MainMenu();
  }
}

Log file contents are:
INFO - 2021-12-27 05:01:10 --> MY_Controller->MYlogger MYredirectIfNotLoggedIn App\Controllers\TatterMenu User:? IP:?
INFO - 2021-12-27 05:01:10 --> Session: Class initialized using 'CodeIgniter\Session\Handlers\FileHandler' driver.
INFO - 2021-12-27 05:01:10 --> MY_Controller->MYlogger construct()->App\Controllers\TatterMenu User:? IP:?
CRITICAL - 2021-12-27 05:01:10 --> Cannot declare class Tatter\Menus\MainMenu, because the name is already in use
#0 [internal function]: CodeIgniter\Debug\Exceptions->shutdownHandler()
#1 {main}
INFO
#1 {main}

You need learn about PHP namespaces and PSR-4.

https://www.php.net/manual/en/language.n...ionale.php
https://www.php-fig.org/psr/psr-4/

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Thanks for the reading recommendations which I read. I looked at all the classes loaded in the app, grepped the directory for MainMenu, and do not see how Tatter\Menus\MainMenu could already be in use.

You have the class Tatter\Menus\MainMenu in somewhere and it seems it is already autoloaded.

And the namespace in app/Menus/MainMenu.php is incorrect.

// app/Menus/MainMenu.php
namespace Tatter\Menus;

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