Best way to manage a header navigation menu from within a template?

Question

I'm looking to put navigation in my GSP template, and I would like to set the active class on the navigation elements for each respective page. What's the best way to do this? I have several .gsp views merging with a single template that looks like this:

  <div id="bd" role="main">
    <div role="navigation" class="yui-g">
      <ul id="nav"><a href="index.gsp"><li class="active">Home</li></a><a href = "products.gsp"><li>Products</li></a><a href = "contacts.gsp"><li>Contact</li></a></ul>
    </div>
    <g:layoutBody/>
  </div>

Answer 1

This is usually done by passing a param, let's call it activeView. Then in your menu template you can check which menu item to highlight based on the param's value:

<g:if test="${activeView == 'products'}">
   <li class="menuItem active">Products</li><!-- not clickable if active -->
</g:if>
<g:else>
   <li class="menuItem"><a href="products.gsp?activeView=products">Products</a></li>
</g:else>

I would also suggest having controllers as the point of entry, and not GSPs.

  <g:link controller="products" action="list" class="menuItem" params="[activeView:'products']">Book List</g:link>

Answer 2

Another idea is to use the the Grails navigation plugin.

Answer 3

I like armandino's suggestion, however you may have problems if you're accessing pages by other means than clicking the menus (eg through a bookmark or the first page after login).

This is another solution if you're using SiteMesh, however it is not isolated to the menu template and hence not as nice design-wise:

Grails active page navigation menu