Navigation and the dashboard

Source: lib/cafe_car/navigation.rb, app/views/application/_navigation.html.haml and _navigation_links.html.haml (in the gem).

The sidebar is route-driven — there is no menu registry

The sidebar lists every named index route in the app (Rails internals excluded), grouped by namespace (admin/… routes render under an “Admin” heading). So:

• Add a sidebar link: add cafe_car :things (or any resources) to the routes. That’s it.
• Remove one: don’t draw an index route (cafe_car :things, except: :index or only: what you need).

The current page’s link highlights automatically (current/ancestor classes).

Icons come from the locale

navigation.icon.<controller_name> maps a controller to an Iconoir icon name:

en:
  navigation:
    icon:
      products: box-iso
      invoices: page-flip

No key, no icon — the link still renders.

Customizing

Override the partials like any other (views.md):

• app/views/application/_navigation.html.haml — the whole sidebar (dashboard link, route links, session link).
• app/views/application/_navigation_links.html.haml — just the grouped route list; the navigation helper exposes navigation.groups / navigation.routes.
• A per-resource _navigation.html.haml changes (or, if empty, hides) the sidebar for that resource’s pages only.

The dashboard — opt in by writing one view

No template, no dashboard: the route always exists, but it 404s and shows no nav link until the host writes app/views/cafe_car/dashboard/show.html.haml. The page uses ordinary Pundit authorization:

class DashboardPolicy < ApplicationPolicy
  def show? = user.present?
end

Then write the view:

- title "Dashboard"

= Page title: "Dashboard" do |page|
  = page.Body do
    .Dashboard
      = metrics Article
      = metric("Signups today") { User.where(created_at: Date.current.all_day).count }
      = chart "New articles", model: Article, x: :created_at, by: :month

• metrics(Model) — one count tile per scope named in the model policy’s permitted_metrics (:all = the whole policy scope). Policy-driven; the default choice.
• metric("Label") { … } — one tile with whatever the block returns.
• chart "Title", model:, x:, by: — the inline-SVG bar chart, bucketing over the x date column at :day/:week/:month. Column names are validated against the policy’s date columns, and rows come from policy_scope(model) — never raw SQL or unscoped data.

It’s a plain view: add headings, your own partials, anything between tiles. Once the file exists a Dashboard link appears at the top of the sidebar.