Navigation Menu API Basics

Liferay’s REST APIs provide services for Liferay’s navigation menus. You can create and edit navigation menus with the API. Start by seeing an example of adding a new navigation menu.

Adding a Navigation Menu

Start a new Liferay DXP instance by running

docker run -it -m 8g -p 8080:8080 liferay/dxp:2024.q2.11

Sign in to Liferay at http://localhost:8080 using the email address [e-mail] and the password test. When prompted, change the password to learn.

Then, follow these steps:

1. Download and unzip Categories and Vocabulary API Basics.

   curl https://resources.learn.liferay.com/dxp/latest/en/site-building/site-navigation/developer-guide/liferay-p7s4.zip -O
   

   unzip liferay-p7s4.zip
   

2. Find your site’s ID. You’ll use this in different service calls below.

3. Use the cURL script to add a new navigation menu to your Site. On the command line, navigate to the curl folder. Execute the NavigationMenu_POST_ToSite.sh script with your site ID as a parameter.

   ./NavigationMenu_POST_ToSite.sh 1234
   

   The JSON response shows a new navigation menu has been added:

   {
     "creator" : {
       "additionalName" : "",
       "contentType" : "UserAccount",
       "familyName" : "Test",
       "givenName" : "Test",
       "id" : 20129,
       "name" : "Test Test"
     },
     "dateCreated" : "2021-09-09T21:41:31Z",
     "dateModified" : "2021-09-09T21:41:31Z",
     "id" : 40131,
     "name" : "Foo",
     "navigationMenuItems" : [ ],
     "siteId" : 20125
   }
   

4. Go to the Navigation Menus application by navigating to Administration Menu → Site Builder → Navigation Menus. See that a new navigation menu has been added.

   

5. The REST service can also be called using the Java client. Navigate out of the curl folder and into the java folder. Compile the source files with the following command:

   javac -classpath .:* *.java
   

6. Run the NavigationMenu_POST_ToSite class with the following command. Replace the siteId value with your site’s ID:

   java -classpath .:* -DsiteId=1234 NavigationMenu_POST_ToSite
   

Examine the cURL Command

The NavigationMenu_POST_ToSite.sh script calls the REST service with a cURL command.

curl \
	"http://localhost:8080/o/headless-delivery/v1.0/sites/${1}/navigation-menus" \
	--data-binary '
		{
			"name": "Foo"
		}' \
	--header "Content-Type: application/json" \
	--request "POST" \
	--user "[e-mail]:learn"

Here are the command’s arguments:

Arguments	Description
-H "Content-Type: application/json"	Indicates that the request body format is JSON.
-X POST	The HTTP method to invoke at the specified endpoint
"http://localhost:8080/o/headless-delivery/v1.0/sites/${1}/navigation-menus"	The REST service endpoint
-d "{\"name\": \"Foo\"}"	The data you are requesting to post
-u "[e-mail]:learn"	Basic authentication credentials

note

Basic authentication is used here for demonstration purposes. For production, you should authorize users via OAuth2. See Using OAuth2 to Authorize Users for a sample React application that uses OAuth2.

The other cURL commands use similar JSON arguments.

Examine the Java Class

The NavigationMenu_POST_ToSite.java class adds a navigation menu by calling the navigation menu related service.

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
	NavigationMenuResource.Builder builder =
		NavigationMenuResource.builder();

	NavigationMenuResource navigationMenuResource = builder.authentication(
		"[e-mail]", "learn"
	).build();

	NavigationMenu navigationMenu =
		navigationMenuResource.postSiteNavigationMenu(
			Long.valueOf(System.getProperty("siteId")),
			new NavigationMenu() {
				{
					name = "Foo";
				}
			});

	System.out.println(navigationMenu);
}

This class invokes the REST service using only three lines of code:

Line (abbreviated)	Description
NavigationMenuResource.Builder builder = ...	Gets a Builder for generating a NavigationMenuResource service instance.
NavigationMenuResource navigationMenuResource = builder.authentication(...).build();	Specifies basic authentication and generates a NavigationMenuResource service instance.
NavigationMenu navigationMenu = navigationMenuResource.postSiteNavigationMenu(...);	Calls the navigationMenuResource.postSiteNavigationMenu method and passes the data to post.

Note that the project includes the com.liferay.headless.delivery.client.jar file as a dependency. You can find client JAR dependency information for all REST applications in the API explorer in your installation at /o/api.

note

The main method’s comment demonstrates running the class.

The other example Java classes are similar to this one, but call different NavigationMenuResource methods.

important

See NavigationMenuResource for service details.

Below are examples of calling other NavigationMenu REST services using cURL and Java.

Get Navigation Menus from Site

You can list a site’s navigation menus by executing the following cURL or Java command. As above, replace 1234 with your site’s ID.

NavigationMenus_GET_FromSite.sh

Command:

./NavigationMenus_GET_FromSite.sh 1234

Code:

curl \
	"http://localhost:8080/o/headless-delivery/v1.0/sites/${1}/navigation-menus" \
	--user "[e-mail]:learn"

NavigationMenus_GET_FromSite.java

Command:

java -classpath .:* -DsiteId=1234 NavigationMenus_GET_FromSite

Code:

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
	NavigationMenuResource.Builder builder =
		NavigationMenuResource.builder();

	NavigationMenuResource navigationMenuResource = builder.authentication(
		"[e-mail]", "learn"
	).build();

	Page<NavigationMenu> page =
		navigationMenuResource.getSiteNavigationMenusPage(
			Long.valueOf(System.getProperty("siteId")),
			Pagination.of(1, 2));

	System.out.println(page);
}

The site’s NavigationMenu objects are listed in JSON.

Get a Navigation Menu

Get a specific navigation menu with the following cURL or Java command. Replace 1234 with the navigation menu’s ID.

tip

Use NavigationMenus_GET_FromSite.[java|sh] to get NavigationMenu IDs.

NavigationMenu_GET_ById.sh

Command:

./NavigationMenu_GET_ById.sh 1234

Code:

curl \
	"http://localhost:8080/o/headless-delivery/v1.0/navigation-menus/${1}" \
	--user "[e-mail]:learn"

NavigationMenu_GET_ById.java

Command:

java -classpath .:* -DnavigationMenuId=1234 NavigationMenu_GET_ById

Code:

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
	NavigationMenuResource.Builder builder =
		NavigationMenuResource.builder();

	NavigationMenuResource navigationMenuResource = builder.authentication(
		"[e-mail]", "learn"
	).build();

	System.out.println(
		navigationMenuResource.getNavigationMenu(
			Long.valueOf(System.getProperty("navigationMenuId"))));
}

The NavigationMenu fields are listed in JSON.

Put a Navigation Menu

Do a complete overwrite of an existing navigation menu with the following cURL and Java commands. Note, replace 1234 with your navigation menu’s ID.

NavigationMenu_PUT_ById.sh

Command:

./NavigationMenu_PUT_ById.sh 1234

Code:

curl \
	"http://localhost:8080/o/headless-delivery/v1.0/navigation-menus/${1}" \
	--data-binary '
		{
			"name": "Bar"
		}' \
	--header "Content-Type: application/json" \
	--request "PUT" \
	--user "[e-mail]:learn"

NavigationMenu_PUT_ById.java

Command:

java -classpath .:* -DnavigationMenuId=1234 NavigationMenu_PUT_ById

Code:

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
	NavigationMenuResource.Builder builder =
		NavigationMenuResource.builder();

	NavigationMenuResource navigationMenuResource = builder.authentication(
		"[e-mail]", "learn"
	).build();

	NavigationMenu navigationMenu =
		navigationMenuResource.putNavigationMenu(
			Long.valueOf(System.getProperty("navigationMenuId")),
			new NavigationMenu() {
				{
					name = "Bar";
				}
			});

	System.out.println(navigationMenu);
}

Delete a Navigation Menu

Delete an existing navigation menu with the following cURL and Java commands. Note, replace 1234 with your navigation menu’s ID.

NavigationMenu_DELETE_ById.sh

Command:

./NavigationMenu_DELETE_ById.sh 1234

Code:

curl \
	"http://localhost:8080/o/headless-delivery/v1.0/navigation-menus/${1}" \
	--request "DELETE" \
	--user "[e-mail]:learn"

NavigationMenu_DELETE_ById.java

Command

java -classpath .:* -DnavigationMenuId=1234 NavigationMenu_DELETE_ById

Code:

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
	NavigationMenuResource.Builder builder =
		NavigationMenuResource.builder();

	NavigationMenuResource navigationMenuResource = builder.authentication(
		"[e-mail]", "learn"
	).build();

	navigationMenuResource.deleteNavigationMenu(
		Long.valueOf(System.getProperty("navigationMenuId")));
}

The API Explorer lists all of the NavigationMenu services and schemas and has an interface to try out each service.