show/hide a menu item based on specific user role

Question

I have a certain number of main menus which need to showcased based on logged in user role. for example user with the role, A can sees few menus and user with the role B, sees another set of few menus.

Answer 1

This can be achieved using the routes to manage the permissions. Take the following example:

mymodule.routing.yml

mymodule.home:
  path: '/mymodule'
  defaults:
    _controller: '\Drupal\mymodule\Controller\MyModuleController::overview'
    _title: 'My Module'
  requirements:
    _role: 'authenticated user'

mymodule.settings:
 path: '/admin/mymodule'
 defaults:
   _form: 'Drupal\mymodule\Form\MyModuleSettingsForm'
   _title: 'Settings'
 requirements:
   _permission: 'administer mymodule'

mymodule.view:
 path: '/mymodule/view'
 defaults:
   _controller: '\Drupal\mymodule\Controller\MyModuleController::view'
   _title: 'View'
 requirements:
   _role: 'authenticated user'

mymodule.edit:
 path: '/mymodule/edit'
 defaults:
   _form: 'Drupal\mymodule\Form\MyModuleEditForm'
   _title: 'Edit'
 requirements:
   _permission: 'edit mymodule'

mymodule.links.menu.yml

mymodule.home:
  title: 'My Module'
  parent: main
  route_name: mymodule.home
  weight: 10

mymodule.settings:
  title: 'Settings'
  parent: mymodule.home
  route_name: mymodule.settings
  weight: 10

mymodule.view:
  title: 'View'
  parent: mymodule.home
  route_name: mymodule.view
  weight: 10

mymodule.edit:
  title: 'Edit'
  parent: mymodule.home
  route_name: mymodule.edit
  weight: 10

With this approach you can display the same menu to all users, but because the links take the permissions from the routes, only users with the administer mymodule permission will be able to see the Settings link for example. You can use roles to manage it as well by using _role: '$rid'.

Answer 2

In Drupal 8, you can also use the following code in your funky.module file for a programmatic approach. The approach below allows to have access rules independent of menu visibility:

/**
 * Implements hook_preprocess_menu().
 *
 * @param array[] $variables
 */
function funky_preprocess_menu(&$variables) {
  if (in_array('role_b', Drupal::currentUser()->getRoles())) {
    // Hide the menu item
    unset($variables['items']['the_key_you_used_in_your_menu_links_yml_file']);
  }
}

This assumes your module is called funky. It also assumes you have a funky.links.menu.yml file containing something similar to this:

the_key_you_used_in_your_menu_links_yml_file:
  title: 'Your menu caption'
  route_name: your_route
  menu_name: account
  cache_contexts:
    - user.roles

If you only distinguish if a user has a role or not, then you can further tighten the cache_context by that role. For the example above, user.roles:role_b would be appropriate. The documentation for cache contexts is here: https://www.drupal.org/docs/8/api/cache-api/cache-contexts

Answer 3

Note: A solution using route permissions is the best and appropriate solution to avoid repetition and prevent a user to access/view the page using a direct link.

---

All you gotta do is configure your menu block

Then under Visibility > Roles, check mark ☑ the roles that you want to be able to view this block menu.

Answer 4

For a non-coding approach, the contrib module Menu Per Role may be of use.

This module allows you to restrict access to menu items based on user roles. Just activate the module and edit a menu item as usual. There will be a new fieldset that allows you to restrict access by role.

Answer 5

Just use Menu Item Role Access. It makes it much easier than writing code.