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Ekko Laravel Package
laravelista/ekko
Laravelista Ekko is a small Laravel helper package for marking navigation links as active. It compares the current route, URL, or action against menu targets, making it easy to add active classes and conditional states to menus and tabs with minimal configuration.
Framework agnostic PHP package for marking navigation items active.
Frequently asked questions about Ekko
- How do I install laravelista/ekko in a Laravel app?
- Install it with composer require laravelista/ekko, preferably in a throwaway branch first. Then wrap the Ekko instance in a Blade component, directive, or view helper and compare the current URL, route, or action against your menu target. Do not use --ignore-platform-reqs to force installation on a modern Laravel stack; if Composer reports conflicts, fall back to built-in request checks or an internal helper.
- Does laravelista/ekko support Laravel 11 and Laravel 12?
- There is no evidence in the provided assessment that it has been tested against Laravel 11 or Laravel 12. The last release was March 2021, so its Composer constraints were written for PHP 7.x and early PHP 8 stacks. Verify resolution with composer why-not on your target PHP 8.1 to 8.4 and Laravel matrix before committing to it.
- How do I mark the current menu item as active in Laravel?
- Ekko compares the current route, URL, or action against your menu targets so you can add an active class or conditional state in Blade. For simple cases, Laravel's request()->is(...) and Route::currentRouteName() already cover most active-menu needs. Use Ekko only if centralizing several matching rules saves meaningful code in your views.
- What is the difference between laravelista/ekko and request()->is() in Laravel?
- Ekko is a small helper for comparing the current route, URL, or action against navigation targets. Laravel's request()->is(...) handles path pattern checks, while route names are usually checked with Route::currentRouteName(). Ekko may be convenient for consolidating mixed rules, but it does not replace those built-ins for most applications.
- Is laravelista/ekko still maintained?
- The package has not had a release since March 2021, which is more than four years without an update. It has a small maintainer surface, community-only support, and roughly 272 stars. Treat it as low-confidence and low-blast-radius rather than unsafe, and consider vendoring the MIT-licensed source or replacing it with an internal helper.
- Is laravelista/ekko safe to use in production?
- The security risk is low because the package performs string and URL comparison only, with no deserialization, network access, filesystem operations, or auth logic. The likely failure mode is an incorrect active UI state, not a compromise. The larger production concern is dependency drift and compatibility with current PHP, Symfony, and Laravel versions, so pin the version and audit the lockfile.
- What URL matching features does laravelista/ekko support?
- The package is designed to compare the current route, URL, or action against menu targets, making it useful for active navigation links and tabs. The provided context does not enumerate edge cases such as query strings, trailing slashes, wildcards, route parameters, full URLs, or localized route prefixes. Verify those behaviors against the package source and tests before relying on them.
- How do I test active navigation states when using laravelista/ekko?
- Write characterization tests around your own nav-active rules, not just the package, because your application defines which paths, route names, and prefixes should count as active. Cover exact paths, sub-paths, query strings, wildcards, localized prefixes, and route-model-bound URLs if you use them. If the package is unmaintained, those tests also make an internal replacement or vendored fork easier to validate.
- How do I replace laravelista/ekko if I remove it?
- Replace Ekko calls with request()->is(...), Route::currentRouteName(), or a small internal Nav::active() helper. The migration is usually cheap because the package encapsulates trivial comparison logic; plan roughly one to two days including tests. Vendoring the MIT-licensed source into an internal package is also viable if you want to preserve behavior without the upstream dependency.
- Should I use laravelista/ekko or build my own active navigation helper?
- For most Laravel apps, the built-in request()->is(...) and route-name checks already cover 80 to 90 percent of active-navigation needs. Ekko solves a roughly 30 to 50 line problem, so pulling in an unmaintained third-party package is often a poor trade. Build a small internal helper with characterization tests if your matching rules are complex enough to justify centralization.
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