Feature: Menu Tree REST API

[macolo]

Some use the page tree hierarchy for menu structure, so that the site menu, for example, can be built automagically from the page tree as sometimes it is easier for editors if page tree and main menu are tightly connected.

Alternative Use Case that doesn't require knowledge of the page tree: By creating a custom Plugin called let's say "CustomMenuNodePlugin", hierarchical menus can be built in a djangocms-aliases Alias and from there exposed via the REST API.

[fsbraun]

The page tree is available including structure. We need an additional endpoint for the menu of a page.

[fsbraun]

@sourcery-ai plan

[sourcery-ai]

Objectives

• Create a new MenuTreeSerializer to handle hierarchical menu structures
• Implement a new REST API endpoint /api/menu/ to expose menu data
• Add support for retrieving page-based menu structures from the CMS page tree
• Enable serialization of custom menu plugins (like CustomMenuNodePlugin) through the API
• Ensure menu data includes essential navigation properties (title, URL, children)
• Support menu data retrieval for specific languages
• Implement caching mechanism for menu structures similar to existing placeholder caching
• Add documentation for both page-tree and custom plugin menu API usage

Setup commands

File changes

djangocms_rest/serializers/menuserializer.py

• Create new MenuNodeSerializer class to handle individual menu nodes with properties like title, url, and children
• Create new MenuTreeSerializer class that uses MenuNodeSerializer to build hierarchical menu structures
• Add support for both page-based menus and custom menu plugin serialization
• Implement caching mechanism similar to placeholder caching

djangocms_rest/views.py

• Add new MenuTreeView class that inherits from APIView
• Implement menu tree retrieval logic using django CMS menu system
• Add language support and permission checks similar to existing views
• Support both page-based menus and custom menu plugins

djangocms_rest/urls.py

• Add new URL pattern for menu tree endpoint at <slug:language>/menu/

tests/test_menu.py

• Create test class MenuAPITestCase inheriting from RESTTestCase
• Add tests for menu tree structure and hierarchy
• Add tests for menu item properties and URLs
• Add tests for language handling and permissions
• Add tests for custom menu plugin integration

Verify commands

• python -m pytest tests/test_menu.py -v - ❌

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[metaforx]

@fsbraun : /api/{language}/pages-tree/ covers this now. We could implement an additional endpoint with an extra serializer which fetches only the bare minimum of metadata needed for a menu creation, like menu_title, path, show_navigation etc. I think this could be a performance gain for huge and deeply nested sites (+200 pages). But I think when caching is properly working, only massive websites would need this because of the JSON response size.

And even then, most of these websites are probably using a kind of static pre-rendering, which basically eliminates the need for this. What do you think?