application.html.erb

Example:

<%= link_to_named_routes :hello, [ :world, :foo, :bar ], :base_class => 'tabs' %>

Will give you:

<ul class="tabs depth-0">
  <li class="active">
    <a href="/hello">Hello!</a>
  </li>
  <li>
    <a href="/world">World</a>
    <ul class="tabs depth-1">
      <li>
        <a href="/foo">Foo</a></li>
      <li>
        <a href="/bar">Baz</a>
      </li>
    </ul>
  </li>
</ul>

application_helper.rb

module ApplicationHelper
  def link_to_named_routes(*named_routes, &painter)
    options = named_routes.extract_options!
    options.reverse_merge! :depth => 0, :base_class => 'navigation'
    
    content_tag('ul', :class => [ options[:base_class], "depth-#{options[:depth]}"]) do
      named_routes.inject('') do |buffer, named|
        is_current    = controller_name == named.to_s
        li_classes    = 'active' if is_current
        actor         = named
        
        if named.is_a? Array
          actor       = named.shift
          subsequent  = link_to_named_routes(*named, :depth => options[:depth] + 1, :base_class => options[:base_class], &painter)
        end
        scopes        = [ :navigation ]
        scopes << :active if is_current
        
        handle        = I18n.t actor, :scope => scopes, :default => actor.to_s.titleize
        link          = block_given? ? capture(actor, handle, is_current, &painter) : link_to(handle, actor)
        
        buffer << content_tag('li', :class => li_classes) do
          link << subsequent.to_s
        end
      end.html_safe
    end
  end
end

en.yml

en:
  navigation:
    bar: Baz
    active:
      hello: 'Hello!'