[TYPO3-mvc] How to create an archive menu of dates from my objects

[Henjo Hoeksma]

Hi list,

I am trying to get a view together where I can show an 'archive menu'. 
That is: a menu consisting out of year, respective months with the 
number of objects attached to it.

In my controller I put all stuff into an array, like this:

        public function archiveMenuAction(){
            // First get all the items
            $items = $this->itemRepository->findAll();

            // Next loop through them and get the year and the month
            $archive = array();
            foreach($items as $item){
                
$archive[$item->getDate()->format('Y')][$item->getDate()->format('m')][] 
= $item->getUid();
            }
            $this->view->assign('archive', $archive);

        }

I tried several approaches now on creating a ViewHelper, or rendering 
it with Fluid as is, but all of them to no avail. I clearly lack some 
understanding here and would appreciate it if some of you could point 
me in the right direction!

Thanks in advance,

Henjo