Get custom post type categories to show up in menus

Question

I'm wondering how it's possible to add custom post type categories as an option to add as a navigation menu item.

What I have:

$portfolio_args = array(
    'labels' => array(
        'name' => 'Portfolio Items',
        'singular_name' => 'Portfolio Item'),
    'description' => 'Allows you to build custom portfolio items and link them to categories',
    'public' => true,
    'show_ui' => true,
    'menu_position' => 20,
    'supports' => array('title', 'editor', 'thumbnail'),
    'has_archive' => true,
    'rewrite' => array('slug' => 'portfolio-item'),
    'can_export' => true
);

// http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/register_post_type
register_post_type('portfolio', $portfolio_args);

$categories_labels = array(
    'label' => 'Categories',
    'hierarchical' => true,
    'query_var' => true
);

// Register taxonomies for extra post type capabilities
register_taxonomy('portfolio_categories', 'portfolio', $categories_labels);

Which works fine. I can create new categories for that specific post type. What I want to do is be able to go to wp-admin/nav-menus.php, scroll to the bottom and on the left, see the categories listed under 'Categories'.

Any ideas? Thanks.

Answer 1

If you don't see your taxonomy, check under the Screen Options tab in the upper-right corner of the admin window and make sure the Show on screen check box is ticked for that taxonomy.

Answer 2

You should already see this taxonomy on the bottom left under nav-menus, it works in the default them or any theme that supports register_nav_menu

I highly suggest you change the name for 'label' => 'Categories', to something else, the default category meta box shows exactly this name already.

In order for the actual taxonomies to show up, you need to create some items for it and tag some post to it, or you can select "View All".

For example: I took your example and pasted it into twentyeleven and changed the label to "cats".