Automatically add images to a menu

Question

I am calling a menu into a page, but I want to add images next to the title of the menu items.

I have this code:

<ol>
<?php
    $navMenu = wp_get_nav_menu_items(2096); /*/Pass Nav Menu_id or Name*/
    $previousMenuParent = $level = 0;
    foreach ($navMenu as $menu) {

        if($menu->menu_item_parent == 0)
        {
            $level = 0;
            echo '<li><a href="'. $menu->url .'"><img src="'. get_the_post_thumbnail($menu->ID) .'"/> '. $menu->title .'</a>';
            
        }
      
    }
?>
</li>

It works, it is showing the list of the menu items, with title and link, but for some reason, it won't show the post's image next to its title.

I also tried using get_the_post_thumbnail('thumbnail') instead of get_the_post_thumbnail($menu->ID) but that won't show an image either, with or without the <img src="

I would also prefer to call a post's custom field, which has an image URL, instead of the post thumbnail. Is that possible?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

Answer 1

I guess you need this function

get_the_post_thumbnail_url($menu->object_id);

(provided menu item is not a custom link)

$menu->ID is not the id of the post/page it is linking to.

About calling meta yes it is also possible

$image_url = get_post_meta( $menu->object_id, 'meta_key', true );