Add id to menu items in wp_nav_menu

Question

I'm using wp_nav_menu in Wordpress to create my navigation

The output is similar to this(I have removed href links)

    <nav id="pageNav">
        <ul id="menu-headernav" class="menu">
          <li><a href="">Home</a></li>
        <li><a href="">About</a></li>
        <li><a href="">Services</a></li>
        <li><a href="">Work</a></li>
        <li><a href="">Contact</a></li>
      </ul>         
    </nav>

I need to style each link separately.

How can I add an id to each (li) or (a) in the menu so I can style it.

Answer 1

Sounds like you would need to use a Custom Walker Function

I've found some code on the Wordpress Suport Forums which might be of some use:

Walker Class - Pastebin

class custom_nav_walker extends Walker_Nav_Menu {
        function start_el(&$output, $item, $depth, $args) {
                global $wp_query;
                $indent = ( $depth ) ? str_repeat( "\t", $depth ) : '';

                $class_names = $value = '';

                $classes = empty( $item->classes ) ? array() : (array) $item->classes;
                $classes[] = 'menu-item-' . $item->ID;

                $class_names = join( ' ', apply_filters( 'nav_menu_css_class', array_filter( $classes ), $item, $args ) );
                $class_names = ' class="' . esc_attr( $class_names ) . '"';

                $id = apply_filters( 'nav_menu_item_id', 'menu-item-'. $item->ID, $item, $args );
                $id = strlen( $id ) ? ' id="' . esc_attr( $id ) . '"' : '';

                $output .= $indent . '<li' . $id . $value . $class_names .'>';

                $attributes  = ! empty( $item->attr_title ) ? ' title="'  . esc_attr( $item->attr_title ) .'"' : '';
                $attributes .= ! empty( $item->target )     ? ' target="' . esc_attr( $item->target     ) .'"' : '';
                $attributes .= ! empty( $item->xfn )        ? ' rel="'    . esc_attr( $item->xfn        ) .'"' : '';
                $attributes .= ! empty( $item->url )        ? ' href="'   . esc_attr( $item->url        ) .'"' : '';

                $item_output = $args->before;
                $item_output .= '<a'. $attributes .'>';
                $item_output .= $args->link_before . apply_filters( 'the_title', $item->title, $item->ID ) . $args->link_after;
                $item_output .= '</a>';
                $item_output .= $args->after;

                $output .= apply_filters( 'walker_nav_menu_start_el', $item_output, $item, $depth, $args );
        }

        /**
         * @see Walker::end_el()
         * @since 3.0.0
         *
         * @param string $output Passed by reference. Used to append additional content.
         * @param object $item Page data object. Not used.
         * @param int $depth Depth of page. Not Used.
         */
        function end_el(&$output, $item, $depth) {
                $output .= "</li>\n";
        }
}

Thread Source - WP Support

Output:

<ul>
   <li id="nav-item-1">
      <a href="link-1">
      </a>
   </li>
   <li id="nav-item-2">
      <a href="link-2">
      </a>
      <ul class="sub-menu">
         <li id="sub-item-1">
            <a href="sub-link-1">
            </a>
         <li id="sub-item-2">
            <a href="sub-link-2">
            </a>
      </ul>
   </li>
</ul>