Why wp_nav_menu() doesnt show the proper meny when invoked two consecutive times?

Question

I just noticed something weird I never saw before. I'm working on a project using WP 3.6.1. This project that has two different menus (actually, three, but that's not important). I'm calling them through the wp_nav_menu function.

I've done this kind of thing quite a few times now... but today is different. Today it doesn't work :(

My PHP code, placed in header.php, looks like this:

        <nav id="nav-menu-container">
            <div id="main-menu" class="main-menu menu clearfix">
                <?php wp_nav_menu('header_main'); ?>
            </div>
            <div id="secondary-menu" class="secondary-menu menu clearfix">
                <?php wp_nav_menu('header_secondary'); ?>
            </div>
        </nav>

The menu items are declared in functions.php and two different Menus are configured through the dashboard to show up in each location.

    if (function_exists('register_nav_menus')){
        register_nav_menu('header_main', 'Menú principal' );
        register_nav_menu('header_secondary', 'Menú secundario' );
    }

But the first menu keeps on being printed in the two locations. As I said above, using two different menu is something that Ive done in the past, but today I don't see the error... and there is and error, as it is not working :S

Any ideas?

Answer 1

You're not calling wp_nav_menu() correctly.

You need to pass it an args array, and declare the theme_location key.

I'm assuming that, since you're passing a string rather than an array, wp_nav_menu() doesn't recognize the parameter, and is falling back to its default output:

• the menu matching the ID, slug, or name given by the menu parameter, if that menu has at least 1 item;
• otherwise, the first non-empty menu;
• otherwise, output of the function given by the fallback_cb parameter (wp_page_menu(), by default);
• otherwise nothing.

And you're seeing the first non-empty menu output in both locations.

Try this instead:

wp_nav_menu( array(
    'theme_location' => 'header_main'
) ):

and

wp_nav_menu( array(
    'theme_location' => 'header_secondary'
) ):

Answer 2

The problem is that wp_nav_menu requires as input an associative array and i'm entering a raw string.

This code may work everywhere.

    <nav id="nav-menu-container">
        <div id="main-menu" class="main-menu menu clearfix">
    <?php wp_nav_menu( array('theme_location' => 'header_main') ); ?>
        </div>
        <div id="secondary-menu" class="secondary-menu menu clearfix">
            <?php wp_nav_menu( array('theme_location' => 'header_secondary') ); ?>
        </div>
    </nav>

Sorry for the double post. It seems that the first menu was not appearing either, rather it was shown as a default option as no value was being passed at all.