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(just got reccommended to post this over here from stack overflow...)

I am just starting with Wordpress (defecting from Joomla)- having a bit of difficulty getting started.

One thing I am trying to do is make a custom plugin that allows the user to add custom backgrounds to the site, based on the active menu item.

So what I am trying to do is get the active menu id (like 'menu-item-xx' that is added to the nav li's) and active parent menu id so I can add these to the body classes.

Is this something I can get from anything built into Wordpress or is this something I will need to make a custom for?

Any pointers most welcome...

UPDATE

I have solved this now with a custom function that you can find below

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  • If there's an active menu item, then there's probably an active page or post that you can check for to add a class. There's also the body_class() function that will generate and output some classes for the body for you. They may not match what's applied to the menu, but semantically I wouldn't put a class called menu-whatever on the body.
    – helenhousandi
    Nov 9, 2011 at 2:25
  • I understand about what you are saying about semantics. I have added a function below that does actually get what I need which is the actual menu item id. There is nothing to stop the class being added to be active-menu-item-xx or whatever if someone wants to change it to that. The point is that the actual class reflects the active menu item. This is the actual answer to my question I believe, so please vote it up if you agree ;)
    – David O'Sullivan
    Nov 10, 2011 at 19:32

4 Answers 4

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From my comment earlier: Use the body_class() function in your header.php file or wherever your body tag is, e.g. <body <?php body_class(); ?>>. This will give you an output with a bunch of classes on the body that you can then use in your CSS. For example, <body class="page page-id-114 page-parent page-template-default logged-in admin-bar">. You can also use the body_class filter to add more classes. If you want to add the slug, for instance, you would global $post and then use $post->post_name.

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  • Thanks for your help there. I already have the body_class() function in efeect actually... Thing is I need to attach styles specifically to the menu, because my clients want to have a background based on which menu section of the site the user is viewing. I appreciate that I could style based on 'categories' etc but from a UX pov for the user to add an image to a menu item is what they want to be able to do...
    – David O'Sullivan
    Nov 9, 2011 at 10:44
  • So... your original question is backward or not the real question? You're asking how they can add an image to a menu item?
    – helenhousandi
    Nov 9, 2011 at 15:10
  • Hey Helen, no what I'm after is a way to get the active menu item id and add it to the list of body classes. I have got the ability to add an image to a menu item, I just want that image to show as a background to the whole page. Thats why I need to give the body a class that relates to the active menu item ;) I think I am nearly there now, I'll post a solution when I am done...
    – David O'Sullivan
    Nov 10, 2011 at 12:25
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Ok I have sussed out a function to achieve this. I am at the very start of my journey with WordPress so I am not sure about the quality or efficiency of this code. But here it is:-

function get_active_menu_item_ids( $classes )
{   
//set up defaults for menu retrieval
$dosmenudefaults = array( 'menu' => '', 'container' => 'div', 'container_class' => '', 'container_id' => '', 'menu_class' => 'menu', 'menu_id' => '',
'echo' => true, 'fallback_cb' => 'wp_page_menu', 'before' => '', 'after' => '', 'link_before' => '', 'link_after' => '', 'items_wrap' => '<ul id="%1$s" class="%2$s">%3$s</ul>',
'depth' => 0, 'walker' => '', 'theme_location' => '' );

$dosargs = wp_parse_args( $dosargs, $dosmenudefaults );
$dosargs = apply_filters( 'wp_nav_menu_args', $dosargs );
$dosargs = (object) $dosargs;

// Get the nav menu based on the requested menu
$dosmenu = wp_get_nav_menu_object( $dosargs->menu );

// Get the nav menu based on the theme_location
if ( ! $dosmenu && $dosargs->theme_location && ( $doslocations = get_nav_menu_locations() ) && isset( $doslocations[ $dosargs->theme_location ] ) )
    $dosmenu = wp_get_nav_menu_object( $doslocations[ $dosargs->theme_location ] );

// Get the first menu that has items if we still can't find a menu
if ( ! $dosmenu && !$dosargs->theme_location ) {
    $dosmenus = wp_get_nav_menus();
    foreach ( $dosmenus as $dosmenu_maybe ) {
        if ( $dosmenu_items = wp_get_nav_menu_items($dosmenu_maybe->term_id) ) {
            $dosmenu = $dosmenu_maybe;
            break;
        }
    }
}

// If the menu exists, get its items.
if ( $dosmenu && ! is_wp_error($dosmenu) && !isset($dosmenu_items) )
    $dosmenu_items = wp_get_nav_menu_items( $dosmenu->term_id );    
$dosmenu = $dosmenu_items;

// Get the $menu_item variables
 _wp_menu_item_classes_by_context( $dosmenu );

 //create empty parents array
 $dosparents = array();

 //Iterate through the menu items and get the active item and its parent items
 foreach ($dosmenu as $dosmenuitem)
    {
    if ($dosmenuitem->current == '1')
        {
        $dosactivemenuids['current']= $dosmenuitem->ID;
        }
    if (($dosmenuitem->current_item_parent == '1')||($dosmenuitem->current_item_ancestor == '1'))
        {
        $dosparents[$dosmenuitem->menu_order] = $dosmenuitem->ID;
        }
    if(is_array($dosparents))
        {
        krsort($dosparents);
        foreach ($dosparents as $key =>$value)
            {
            $dosactivemenuids['parents'][$key]= $value;
            }
        }
     }
//return $dosactivemenuids;
if (is_array($dosactivemenuids['parents']))
    {
    foreach ( $dosactivemenuids['parents'] as $key=>$value)
        {
        $classes[] = 'menu-item-'.$value;
        }
    }
if ($dosactivemenuids['current'] != '')
    {
    $classes[] = 'menu-item-'.$dosactivemenuids['current'];
    }

return $classes;
}

You add that to your templates 'functions.php' and also somewhere after the function add a filter to call it with:-

add_filter( 'body_class', 'get_active_menu_item_ids');

What this does?

What this does is get the active menu ids and adds them to the body classes in ascending order

Why would I need this?

Coming from a CMS background I am used to pages being defined by the menu. With this function the active menu item id and/or its parent item id is added to the body classes so you can add page wide styles based on the active menu item. So for example you may have a menu structure like this:-

->menu-item-1

->menu-item-2

->->menu-item-3

Using this function if you are viewing the page 'menu-item-3' the classes 'menu-item-2' and 'menu-item-3' are added to the body tag in that order. What this means is that you can have a css rule that targets body.menu-item-3 that can fall back to its parent items rule in body.menu-item-2 and ultimately to body if there are no styles for either. What I am using this for, for example, is to have a default background colour for the whole page (body) a background colour for the whole page when menu-item-2 is active (body.menu-item-2) and a different background colour for the page when menu-item-3 is active (body.menu-item-3).

Hope that helps someone ;)

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0

I have tried getting the Page slug but it seems to be empty in wp_head but you can get the page id and assign it to the body class like so:

add_action('wp_head', 'bodyclassReplacer');
function bodyclassReplacer() {

    global $wp_query;
    $thePostID = $wp_query->post->ID;
    echo str_replace('<body>', '<body class="page'. $thePostID .'">', '<body>');
}

.
After you got a class you can assign a background using css like this:

body.page6 {
    background:url("images/background6.png") no-repeat;
}

.
ps. it was fun finding the solution :) - hope this helps,
cheers, Sagive

. As for Dynamic Menu Highlighting- here is a code that would do that:

add_filter( 'nav_menu_css_class', 'additional_active_item_classes', 10, 2 );

function additional_active_item_classes($classes = array(), $menu_item = false){

    if(in_array('current-menu-item', $menu_item->classes)){
        $classes[] = 'active';
    }

    return $classes;
}
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  • I'll have another look at that, but I think I have already tried it. i think that gives you the page ID but not the active menu item id which is what I am after- I'll double check though- thanks for your advice though!
    – David O'Sullivan
    Nov 9, 2011 at 10:48
  • i can give you a simple script to do that.. CHeck out the added info to my answer..
    – Sagive
    Nov 9, 2011 at 13:52
  • Thanks again Sagive, not quite what I am after still though. That second code for 'Dynamic Menu Highlighting' adds 'active' to the active menu item itself, what I am after is the ability to add the id of the active menuitem (and/or its parent) to the list of body classes so that if a menuitem with the id 'menu-item-49' is active then 'menu-item-49' is added to the body classes and if 'menu-item-49' is not a 'top level' menu item its parent menu item id is added as well.
    – David O'Sullivan
    Nov 9, 2011 at 14:34
  • This way I can modify the 'Custom Menu Images' plugin so that the added images are actually 'Page Body Backgrounds'. I know there is a 'Page Background' option in appearance, but I want to give the user the option of being able to change these on a per-menu-item basis... That plugin generates a css that targets a menu item li by its menu id, so if I can add that menu item id to the page then I can modify the outputted css so that the image is actually a page background rather than a menu item image
    – David O'Sullivan
    Nov 9, 2011 at 14:37
0

Ok my last shot was a while ago now and I was a bit of a novice- I look at that now and its embarassing! I really did not get Wordpress then!

This is what you need...

function ics_get_active_menu_item_ids(){
$menus = wp_get_nav_menus();
$menu_menu_items = array();
$current_menu_items = array();
$current_menu_items['parents'] = array();
$current_menu_items['ancestors'] = array();
foreach($menus as $menu)
    {
    $menu_menu_items[] = wp_get_nav_menu_items($menu->term_id);
    }
foreach ($menu_menu_items as $menu_items)
    {
    foreach($menu_items as $menu_item)
        {
        if ($menu_item->current == 1)
            {
            $current_menu_items['current'] = $menu_item->ID;
            }
        if ($menu_item->current_item_parent == 1)
            {
            $current_menu_items['parents'][] = $menu_item->ID;
            }
        if ($menu_item->current_item_ancestor == 1)
            {
            $current_menu_items['ancestors'][] = $menu_item->ID;
            }
        }
    }
    $current_menu_items['parents'] = array_values(array_unique($current_menu_items['parents']));
    $current_menu_items['ancestors'] = array_values(array_unique($current_menu_items['ancestors']));
return  $current_menu_items;
}

returns the current item id along with parents and ancestors ;)

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  • You also need to add a filter to wp_get_nav_menu_items that calls:- _wp_menu_item_classes_by_context( $menuItems ); for the above to work
    – David O'Sullivan
    Jun 7, 2012 at 17:33

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