2

I have designed a custom menu and would like to be able to style the individual li dependent whether it is the current page or not? I believe this is normally pretty straightforward using a class such as current-menu-item. I however am also using a walker in my nav to show an extra description field - this appears to disable it, can anyone please help??

<div id="navigation">

    <?php 
    $walker = new My_Walker; 
    wp_nav_menu(array( 'menu' => 'nav','walker' => $walker ) ); 
    ?>

</div><!-- END navigation -->

UPDATE:

class My_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;

        $class_names = join( ' ', apply_filters( 'nav_menu_css_class', array_filter( $classes ), $item ) );
        $class_names = '';

        $output .= $indent . '<li id="menu-item-'. $item->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 .= '<span>' . $item->description . '</span>';
        $item_output .= '</a>';
        $item_output .= $args->after;

        $output .= apply_filters( 'walker_nav_menu_start_el', $item_output, $item, $depth, $args );
    }
}
2
  • 1
    the 'current-menu-item' css class is added inside your custom walker class. To answer this we'd need to see the code you are using for your custom walker.
    – patnz
    Dec 18, 2011 at 22:43
  • Thanks patnz, I have added the extra code above, really appreciate this. Dec 19, 2011 at 20:54

2 Answers 2

6

A belated answer but figured I'd contribute as this page was near the top of Google when searching for a solution to this issue. I too had overlooked the fact that WP adds the current page menu item by default (thanks patnz for pointing that out).

However I'm not happy with how bloated the markup is when including the default classes so for anyone else interested you could instead use a line of code similar to the following:

$class_names = in_array("current_page_item",$item->classes) ? ' active' : '';

For completeness - here is how it would look in your code example:

class My_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;

        $class_names = in_array("current_page_item",$item->classes) ? ' active' : '';

        $output .= $indent . '<li id="menu-item-'. $item->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 .= '<span>' . $item->description . '</span>';
        $item_output .= '</a>';
        $item_output .= $args->after;

        $output .= apply_filters( 'walker_nav_menu_start_el', $item_output, $item, $depth, $args );
    }
}
1
  • A very late addition, but if you use a custom post type archive as a menu point, you need to change the in_array-check to "current-menu-item". If you do this, the function also still works on single pages or posts. I'm not aware if this has changed since this answer was written 10 years ago, so my solution might not have been available back then.
    – Rvervuurt
    Jun 2, 2022 at 6:28
0

You're unsetting the default class names so they're not being added.

//this code empties the classes that should be added.
$class_names = '';

Try this:

class My_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;

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

        $output .= $indent . '<li id="menu-item-'. $item->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 .= '<span>' . $item->description . '</span>';
        $item_output .= '</a>';
        $item_output .= $args->after;

        $output .= apply_filters( 'walker_nav_menu_start_el', $item_output, $item, $depth, $args );
    }
}
1
  • Patnz, you are a life-saver! Appreciate this! I am bummed that it was one line that was causing me a headache - your a hero, cheers! Dec 20, 2011 at 20:50

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.