custom menu not found

Question

I am trying to use a menu which I have partially working, I have setup functions.php:

if (function_exists('register_nav_menu')) {
  register_nav_menu('main-menu', 'Main Menu');
}

I have configured the menu in Appearance -> Menus with 2 Pages: Home & Sample Page.

My Problem:

When I call the menu using wp_nav_menu() like this:

CODE#1

wp_nav_menu( array( 'theme_location' => 'main-menu', 'container' => false ) );

I get no menu - nothing prints to screen

When I access the elements manually like this:

CODE#2

$menu_name = 'main-menu';

if ( ( $locations = get_nav_menu_locations() ) && isset( $locations[ $menu_name ] ) ) {

  $menu = wp_get_nav_menu_object( $locations[ $menu_name ] );
  $menu_items = wp_get_nav_menu_items($menu->term_id);
  $menu_list = '<ul id="menu-' . $menu_name . '">';

  foreach ( (array) $menu_items as $key => $menu_item ) {
    $title = $menu_item->title;
    $url = $menu_item->url;
    $menu_list .= '<li><a href="' . $url . '">' . $title . '</a></li>';
  }
  $menu_list .= '</ul>';
} else {
  $menu_list = '<ul><li>No Menu</li></ul>';
}
echo $menu_list;

Answer 1

I'm not sure if I've followed you correctly; but I think you're trying to build the Menu HTML entirely on your own. If I'm correct, then what you're trying to do is covered under "Walker" object of wp-nav-menu.

You need to write a separate function in your functions.php and then pass the function name as "walker" to wp_nav_menu. It's not as easy as letting Wordpress do the HTML of Menu for you, but not too difficult as well.

I suggest you go through following link to get more idea of "Walker" stuff: Menu items description? Custom Walker for wp_nav_menu().

Let us know if this solves your problem.

---

*P.S.: May I know why you want to build HTML of Menu manually when Wordpress can do it for you? I understand, sometimes theme's artistic illustration of menu-bar makes it difficult for us to find that required design-redundancy to pass to wp_nav_menu... but if this not the case, then I feel you've opted a hard way to achieve desired results.

Answer 2

Make sure you're adding the register_nav_menu function inside of after_theme_setup. Here is an example:

<?php
  add_action( 'after_setup_theme', 'your_newtheme_setup' );
  if ( ! function_exists( 'your_newtheme_setup' ) ) :
  function your_newtheme_setup() {
    if (function_exists('register_nav_menu')) {
      register_nav_menu('main-menu', 'Main Menu');
      }
    add_theme_support('post-thumbnails');    
    // Add other Theme Suppotrs inside the after_theme_setup function
    //...
    //...
    }
  endif;
?>