Title: WP_REST_Menu_Items_Controller::update_item
Published: February 3, 2022
Last modified: August 20, 2026

---

# WP_REST_Menu_Items_Controller::update_item( WP_REST_Request $request ): 󠀁[WP_REST_Response](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_rest_response/)󠁿|󠀁[WP_Error](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_error/)󠁿

## In this article

 * [Parameters](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_rest_menu_items_controller/update_item/?output_format=md#parameters)
 * [Return](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_rest_menu_items_controller/update_item/?output_format=md#return)
 * [Source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_rest_menu_items_controller/update_item/?output_format=md#source)
 * [Hooks](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_rest_menu_items_controller/update_item/?output_format=md#hooks)
 * [Related](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_rest_menu_items_controller/update_item/?output_format=md#related)
 * [Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_rest_menu_items_controller/update_item/?output_format=md#changelog)

[ Back to top](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_rest_menu_items_controller/update_item/?output_format=md#wp--skip-link--target)

Updates a single nav menu item.

## 󠀁[Parameters](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_rest_menu_items_controller/update_item/?output_format=md#parameters)󠁿

 `$request`[WP_REST_Request](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_rest_request/)
required

Full details about the request.

## 󠀁[Return](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_rest_menu_items_controller/update_item/?output_format=md#return)󠁿

 [WP_REST_Response](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_rest_response/)
|[WP_Error](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_error/) Response
object on success, or [WP_Error](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_error/)
object on failure.

## 󠀁[Source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_rest_menu_items_controller/update_item/?output_format=md#source)󠁿

    ```php
    public function update_item( $request ) {
    	$valid_check = $this->get_nav_menu_item( $request['id'] );
    	if ( is_wp_error( $valid_check ) ) {
    		return $valid_check;
    	}
    	$post_before       = get_post( $request['id'] );
    	$prepared_nav_item = $this->prepare_item_for_database( $request );

    	if ( is_wp_error( $prepared_nav_item ) ) {
    		return $prepared_nav_item;
    	}

    	$prepared_nav_item = (array) $prepared_nav_item;

    	$nav_menu_item_id = wp_update_nav_menu_item( $prepared_nav_item['menu-id'], $prepared_nav_item['menu-item-db-id'], wp_slash( $prepared_nav_item ), false );

    	if ( is_wp_error( $nav_menu_item_id ) ) {
    		if ( 'db_update_error' === $nav_menu_item_id->get_error_code() ) {
    			$nav_menu_item_id->add_data( array( 'status' => 500 ) );
    		} else {
    			$nav_menu_item_id->add_data( array( 'status' => 400 ) );
    		}

    		return $nav_menu_item_id;
    	}

    	$nav_menu_item = $this->get_nav_menu_item( $nav_menu_item_id );
    	if ( is_wp_error( $nav_menu_item ) ) {
    		$nav_menu_item->add_data( array( 'status' => 404 ) );

    		return $nav_menu_item;
    	}

    	/** This action is documented in wp-includes/rest-api/endpoints/class-wp-rest-menu-items-controller.php */
    	do_action( 'rest_insert_nav_menu_item', $nav_menu_item, $request, false );

    	$schema = $this->get_item_schema();

    	if ( ! empty( $schema['properties']['meta'] ) && isset( $request['meta'] ) ) {
    		$meta_update = $this->meta->update_value( $request['meta'], $nav_menu_item->ID );

    		if ( is_wp_error( $meta_update ) ) {
    			return $meta_update;
    		}
    	}

    	$post          = get_post( $nav_menu_item_id );
    	$nav_menu_item = $this->get_nav_menu_item( $nav_menu_item_id );
    	$fields_update = $this->update_additional_fields_for_object( $nav_menu_item, $request );

    	if ( is_wp_error( $fields_update ) ) {
    		return $fields_update;
    	}

    	$request->set_param( 'context', 'edit' );

    	/** This action is documented in wp-includes/rest-api/endpoints/class-wp-rest-menu-items-controller.php */
    	do_action( 'rest_after_insert_nav_menu_item', $nav_menu_item, $request, false );

    	wp_after_insert_post( $post, true, $post_before );

    	$response = $this->prepare_item_for_response( get_post( $nav_menu_item_id ), $request );

    	return rest_ensure_response( $response );
    }
    ```

[View all references](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/files/wp-includes/rest-api/endpoints/class-wp-rest-menu-items-controller.php/)
[View on Trac](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/tags/7.1/src/wp-includes/rest-api/endpoints/class-wp-rest-menu-items-controller.php#L218)
[View on GitHub](https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/blob/7.1/src/wp-includes/rest-api/endpoints/class-wp-rest-menu-items-controller.php#L218-L282)

## 󠀁[Hooks](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_rest_menu_items_controller/update_item/?output_format=md#hooks)󠁿

 [do_action( ‘rest_after_insert_nav_menu_item’, object $nav_menu_item, WP_REST_Request $request, bool $creating )](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/hooks/rest_after_insert_nav_menu_item/)

Fires after a single menu item is completely created or updated via the REST API.

 [do_action( ‘rest_insert_nav_menu_item’, object $nav_menu_item, WP_REST_Request $request, bool $creating )](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/hooks/rest_insert_nav_menu_item/)

Fires after a single menu item is created or updated via the REST API.

## 󠀁[Related](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_rest_menu_items_controller/update_item/?output_format=md#related)󠁿

| Uses | Description | 
| [WP_REST_Menu_Items_Controller::get_item_schema()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_rest_menu_items_controller/get_item_schema/)`wp-includes/rest-api/endpoints/class-wp-rest-menu-items-controller.php` |

Retrieves the nav menu item’s schema, conforming to JSON Schema.

  | 
| [WP_REST_Menu_Items_Controller::prepare_item_for_response()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_rest_menu_items_controller/prepare_item_for_response/)`wp-includes/rest-api/endpoints/class-wp-rest-menu-items-controller.php` |

Prepares a single nav menu item output for response.

  | 
| [WP_REST_Menu_Items_Controller::get_nav_menu_item()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_rest_menu_items_controller/get_nav_menu_item/)`wp-includes/rest-api/endpoints/class-wp-rest-menu-items-controller.php` |

Gets the nav menu item, if the ID is valid.

  | 
| [WP_REST_Menu_Items_Controller::prepare_item_for_database()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_rest_menu_items_controller/prepare_item_for_database/)`wp-includes/rest-api/endpoints/class-wp-rest-menu-items-controller.php` |

Prepares a single nav menu item for create or update.

  | 
| [wp_after_insert_post()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/wp_after_insert_post/)`wp-includes/post.php` |

Fires actions after a post, its terms and meta data has been saved.

  | 
| [wp_update_nav_menu_item()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/wp_update_nav_menu_item/)`wp-includes/nav-menu.php` |

Saves the properties of a menu item or create a new one.

  | 
| [rest_ensure_response()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/rest_ensure_response/)`wp-includes/rest-api.php` |

Ensures a REST response is a response object (for consistency).

  | 
| [wp_slash()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/wp_slash/)`wp-includes/formatting.php` |

Adds slashes to a string or recursively adds slashes to strings within an array.

  | 
| [do_action()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/do_action/)`wp-includes/plugin.php` |

Calls the callback functions that have been added to an action hook.

  | 
| [get_post()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/get_post/)`wp-includes/post.php` |

Retrieves post data given a post ID or post object.

  | 
| [is_wp_error()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/is_wp_error/)`wp-includes/load.php` |

Checks whether the given variable is a WordPress Error.

  |

[Show 6 more](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_rest_menu_items_controller/update_item/?output_format=md#)
[Show less](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_rest_menu_items_controller/update_item/?output_format=md#)

## 󠀁[Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wp_rest_menu_items_controller/update_item/?output_format=md#changelog)󠁿

| Version | Description | 
| [5.9.0](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/since/5.9.0/) | Introduced. |

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