walker_nav_menu_start_el – Hook | Developer.WordPress.org

Filters a menu item’s starting output.

Description

The menu item’s starting output only includes $args->before, the opening <a>, the menu item’s title, the closing </a>, and $args->after. Currently, there is no filter for modifying the opening and closing <li> for a menu item.

Parameters

$item_outputstring

The menu item’s starting HTML output.

$menu_itemWP_Post

Menu item data object.

$depthint

Depth of menu item. Used for padding.

$argsstdClass

An object of wp_nav_menu() arguments.

More Arguments from wp_nav_menu( … $args )

Array of nav menu arguments.

menu int|string|WP_Term
Desired menu. Accepts a menu ID, slug, name, or object.
menu_class string
CSS class to use for the ul element which forms the menu.
Default 'menu'.
menu_id string
The ID that is applied to the ul element which forms the menu.
Default is the menu slug, incremented.
container string
Whether to wrap the ul, and what to wrap it with.
Default 'div'.
container_class string
Class that is applied to the container.
Default ‘menu-{menu slug}-container’.
container_id string
The ID that is applied to the container.
container_aria_label string
The aria-label attribute that is applied to the container when it’s a nav element.
fallback_cb callable|false
If the menu doesn’t exist, a callback function will fire.
Default is 'wp_page_menu'. Set to false for no fallback.
before string
Text before the link markup.
after string
Text after the link markup.
link_before string
Text before the link text.
link_after string
Text after the link text.
echo bool
Whether to echo the menu or return it. Default true.
depth int
How many levels of the hierarchy are to be included.
0 means all. Default 0.
Default 0.
walker object
Instance of a custom walker class.
theme_location string
Theme location to be used. Must be registered with register_nav_menu() in order to be selectable by the user.
items_wrap string
How the list items should be wrapped. Uses printf() format with numbered placeholders. Default is a ul with an id and class.
item_spacing string
Whether to preserve whitespace within the menu’s HTML.
Accepts 'preserve' or 'discard'. Default 'preserve'.

Source

$output .= apply_filters( 'walker_nav_menu_start_el', $item_output, $menu_item, $depth, $args );

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Used by	Description
Walker_Nav_Menu::start_el()`wp-includes/class-walker-nav-menu.php`	Starts the element output.

Changelog

Version	Description
3.0.0	Introduced.

User Contributed Notes

damchtlv 5 years ago

This hook is useful when you want to add extra html to a menu item output.
Example: add a custom sub menu based on a menu item that has a class “menu-item-target”

/**
 *  Menu items - Add "Custom sub-menu" in menu item render output
 *  if menu item has class "menu-item-target"
 */
add_filter( 'walker_nav_menu_start_el', 'wpdocs_menu_item_custom_output', 10, 4 );
function wpdocs_menu_item_custom_output( $item_output, $item, $depth, $args ) {

    $menu_item_classes = $item->classes;
    if ( empty( $menu_item_classes ) || !in_array( 'menu-item-target', $menu_item_classes ) ) {
        return $item_output;
    }

    ob_start(); 
    ?>
    <ul class="custom-sub-menu">
        <li class="custom-menu-item">
            <a href="#custom-url">
                <?php _e( 'My text', 'wpdocs' ); ?>
            </a>
        </li>
    </ul>
    <?php
    $custom_sub_menu_html = ob_get_clean();

    // Append after <a> element of the menu item targeted
    $item_output .= $custom_sub_menu_html;

    return $item_output;
}

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Jansen Tolle 3 years ago

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Note that $menu_item is not always a WP_Post but often gets sent in as stdClass, so don’t try to use any strict typing here.

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apply_filters( ‘walker_nav_menu_start_el’, string $item_output, WP_Post $menu_item, int $depth, stdClass $args )

In this article

Description

Parameters

Source

Related

Changelog

User Contributed Notes