How to Attach a Navigation Menu to the Admin Bar

Are you looking for a way to attach a navigation menu to the admin bar? While there’s probably a plugin for this, we have created a quick code snippet that you can use to attach a navigation menu to the admin bar in WordPress.

Instructions:

All you have to do is add this code to your theme’s functions.php file or in a site-specific plugin:

add_action( 'admin_bar_menu', 'wpse15186_admin_bar_menu' );
function wpse15186_admin_bar_menu( &$wp_admin_bar )
{
    $menu = wp_get_nav_menu_object( 'WPSE 15186 test menu' );
    $menu_items = wp_get_nav_menu_items( $menu->term_id );

    $wp_admin_bar->add_menu( array(
        'id' => 'wpse15186-menu-0',
        'title' => 'WPSE 15186 menu',
    ) );

    foreach ( $menu_items as $menu_item ) {
        $wp_admin_bar->add_menu( array(
            'id' => 'wpse15186-menu-' . $menu_item->ID,
            'parent' => 'wpse15186-menu-' . $menu_item->menu_item_parent,
            'title' => $menu_item->title,
            'href' => $menu_item->url,
            'meta' => array(
                'title' => $menu_item->attr_title,
                'target' => $menu_item->target,
                'class' => implode( ' ', $menu_item->classes ),
            ),
        ) );
    }
}

Note: If this is your first time adding code snippets in WordPress, then please refer to our guide on how to properly copy / paste code snippets in WordPress, so you don’t accidentally break your site.

If you liked this code snippet, please consider checking out our other articles on the site like: 11 best WordPress plugins for writers and how to use Google Optimize in WordPress.