How to Edit Navigation Output in WordPress

Are you looking for a way to control of the output of WordPress navigation menus? While there’s probably a plugin for this, we have created a quick code snippet that you can use to edit navigation output by modifying the PHP. This code has an example to class checks and print descriptions.

Instructions:

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

<?php
class description_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        ) .'"' : '';

           $prepend = '<strong>';
           $append = '</strong>';
           $description  = ! empty( $item->description ) ? '<span>'.esc_attr( $item->description ).'</span>' : '';

           if($depth != 0)
           {
                     $description = $append = $prepend = "";
           }

            $item_output = $args->before;
            $item_output .= '<a'. $attributes .'>';
            $item_output .= $args->link_before .$prepend.apply_filters( 'the_title', $item->title, $item->ID ).$append;
            $item_output .= $description.$args->link_after;
            $item_output .= '</a>';
            $item_output .= $args->after;

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

//For implementation/ouput in your theme place this snippet where you want your menu to populate.
[code]wp_nav_menu( array(
 'container' =>false,
 'menu_class' => 'nav',
 'echo' => true,
 'before' => '',
 'after' => '',
 'link_before' => '',
 'link_after' => '',
 'depth' => 0,
 'walker' => new description_walker())
 );
?>

Note: If this is your first time adding code snippets in WordPress, then please refer to our guide on how to properly add 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: 12 best WordPress plugins for bloggers and how to create a guest post submission form in WordPress.