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Dynamic Categories in 3.0 Navigation

I have a completed theme built upon thematic framework. I am using the WP 3.0 menu functionality and can manually add Categories to the list. However, client wants this to be dynamic so that all the categories and sub-categories show up automatically without having to make changes to the Menu.

Here is my code in the functions.php that simply throws out the menu -



function childtheme_menu() { ?>

	<div id="access">

  		<div class="skip-link"><a href="#content" title="<?php _e('Skip navigation to the content', 'thematic'); ?>">

		<?php _e('Skip to content', 'thematic'); ?></a></div>

  			<?php wp_nav_menu( 'sort_column=menu_order&container_class=menu&menu_class=sf-menu&depth=3' ); ?>

		</div>

	<!-- #access -->

<?php }

add_action('thematic_belowheader','childtheme_menu',9);

Chris | 09/01/10 at 1:02pm | Edit

3.0 menus categories category menu

(3) Possible Answers Submitted...

Last edited:
09/01/10
1:57pm

enodekciw says:

try this:

function childtheme_menu() { ?>

	<div id="access">

  		<div class="skip-link"><a href="#content" title="<?php _e('Skip navigation to the content', 'thematic'); ?>">

		<?php _e('Skip to content', 'thematic'); ?></a></div>

  			<?php wp_nav_menu( 'sort_column=menu_order&container_class=menu&menu_class=sf-menu&depth=3' ); ?>

                        <?php wp_list_categories('title_li='); ?>

		</div>

	<!-- #access -->

<?php }

add_action('thematic_belowheader','childtheme_menu',9);

09/01/10 1:13pm

Chris says:
I've already tried this but it doesn't work because the wp_nav_menu encapsulates the menu in the proper div tags - this places it outside of that. What I need is the dynamic categories to be shown INSIDE the output produced by wp_nav_menu

09/01/10 1:17pm

enodekciw says:

ok, so it wraps the menu. let's unwrap it ;)

function childtheme_menu() { ?>

	<div id="access">

  		<div class="skip-link"><a href="#content" title="<?php _e('Skip navigation to the content', 'thematic'); ?>">

		<?php _e('Skip to content', 'thematic'); ?></a></div>

  			<?php wp_nav_menu( 'sort_column=menu_order&container=&container_class=&menu_class=sf-menu&depth=3' ); ?>

                        <?php wp_list_categories('title_li='); ?>

		</div>

	<!-- #access -->

<?php }

add_action('thematic_belowheader','childtheme_menu',9);

09/01/10 1:32pm

enodekciw says:
now it should generate plaind list items without the <ul></ul>. so just those two functions into <ul id="menu"></ul> or something and you should be good to go ;)
09/01/10 1:52pm

enodekciw says:
oh, now I get your problem. you can try to solve it like this:

pass echo=false into wp_nav_menu().
use some variable to get the markup, something like this $menu = wp_nav_menu();
now you have $menu var which hold your menu markup, so now you can write some functions to manipulate it like you want, for example, you can write a function to extract list items, or just to get rid of the tags you dont need.
combine it with wp_list_categories();, wrap everything into <ul></ul> - now you have your menu working ;)

I would like to help and write the full code for you, but I'm leaving so soon that I won't be able to do that. But I will be happy if I got you on the way ;)

09/01/10 1:55pm

Chris says:

enodekciw - you got me on my way. I had been playing around with this before i posted the question but wasn't able to get it working. Thanks to your help I was able to, and added all the nested ul / li mark-up which made it work just fine. Here is my final code:

function childtheme_menu() { ?>

	<div id="access">

  		<div class="skip-link"><a href="#content" title="<?php _e('Skip navigation to the content', 'thematic'); ?>">

		<?php _e('Skip to content', 'thematic'); ?></a></div>

  			<?php wp_nav_menu( 'sort_column=menu_order&container_class=menu&menu_class=sf-menu&depth=3' ); ?>

  			 <div class="menu-cat">

  			 	<ul id="menu-category-nav" class="sf-menu sf-js-enabled">

  			 		<li class="menu-item" class="sf-menu"><a href="#">Categories</a>

  			 			<ul class="sub-menu"><?php wp_list_categories('title_li='); ?></ul>

  			 		</li>

  			 	</ul>

			</div>

		</div>

	<!-- #access -->

<?php }

add_action('thematic_belowheader','childtheme_menu',9);

Last edited:
09/01/10
1:10pm
Tobias Nyholm says:
I have created a plugin for dynamic subpages: http://www.wordpress.org/extend/plugins/dynamic-subpages/

I think you can figure your problem out by watching my code.
- 09/01/10 1:14pm
  
  Chris says:
  Tobias,
  
  Looks like you are creating an entirely new menu system. Do you know how to make this function within the WP 3.0.1 menu system?
Last edited:
09/01/10
1:57pm
Maor Barazany says:
The simple and short answer is that you can't do dynamic menus (categories or pages) with the new wp_nav_menu functions.
You have to use either the nav function to let the end user manually decide what to have on the menu, or use the
```
wp_list_categories
```
function that was suggested here.
- 09/01/10 1:55pm
  
  Chris says:
  Thanks for this Maor.