How can I add parent menu description to my Wordpress menu?

Question

I\'ve entered the description into the parent menu items in Wordpress, but they\'re not showing on my theme.

I know that a walker class can be used to make changes t

Answer 1

I managed to get the menu to display as before, whilst adding the parent menu description exactly where I wanted by simply just adding to what I already had.

I already had a walker that created the sub-menu image container, and the description container

// Submenu walker to add image
class submenu_walker extends Walker_Nav_Menu {
    function start_lvl( &$output, $depth = 0, $args = array() ) {
        $indent = str_repeat("\t", $depth);
        $output .= "\n$indent
\n";
    }
    function end_lvl( &$output, $depth = 0, $args = array() ) {
        $indent = str_repeat("\t", $depth);
        $output .= "$indent
\n";
    }
}

Then I managed to find a function that uses start_el and could assign the description to a variable, but not output it, then just output the $item_output as normal.

function add_menu_description( $item_output, $item, $depth, $args ) {
    $description = __( $item->post_content );
    return $item_output;
}
add_filter( 'walker_nav_menu_start_el', 'add_menu_description', 10, 4);

Of course now I needed to use $description within my other submenu walker function, so I just created a global variable in both, and the output is exactly what I'm after!

FINAL OUTPUT

function add_menu_description( $item_output, $item, $depth, $args ) {
    global $description;
    $description = __( $item->post_content );
    return $item_output;
}
add_filter( 'walker_nav_menu_start_el', 'add_menu_description', 10, 4);

// Submenu walker to add image
class submenu_walker extends Walker_Nav_Menu {
    function start_lvl( &$output, $depth = 0, $args = array() ) {
        $indent = str_repeat("\t", $depth);
        global $description;
        $output .= "\n$indent
".$description."
\n";
    }
    function end_lvl( &$output, $depth = 0, $args = array() ) {
        $indent = str_repeat("\t", $depth);
        $output .= "$indent
\n";
    }
}