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

ok i'm not sure if this is fool proof but here's my try:

so you would need to make sure description is on in the admin menu console (in the 'screen options' dropdown)

Your first menu item should be Face then Face again as its child then sub neu items as children to that.

Hope this helps!

in your functions.php

class Description_Walker extends Walker_Nav_Menu
{
    /**
     * Start the element output.
     *
     * @param  string $output Passed by reference. Used to append additional content.
     * @param  object $item   Menu item data object.
     * @param  int $depth     Depth of menu item. May be used for padding.
     * @param  array $args    Additional strings.
     * @return void
     */
     function display_element( $element, &$children_elements, $max_depth, $depth=0, $args, &$output )
{
    $id_field = $this->db_fields['id'];
    if ( is_object( $args[0] ) ) {
        $args[0]->has_children = ! empty( $children_elements[$element->$id_field] );
    }
    return parent::display_element( $element, $children_elements, $max_depth, $depth, $args, $output );
}
function start_lvl( &$output, $depth=0, $args=array() ) {
    // depth dependent classes
    $indent = ( $depth > 0  ? str_repeat( "\t", $depth ) : '' ); // code indent
    $display_depth = ( $depth); // because it counts the first submenu as 0
    $classes = array('sub-menu');
    $class_names = implode( ' ', $classes );

    // build html
    $output .= "\n" . $indent . '<ul class="' . $class_names . '">' . "\n";
}
    function start_el(&$output, $item,  $depth = 0, $args = array(), $current_object_id = 0)
    {

        $classes     = empty ( $item->classes ) ? array () : (array) $item->classes;

        $class_names = join(
            ' '
        ,   apply_filters(
                'nav_menu_css_class'
            ,   array_filter( $classes ), $item
            )
        );

        if ($args->has_children && $depth == 0){
        ! empty ( $class_names )
            and $class_names = ' class="menu-parent-item"';
        }else if($depth == 1){
         ! empty ( $class_names )
            and $class_names = ' class="heading"';
        }else{
         ! empty ( $class_names )
            and $class_names = ' class="'. esc_attr( $class_names ) .'"';  
        }

        $output .= "<li id='menu-item-$item->ID' $class_names>" ;
        $attributes  = '';

        ! empty( $item->attr_title )
            and $attributes .= ' title="'  . esc_attr( $item->attr_title ) .'"';
        ! empty( $item->target )
            and $attributes .= ' target="' . esc_attr( $item->target     ) .'"';
        ! empty( $item->xfn )
            and $attributes .= ' rel="'    . esc_attr( $item->xfn        ) .'"';
        ! empty( $item->url )
            and $attributes .= ' href="'   . esc_attr( $item->url        ) .'"';

        // insert description for top level elements only
        // you may change this
        $description = ( ! empty ( $item->description ) and 0 == $depth )
            ? '<div class="menu-description">' . esc_attr( $item->description ) . '</div>' : '';

        $title = apply_filters( 'the_title', $item->title, $item->ID );
        if (  $depth == 0) {//top level items
         $item_output = $args->before.$title.'</li><ul class="sub-menu"><li class="menu-image-container"><div class="menu-image"></div>'.$description.'</li>';  
        }
        else if(  $depth == 1){
             $item_output = $args->before.$title.'</li>';
        }
        else{//everything else
        $item_output = $args->before
            . "<a $attributes>"
            . $args->link_before
            . $title
            . '</a> '
            . $args->link_after
            . $args->after;
        }
        // Since $output is called by reference we don't need to return anything.
        $output .= apply_filters(
            'walker_nav_menu_start_el'
        ,   $item_output
        ,   $item
        ,   $depth
        ,   $args
        );

    }
}

in your header (or wherever your menu is)

<nav id="main-menu" role="navigation"><?php wp_nav_menu( array('menu' => 'Main', 'container' => 'div', 'container_class' => 'menu-main-menu-container', 'menu_id' => 'menu-main-menu', 'walker' => new Description_Walker )); ?></nav>

Answer 2

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<ul class='sub-menu'><li class='menu-image-container'><div class='menu-image'></div><div class='menu-description'></div></li>\n";
    }
    function end_lvl( &$output, $depth = 0, $args = array() ) {
        $indent = str_repeat("\t", $depth);
        $output .= "$indent<li><div class='clear'></div></li></ul>\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<ul class='sub-menu'><li class='menu-image-container'><div class='menu-image'></div><div class='menu-description'>".$description."</div></li>\n";
    }
    function end_lvl( &$output, $depth = 0, $args = array() ) {
        $indent = str_repeat("\t", $depth);
        $output .= "$indent<li><div class='clear'></div></li></ul>\n";
    }
}