Implementing Custom Navigation Menus in WordPress Themes

Posted on 16th June 2023

WordPress themes offer a variety of ways to implement custom navigation menus. In this article, we’ll take a look at how to add custom navigation menus to WordPress themes. We’ll also explore the benefits of using custom navigation menus in WordPress themes.

What are Custom Navigation Menus?

Custom navigation menus are menus that are specific to a particular WordPress theme. theme developers can register custom menus with WordPress and then use those menus in their themes. Custom menus can be used to display pages, categories, custom links, and other content types in a WordPress theme.

Why Use Custom Navigation Menus in WordPress Themes?

Custom navigation menus offer a number of benefits for WordPress themes. First, they give theme developers more control over the structure and content of their themes’ menus. Second, custom menus can be used to create unique and creative menu designs. And third, custom menus can be used to improve the usability of a WordPress theme.

How to Add Custom Navigation Menus to WordPress Themes

Adding custom navigation menus to WordPress themes is relatively simple. First, you’ll need to register a custom menu with WordPress. To do this, you’ll need to add the following code to your theme’s functions.php file:


function register_my_menu() {
register_nav_menu('my-menu',__( 'My Menu' ));
}
add_action( 'init', 'register_my_menu' );


Next, you’ll need to add the following code to your theme’s header.php file:


wp_nav_menu( array( 'theme_location' => 'my-menu' ) );


That’s all there is to adding custom navigation menus to WordPress themes. For more information on custom menus, check out the WordPress Codex.

Assuming you have a basic understanding of how to code in PHP and have a development environment set up, you can follow these steps to create custom navigation menus in WordPress themes.

1. In your theme’s folder, create a new file and name it navigation.php.
2. In navigation.php, copy and paste the following code:

Menus section
*/

function my_custom_menu() {
wp_nav_menu(
array(
‘theme_location’ => ‘primary-menu’,
‘container_class’ => ‘custom-menu-class’
)
);
}
add_action( ‘init’, ‘my_custom_menu’ );
?>

3. The code above defines a function my_custom_menu() that displays the custom menu we created in the Appearance -> Menus section.
4. The function is then registered with the init action hook.
5. In your theme’s folder, open header.php.
6. Find the code that calls wp_nav_menu().
7. Replace that code with a call to our custom function my_custom_menu():

8. Save header.php and upload it to your theme’s folder.
9. That’s it! You have successfully implemented custom navigation menus in your WordPress theme.

When it comes to customizing the look and feel of your WordPress site, the possibilities are endless. In addition to choosing a theme and customizing your site’s colors and fonts, you can also change the way your navigation menus look.

If you’re not a fan of the default WordPress menu, you can easily create a custom menu to better suit your needs. In this article, we’ll show you how to create and implement a custom navigation menu in WordPress.

Creating a Custom Menu

To create a custom menu, you first need to visit the Menus page in the WordPress admin area. This can be found under the Appearance menu.

On the Menus page, you’ll see two tabs: Manage Locations and Edit Menus. The Manage Locations tab is where you can select which menu appears in which location on your site. The Edit Menus tab is where you’ll actually create and edit your menus.

To create a new menu, click on the Create a new menu link. You’ll then be asked to provide a name for your menu. Once you’ve done that, click on the Create Menu button.

Now that your menu has been created, it’s time to add some items to it. To do this, simply click on the Add Items button. This will bring up a list of all the available items that you can add to your menu, including pages, posts, categories, and custom links.

Simply check the box next to the items that you want to add and then click on the Add to Menu button. The items will then be added to your menu.

You can rearrange the order of the items in your menu by dragging and dropping them into the desired order. You can also create sub-menus by drag and dropping items slightly to the right of the item that you want to be the parent.

Once you’re happy with your menu, click on the Save Menu button.

Implementing Your Custom Menu

Now that your custom menu has been created, it’s time to implement it on your WordPress site. The easiest way to do this is by using a WordPress menu plugin.

There are a number of great menu plugins available, but we recommend using Mega Menu. This plugin is easy to use and lets you create some really sophisticated menus.

Once you’ve installed and activated the plugin, you need to visit the Appearance » Menus page and click on the Edit button next to the menu that you want to edit.

On the Edit Menu page, you’ll see a new Mega Menu tab. Click on it and you’ll be able to create your menu.

Adding a custom menu to your WordPress site is a great way to improve the navigation and usability of your site. By using a plugin like Mega Menu, you can easily create and implement custom menus without having to edit any code.

CSS

For our CSS, we’ll start by hiding the default menu and hiding the default menu’s list items. We’ll also create a background color for our menu and set its width to 100%.

Next, we’ll style our menu’s list items. We’ll give them a display of inline-block, a width of 25%, text-align of center, and padding of 10px 0.

Then, we’ll style our menu’s links. We’ll give them a display of block, color of #fff, text-decoration of none, and font-size of 18px.

We’ll also add a hover state for our links. We’ll change the color to #000 and the background-color to #fff.

And that’s it for our CSS!

Now let’s take a look at our HTML.

HTML

Our HTML is pretty straightforward. We have a div with a class of “container” that contains our menu.

Inside our menu, we have an unordered list with a class of “menu-items”. And inside our menu-items, we have our list items with our links.

And that’s it! Now let’s take a look at our jQuery.

jQuery

For our jQuery, we’ll start by creating a function that will toggle our menu’s visibility on and off.

We’ll do this by adding a click event listener to our menu’s trigger element. When the trigger element is clicked, we’ll toggle the class “menu-visible” on and off of our menu.

Next, we’ll create a function that will handle our menu’s animation.

We’ll do this by adding a click event listener to our menu’s trigger element. When the trigger element is clicked, we’ll toggle the class “menu-visible” on and off of our menu.

And that’s it! Now let’s see our menu in action.

And there you have it! A simple, yet effective, way to create a custom navigation menu in WordPress.