Getting parent object_id of child menu items in WordPress menu

I am building a menu for a client that grabs custom field data from the top level menu item's pages and adds data-color to that menu item. I have that part working no problem.

The issue I'm having is applying that data-color from the top level item to the child menu items. Since the child menu items aren't necessarily child posts/pages of the top level pages I can't use $item->post_parent.

I'm a little stuck at this point on my next move. Here's the code block so far.

function data_attribs_menu( $atts, $item, $args ) {
    // check if ACF exists
    if( class_exists('acf') ) {     
        $page_section = get_field( 'page_section', $item->object_id );
        $parent_page_section = get_field( 'page_section', $item->post_parent );

        if( $args->theme_location == 'header-menu' ) {
            if( $item->menu_item_parent == 0 ) {
                $atts['data-color'] = $page_section;
            } else {
                $atts['data-color'] = $parent_page_section;
            }
        }
    }
    return $atts;
}
add_filter('nav_menu_link_attributes', 'data_attribs_menu', 10, 3);

Is there a way to grab the parent's object_id for submenu items?

Here's a video of how the menu is currently interacting.

I am building a menu for a client that grabs custom field data from the top level menu item's pages and adds data-color to that menu item. I have that part working no problem.

The issue I'm having is applying that data-color from the top level item to the child menu items. Since the child menu items aren't necessarily child posts/pages of the top level pages I can't use $item->post_parent.

I'm a little stuck at this point on my next move. Here's the code block so far.

function data_attribs_menu( $atts, $item, $args ) {
    // check if ACF exists
    if( class_exists('acf') ) {     
        $page_section = get_field( 'page_section', $item->object_id );
        $parent_page_section = get_field( 'page_section', $item->post_parent );

        if( $args->theme_location == 'header-menu' ) {
            if( $item->menu_item_parent == 0 ) {
                $atts['data-color'] = $page_section;
            } else {
                $atts['data-color'] = $parent_page_section;
            }
        }
    }
    return $atts;
}
add_filter('nav_menu_link_attributes', 'data_attribs_menu', 10, 3);

Is there a way to grab the parent's object_id for submenu items?

Here's a video of how the menu is currently interacting.

• menus
• sub-menu

Share Improve this question asked Feb 27, 2018 at 15:55 tylorreimertylorreimer 6511 silver badge88 bronze badges 3

• Does it have to use data-color? It might be easier to use WP's built-in classes and build a small JS to the effect of, "if .menu-item-has-children:nth-child(1) or its children are in focus or hovered on, add .blue class to the whole menu" then use the .blue class to apply a partly transparent CSS background color on top of the image. – WebElaine Commented Feb 27, 2018 at 16:10
• in post_parent you have the parent of the post selected for this menu item. but you have also menu_item_parent which is the identifier of the menu item parent of the current menu item. if the color is associated to the parent post, you need something like $parentItem = get_post($post->menu_item_parent); $parent_page_section = get_field( 'page_section', $parentItem->object_id); – mmm Commented Feb 27, 2018 at 20:18
• @mmm the menu_item_parent part is just testing if they are top level items in the menu. I still need to grab some info from the top level pages though which is where I'm getting hung up. – tylorreimer Commented Feb 27, 2018 at 20:31

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1 Answer 1

Sorted by: Reset to default 0

I made 2 mistakes in my comment.
try rather this code

function data_attribs_menu( $atts, $item, $args ) {
    // check if ACF exists
    if( class_exists('acf') ) {     

        $page_section = get_field( 'page_section', $item->object_id );

        if( $args->theme_location == 'header-menu' ) {
            if( $item->menu_item_parent == 0 ) {
                $atts['data-color'] = $page_section;
            } else {
                $parentItem = get_post($item->menu_item_parent);
                $parent_page_section = get_field( 'page_section', $parentItem->_menu_item_object_id);

                $atts['data-color'] = $parent_page_section;
            }
        }

    }

    return $atts;
}
add_filter('nav_menu_link_attributes', 'data_attribs_menu', 10, 3);

this code only works when there is 2 levels of menu and according the example in the question, it's what you need.