WordPress: Using a custom nav walker to create navigation menus in plain <a> tags. That is the <ul> and <li> tags are not present. Very useful if you want to create simple links that can be centered with a simple text-align:center on the containing element.

custom-nav-walker-usage.php

<?php 

// In your template files like footer.php

// The items_wrap value ('%3$s') removes the wrapping <ul>, while the custom walker (Nav_Footer_Walker) removes the <li>'s.

wp_nav_menu(array('items_wrap'=> '%3$s', 'walker' => new Nav_Footer_Walker(), 'container'=>false, 'menu_class' => '', 'theme_location'=>'footer', 'fallback_cb'=>false ));

?>

custom-nav-walker.php

<?php

// In your functions.php

class Nav_Footer_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";
	}

	function start_el( &$output, $item, $depth = 0, $args = array(), $id = 0 ) {
		$indent = ( $depth ) ? str_repeat( "\t", $depth ) : '';

		$class_names = $value = '';

		$classes = empty( $item->classes ) ? array() : (array) $item->classes;
		$classes[] = 'menu-item-' . $item->ID;

		$class_names = join( ' ', apply_filters( 'nav_menu_css_class', array_filter( $classes ), $item, $args ) );
		$class_names = $class_names ? ' class="' . esc_attr( $class_names ) . '"' : '';

		$id = apply_filters( 'nav_menu_item_id', 'menu-item-'. $item->ID, $item, $args );
		$id = $id ? ' id="' . esc_attr( $id ) . '"' : '';

		$output .= $indent . '';

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

		$item_output = $args->before;
		$item_output .= '<a'. $attributes .'>';
		$item_output .= $args->link_before . apply_filters( 'the_title', $item->title, $item->ID ) . $args->link_after;
		$item_output .= '</a>';
		$item_output .= $args->after;

		$output .= apply_filters( 'walker_nav_menu_start_el', $item_output, $item, $depth, $args );
	}


	function end_el( &$output, $item, $depth = 0, $args = array() ) {
		$output .= "\n";
	}
}

👍 👍 👍

👍 Thank you very much!

Very useful!

Thanks for this. Wanted to create a button link, so added $attributes = ' type="button"'; at line 34.

I'm confused, you call $args as an array but then you use it as an object? When does it change?

How would i add an 'active' class to the current page?

Thanks 👍

This is really helpful! Thank you so much! By the way, is there an explanation as to what each method do?

Very useful!
Thank you very much!

Thank you, Saved me a lot of time.