Removes any 'Events' menu items if there aren't any upcoming events. Meant to be used with The Events Calendar plugin.

the-events-calendar-menu-items.php

<?php
/**
 * The plugin bootstrap file
 *
 * This file is read by WordPress to generate the plugin information in the plugin
 * admin area. This file also includes all of the dependencies used by the plugin,
 * registers the activation and deactivation functions, and defines a function
 * that starts the plugin.
 *
 * @link              http://briannadeleasa.com
 * @since             0.0.1
 * @package           TEC_Menu_Items
 *
 * @wordpress-plugin
 * Plugin Name:       The Events Calendar - Menu Items
 * Plugin URI:        https://briannadeleasa.com
 * Description:       Conditionally shows or hides an 'events' menu item based on whether any upcoming events exist.
 * Version:           1.0.0
 * Author:            Brianna Deleasa
 * Author URI:        http://briannadeleasa.com
 * License:           GPL-2.0+
 * License URI:       http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.txt
 * Text Domain:       the-events-calendar-menu-items
 * Domain Path:       /languages
 */


/**
 * Queries the database to find out how many upcoming events there are.
 *
 * We're also setting a transient because this likely won't change from page to page,
 * so why re-run the query if we don't need to.
 *
 * @since 1.0.0
 *
 * @return int
 */
function tecmi_get_upcoming_events_count() {

    $transient_key  = 'tecmi_upcoming_events_count';
    $count          = get_transient( $transient_key );

    if ( ! empty( $count ) ) {
        return $count;
    }

    // Set query arguments
    $args =	array(
        'post_type'  => 'tribe_events',
        'meta_query' => array(
            array(
                'key' => '_EventStartDate',
                'value' => date('Y-m-d') . ' 00:00:00',
                'compare' => '>='
            )
        )
    );

    // Generate query
    $events_query = new WP_Query( $args );

    // Save the event count
    set_transient( $transient_key, $events_query->post_count, 4800 );

    return $events_query->post_count;

}


add_filter( 'wp_nav_menu_objects', 'tecmi_remove_events_menu_item', 10, 2 );
/**
 * Loops through all menu items to remove any with a title 'Events'.
 *
 * We're only removing the events menu item when there aren't any upcoming events on
 * the current site.
 *
 * @since 1.0.0
 *
 * @param $sorted_menu_objects array
 * @param $args array
 * @return array
 */
function tecmi_remove_events_menu_item( $sorted_menu_objects, $args ) {

    $event_count = tecmi_get_upcoming_events_count();

    // Get out if there are upcoming events
    if ( $event_count >= 1 ) {
        return $sorted_menu_objects;
    }

    // Loop through and remove any menu items with the title 'Events'
    foreach ($sorted_menu_objects as $key => $menu_object) {

        if ( stristr( $menu_object->title, 'Events' ) ) {
            unset($sorted_menu_objects[$key]);
            break;
        }

    }

    return $sorted_menu_objects;

}