WordPress Plugin - Custom Menu widget with link descriptions #snippet #WordPress

custom-menu-links-widget.php

<?php
/*
Plugin Name: Links From Custom Menu Widget
Plugin URI: http://thefstopdesign.com
Description: Links from a custom menu in the sidebar.
Author: Gabriel Luethje
Version: 1

Notes: This takes the WordPress Custom Menu Widget and adds a call to a custom walker that will display the menu link description.

*/

/*
 * Append the native Walker, using the description.
 *
 * @see http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/q/14037/
 * @author toscho, http://toscho.de
 */
class Description_Walker extends Walker_Nav_Menu
  {
      function start_el(&$output, $item, $depth, $args) {
      parent::start_el($output, $item, $depth, $args);
      $output .= sprintf('&nbsp;<span class="link-description">%s</span>', esc_html($item->description));
      }
  }

// Create the widget. This is basically a copy of the WP code, taken from /wp-includes/default_widgets.php
class LinksWidget extends WP_Widget
{

  function __construct() {
    $widget_ops = array( 'description' => __('Use this widget to add one of your custom menus as a widget.') );
    parent::__construct( 'nav_menu', __('Links Menu - Plugin'), $widget_ops );
  }
 
  function widget($args, $instance) {
    // Get menu

    $nav_menu = ! empty( $instance['nav_menu'] ) ? wp_get_nav_menu_object( $instance['nav_menu'] ) : false;

    if ( !$nav_menu )
      return;

    $instance['title'] = apply_filters( 'widget_title', empty( $instance['title'] ) ? '' : $instance['title'], $instance, $this->id_base );

    echo $args['before_widget'];

    if ( !empty($instance['title']) )
      echo $args['before_title'] . $instance['title'] . $args['after_title'];

    wp_nav_menu( array( 'fallback_cb' => '', 'menu' => $nav_menu, 'walker' => new Description_Walker) ); // calling the new walker so we have descriptions

    echo $args['after_widget'];
  }
 
  function update( $new_instance, $old_instance ) {
    $instance['title'] = strip_tags( stripslashes($new_instance['title']) );
    $instance['nav_menu'] = (int) $new_instance['nav_menu'];
    return $instance;
  }
 
  function form( $instance ) {
    $title = isset( $instance['title'] ) ? $instance['title'] : '';
    $nav_menu = isset( $instance['nav_menu'] ) ? $instance['nav_menu'] : '';

    // Get menus
    $menus = get_terms( 'nav_menu', array( 'hide_empty' => false ) );

    // If no menus exists, direct the user to go and create some.
    if ( !$menus ) {
      echo '<p>'. sprintf( __('No menus have been created yet. <a href="%s">Create some</a>.'), admin_url('nav-menus.php') ) .'</p>';
      return;
    }
    ?>
    <p>
      <label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('title'); ?>"><?php _e('Title:') ?></label>
      <input type="text" class="widefat" id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('title'); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name('title'); ?>" value="<?php echo $title; ?>" />
    </p>
    <p>
      <label for="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('nav_menu'); ?>"><?php _e('Select Menu:'); ?></label>
      <select id="<?php echo $this->get_field_id('nav_menu'); ?>" name="<?php echo $this->get_field_name('nav_menu'); ?>">
    <?php
      foreach ( $menus as $menu ) {
        $selected = $nav_menu == $menu->term_id ? ' selected="selected"' : '';
        echo '<option'. $selected .' value="'. $menu->term_id .'">'. $menu->name .'</option>';
      }
    ?>
      </select>
    </p>
    <?php
  }
 
}

add_action( 'widgets_init', create_function('', 'return register_widget("LinksWidget");') );

// repeat for more widgets


?>

custom-menu-with-descriptions.php

<?php
/* Create a new menu like so, or call an existing one. The plugin will add the Description_Walker to it for the widget. */

function sidebar_links() { 
	// display the wp3 menu if available
    wp_nav_menu(array(
        'menu'            => 'sidebar-links',
        'container'       => FALSE,
        'container_id'    => FALSE,
        'menu_class'      => '',
        'menu_id'         => FALSE,
        'depth'           => 1,
    ));
}
?>

Why couldn't I have found this 3 hours ago? Brilliant work. I am going to fork it.

This is excellent. A quick question. I want to allow HTML in the description which I'm doing with this:

remove_filter( 'nav_menu_description', 'strip_tags' );
add_filter( 'wp_setup_nav_menu_item', 'cus_wp_setup_nav_menu_item' );
function cus_wp_setup_nav_menu_item( $menu_item ) {
$menu_item->description = apply_filters( 'nav_menu_description', $menu_item->post_content );
return $menu_item;
}

This works fine except for one thing....when I add the menu item it adds all the content from the post into the description. Easy enough to get rid of and it works fine after that....but not for my clients. I looked all over for solution to this and tried several of my own....:-(