How can I access the “description” of a menu item?

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Where you can add your menu in under appearance > menus, I have descriptions in. In my page, I want to be able to echo out that description. Not in the menu, but in my page. How can I access this information?

EDIT:

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@toscho

How do I edit my custom walker? Does the object $item have access to the page excerpt? 

class description_walker extends Walker_Nav_Menu
{
        function start_el(&$output, $item, $depth, $args)
  {
    global $language;
       global $wp_query;
     global $post;
     global $polish_name;
       $indent = ( $depth ) ? str_repeat( "t", $depth ) : '';
       $class_names = $value = '';

       $classes = empty( $item->classes ) ? array() : (array) $item->classes;

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

       $output .= $indent . '<li id="menu-item-'. $item->ID . '"' . $value . $class_names .'>';

       $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        ) .'"' : '';

       $prepend = '<strong>';
       $append = '</strong>';


        $item_output = $args->before;
        $item_output .= '<a'. $attributes .'>';
      if($language=="polish"){
           $item_output .= $args->link_before .$prepend.apply_filters( 'the_title', $item->description, $item->ID ).$append;

       }else{
        $item_output .= $args->link_before .$prepend.apply_filters( 'the_title', $item->title, $item->ID ).$append;
       }


        $item_output .= '</a>';
        $item_output .= $args->after;


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

  1. I don’t like the idea to parse the menu items again. As an alternative solution I suggest to store the description during the first run:

    add_filter( 'walker_nav_menu_start_el', 'wpse_78483_get_current_items_description', 10, 2 );

/**
 * Get nav items description.
 *
 * @wp-hook walker_nav_menu_start_el
 * @param   string $item_output
 * @param   object $item
 * @return  string
 */
function wpse_78483_get_current_items_description( $item_output = NULL, $item = NULL )
{
    static $desc = '';

    // The function is NOT called during nav menu rendering, but later.
    if ( 'walker_nav_menu_start_el' !== current_filter() )
        return $desc;

    // The function is called during wp_nav_menu().

        // description is set
    if ( ! empty ( $item->description )
        // and an URL is available
        and ! empty ( $item->url )
        // and it is the current page
        and parse_url( $item->url, PHP_URL_PATH ) === $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']
        )
    {
        // copy the description into our static internal variable
        $desc = $item->description;
        // remove this filter, it is not needed anymore
        remove_filter( 'walker_nav_menu_start_el', __FUNCTION__ );
    }

    // return unchanged item markup
    return $item_output;
}

    Explanation

    The function does two things:

    1. It acts as a filter called inside of wp_nav_menu(). Here, it is called until it hits the current page. Then the description is stored internally in $desc.
    2. It acts as a getter for the description: If you call this function without parameter after the navigation menu has been rendered you get the value of the description, if there is one.

    The downside is: it would not work for a menu call too late, in a footer for example.
    The advantage: you save time.

    You can get the description later any time by calling the function without a parameter:

    print wpse_78483_get_current_items_description();

    As a follow-up, here is a second way to use it:

    $desc = wpse_78483_get_current_items_description();

if ( empty ( $desc ) )
{
    the_excerpt();
}
else
{
    print wpautop( $desc );
}

    Extra tip: You can enable the excerpt editor box for pages:

    add_action( 'wp_loaded', 'wpse_78483_page_excerpt' );

function wpse_78483_page_excerpt()
{
    add_post_type_support( 'page', 'excerpt' );
}

  2. Found the answer on a google cached website.

    So to access the current page’s navigation item description – just call the function echo wps_get_menu_description()

    function wps_get_menu_description( ) {
global $post;

// Default
$defaults = array(
    'echo' => false,
    'format' => '',
    'description' => '',
    'location' => 'primary',
    'classes' => 'post-description'
);

$args = wp_parse_args( $args, $defaults );
extract( $args , EXTR_SKIP );

// Get menu
$menu_locations = get_nav_menu_locations();
$nav_items = wp_get_nav_menu_items( $menu_locations[ $location ] );

// Cycle through nav items
foreach ( $nav_items as $nav_item ) {

    if ( ( is_page() || is_single() || is_archive() ) && ( $nav_item->object_id == $post->ID ) ) {
        $description = $nav_item->description;
    }

}


    $output = $description;

return $output;
}