how to create a menu with all sub categories?

8 comments

1. This depends on what kind of menu you are talking about:

   1)

   If you are talking about “custom menus” (found in the Backend under Design -> Menus) you can do the following:

   • Create a new function with the action hook add_category

   • inside of this function, you can create a new post of type the menu
     item type, which is added correctly to your menu

   • whenever a new category is published the menu item is added now

   • you should also hook into delete category, to keep your menu
     up-to-date

   2)

   You could do much easier without a wordpress menu:

   • just write a function to list your categories (or use the predefined
     wp_list_categories function)
   • if this is not sufficient write a customized one which (maybe
     recursivley) reads your categories from the database

   For option 1 to code you require some knowledge about WordPress though.

2. I prefer using wp_list_categories. Here is my code I used in my last project:

   <?php wp_list_categories('orderby=ID&exclude=3,10,1,16,38&title_li=<span class="sidebar_heading d_shadow">' . __('Categories') . '</span>'); ?>
   

   You will get a list of all your categories and sub-categories.

3. After many research I found a trustful useful solution, this class works well:

   class EntexAutoSubmenu {
   
       /**
        * Constructor
        */
       function __construct(){
           add_action('created_category', array($this, 'on_publish_category'));
       }
   
       /**
        * When publishing a new child category, add it to the appropriate custom menu.
        */
       function on_publish_category($cat_id){
   
           // Theme supports custom menus?
           if (!current_theme_supports('menus')) return;
   
           // Published taxonomy has parent?
           $cat = get_category($cat_id);
           if (!$cat->category_parent) return;
   
           $all_menus = get_terms('nav_menu', array('hide_empty' => true));
   
           // Loop through the menus to find page parent
           foreach ($all_menus as $menu) {
   
               $menu_parent = NULL;
               $menu_items = wp_get_nav_menu_items($menu->term_id, array('post_status' => 'publish,draft'));
   
               if (!is_array($menu_items)) continue;
   
               foreach ($menu_items as $menu_item){
                   // Item already in menu?
                   if ($menu_item->object_id == $cat_id) continue 2;
                   if ($menu_item->object_id == $cat->category_parent) $menu_parent = $menu_item;
               }
   
               // Add new item
               if ($menu_parent) {
                   wp_update_nav_menu_item($menu->term_id, 0, array(
                       'menu-item-object-id' => $cat_id,
                       'menu-item-object' => $cat->taxonomy,
                       'menu-item-parent-id' => $menu_parent->ID,
                       'menu-item-type' => 'taxonomy',
                       'menu-item-status' => 'publish'
                   ));
               }
           }
       }
   }
   
   $auto_submenu = new EntexAutoSubmenu();
   

4. Another alternative would be to use List Custom Taxonomy Widget, it might work in your use case (if you are not planning to use WP nav_menu).

5. To solve this problem i tried to create a plugin which automatically create menu item for publish category under it’s parent category if in menu.

   Idea for plugin:

   1.in code, i used “created_$taxonomy” action hook.

   2.collect all the menu item ( by using wp_get_nav_menu_items)

   3.and put condition if parent of publish category lies in menu-item than a menu-item created as sub menu of it’s parent category.(by using wp_update_nav_menu_item)

   <?php
   /*
   Plugin Name: Auto Category Submenu
   Plugin URI: 
   Description: Create menu item when category publish/create if it's parent category in menu item.
   Version: 0.1
   Author: Mayank Gupta/Ravinder Kumar
   Author URI: 
   License: GPL2
   */
   
   class AutoSubmenu {
   
       /**
        * Constructor
        */
       function __construct() {
           add_action( 'created_category', array( &$this, 'on_publish_cat' ) );
       }
   
       /**
        * When publishing a new child page, add it to the appropriate custom menu.
        */
       function on_publish_cat( $cat_id ) {
           $cat = get_category( $cat_id );
   
           //menu id for you menus in which your sub-category's parent category as menu item 
           $menu_ids = array(101,100);
   
           //retrieve all meu items from menu
           foreach($menu_ids as $menu_id){
               $menu_items[] = wp_get_nav_menu_items( $menu_id, array('post_status' => 'publish','post_type' => 'nav_menu_item','output' => ARRAY_A, ) );
           }
           foreach($menu_items as $menu_item){
               $counter = 0 ;
               echo'<!--';
               print_r($menu_item);
               echo'-->';
               foreach($menu_item as $menu_term){
                   $menu_terms_id[] = $menu_term->object_id; //all menu items id
               }
           }
           //print_r($menu_terms_id); //test for items in menu
           foreach( $menu_terms_id as $menu_term ){
               if( $cat->category_parent == $menu_term){
                   wp_update_nav_menu_item( $cat_id, 0, array(
                   'menu-item-object-id' => $cat_id,
                   'menu-item-object' => $cat->taxonomy,
                   'menu-item-parent-id' => $menu_term,
                   'menu-item-type' => 'category',
                   'menu-item-status' => 'publish'
               ) );
               }else{
                   return;
               }
           }
       }
   
   }
   $auto_submenu = new AutoSubmenu();
   

   Note: plugin giving error (header already sent) and menu item not created when category publish.This may be another topic for problem but i put it here because this may be a solution if some suggest me where i am wrong.Sorry if i’m doing something wrong by putting it here

6. I coded my own for one my of clients

   <div class="menu">
     <ul id="MenuBar1" class="MenuBarHorizontal">
       <li><a <?PHP if( count($_GET) == 0 ){ echo 'class="-current"';} ?> href="<?php echo esc_url( home_url( '/' ) ); ?>">home</a></li>
       <?php
           $category_ids = get_all_category_ids();
           sort($category_ids);
           foreach($category_ids as $cat_id) {
               $cat_name = get_cat_name($cat_id);
   
               echo '<li><a href="' . get_category_link( $cat_id ) . '">' . $cat_name . '</a>';            
               $args = array( 'numberposts' => -1, 'offset'=> 0, 'cat' => $cat_id, 'orderby' => 'ID', 'order' => 'ASCE' );     
   
               echo '<ul>';
   
               /* The 2nd Query (without global var) */
               $query2 = new WP_Query( $args );
               // The 2nd Loop
               while( $query2->have_posts() ):
                   $query2->next_post();
                   echo '<li><a href="' . get_permalink( $query2->post->ID ) . '">' . get_the_title( $query2->post->ID ) . '</a></li>';
               endwhile;
   
               // Restore original Query & Post Data
               wp_reset_query();
               wp_reset_postdata();
               echo '</ul>';
           echo '</li>';
           }
       ?>
     </ul>
   </div>
   

7. i am using to show all category and sub category of category as a menu in my project.

   $all_categories = get_categories( $args );
   echo "<div class='container'>";
    echo "<div class='productsubmenu'>";
   echo "<ul>";
   
   foreach ($all_categories as $cat)
   {           
   
   if($cat->category_parent == 0)
    {
     $category_id = $cat->term_id;
      $thumbnail_id = get_woocommerce_term_meta( $cat->term_id,    'thumbnail_id', true );
   $image = wp_get_attachment_url( $thumbnail_id );
   
   echo '<li class="parent '.$my.' "><a href="'.get_term_link( $cat ) . '">'.$cat->name.'</a>';
   
   
   $args2 = array(
   'taxonomy' => $taxonomy,
   'child_of' => 0,
   'parent' => $category_id,
   'orderby' => $orderby,
   'show_count' => $show_count,
   'pad_counts' => $pad_counts,
   'hierarchical' => $hierarchical,
   'title_li' => $title,
   'hide_empty' => $empty
   
   );
      $args = array(
      'hierarchical' => 1,
      'show_option_none' => '',
      'hide_empty' => 0,
      'parent' => $parent_cat_ID,
      'taxonomy' => 'product_cat'
   );
    $subcats = get_categories($args2);
    echo '<ul class="wooc_sclist">';
   
     foreach ($subcats as $sc) { 
   
           }
   
       $link = get_term_link( $sc->slug, $sc->taxonomy );
       echo '<li class="'.$my.'" ><a href="'. $link .'">'.$sc->name.'</a></li>';
     }
   echo '</ul>';
   echo "</li>";
   }
   else
   {
   
    }
    }
   
       echo "</ul>";
      echo "</div>";
      echo "</div>";
   

8. this is my approach, this works for product categories.

   $cat_args = array( 'orderby' => 'name', 'order' => 'asc', 'hide_empty' => true,);
   $cats = get_terms( 'product_cat', $cat_args );
   foreach ($cats as $key => $cat):
     if ($cat->parent == 0):
       echo $cat->name;
       foreach ($cats as $key => $cat2):
         if ($cat2->parent == $cat->term_id):
           echo $cat2->name;
           foreach ($cats as $key => $cat3):
             if ($cat3->parent == $cat2->term_id):
               echo $cat3->name;
             endif;
           endforeach;
         endif;
       endforeach;
     endif;
   endforeach;
   

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