Title: Custom walker for wp_nav_menu
Last modified: August 21, 2016

---

# Custom walker for wp_nav_menu

 *  [virtous](https://wordpress.org/support/users/virtous/)
 * (@virtous)
 * [12 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-walker-for-wp_nav_menu/)
 * Hi there,
    I’m new to the WP forums and not sure if this is the right place for
   this post, my apologies if it is.
 * Description of problem:
    I’m trying to output a set of menu items in my footer.
   Not all, just the ones that belong to a specific parent category. I use the wp_nav_menu()
   function as shown below:
 *     ```
       $args = array(
       	'echo'  	 => false,
       	'depth'		 => 0,
       	'container'  => false,
       	'items_wrap' => '',
       	'before' 	 => '',
       	'walker'	 => new BV_Custom_Nav_Footer
       );
       echo wp_nav_menu($args);
       ```
   
 * Problem is that this function outputs its own html. So I’m trying to make my 
   own walker class.
 * Basically I want the follow HTML markup:
 *     ```
       <a href="to1">Link 1</a>
       <a href="to2">Link 2</a>
       <a href="to3">Link 3</a>
       ```
   
 * 
 * At the moment I have this code in my functions.php file
 *     ```
       class BV_Custom_Nav_Footer extends Walker_Nav_Menu {
   
       	function start_lvl( &$output, $depth = 0, $args = array() ) {
   
       	}
   
       	function end_lvl( &$output, $depth = 0, $args = array() ) {
   
       	}
   
       	function start_el( &$output, $item, $depth = 0, $args = array(), $id = 0 ) {
       		$indent = ( $depth ) ? str_repeat( "\t", $depth ) : '';
   
       		$class_names = '';
   
       		$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 = "";
   
       		$atts = array();
       		$atts['title']  = ! empty( $item->attr_title ) ? $item->attr_title : '';
       		$atts['target'] = ! empty( $item->target )     ? $item->target     : '';
       		$atts['rel']    = ! empty( $item->xfn )        ? $item->xfn        : '';
       		$atts['href']   = ! empty( $item->url )        ? $item->url        : '';
   
       		$atts = apply_filters( 'nav_menu_link_attributes', $atts, $item, $args );
   
       		$attributes = '';
       		foreach ( $atts as $attr => $value ) {
       			if ( ! empty( $value ) ) {
       				$value = ( 'href' === $attr ) ? esc_url( $value ) : esc_attr( $value );
       				$attributes .= ' ' . $attr . '="' . $value . '"';
       			}
       		}
   
                       $item_output = $args->before;
       		$item_output .= '<a'. $attributes .'>';
       		/** This filter is documented in wp-includes/post-template.php */
       		$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() ) {
   
       	}
       }
       ```
   
 * This gives me a PHP Notice: Trying to get property of non-object for lines **
   49**, **52** and **54** which are:
 * line 49:
    `$item_output = $args->before;`
 * line 52:
    `$item_output .= $args->link_before . apply_filters( 'the_title', $
   item->title, $item->ID ) . $args->link_after;`
 * line 54:
    `$item_output .= $args->after;`
 * I’m trying to understand how the Walker_Nav_Menu class works but it’s tricky…
   so I guess any help is appreciated.
 * ——- **UPDATE ** ——–
 * This is really odd but the $args that are given in the wp_nav_menu is an array,
   not an object. The walker wouldn’t know what to do with an array… right?
 * Anyway, converting it to an object at the top of the **start_el** function made
   all the errors go away…
 * `$args = (object) $args;`

The topic ‘Custom walker for wp_nav_menu’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [custom](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/custom/)
 * [html](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/html/)
 * [Walker](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/walker/)
 * [wp_nav_menu()](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/wp_nav_menu/)

 * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/)
 * 0 replies
 * 1 participant
 * Last reply from: [virtous](https://wordpress.org/support/users/virtous/)
 * Last activity: [12 years, 2 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/custom-walker-for-wp_nav_menu/)
 * Status: not resolved

## Topics

### Topics with no replies

### Non-support topics

### Resolved topics

### Unresolved topics

### All topics