Classes set with nav_menu_css_class are not accessible in walker_nav_menu_start_el

[jamesmehorter]

Hello,

If you use the filter hook nav_menu_css_class to add classes to a menu item, those classes are not available in other menu filter hooks like walker_nav_menu_start_el. This can be found in the start_el function in wp-includes/nav-menu-template.php. I would think line 75:

$class_names = join( ' ', apply_filters( 'nav_menu_css_class', array_filter( $classes ), $item, $args ) );

Should merge those $class_names back into $item.

Thanks

[ericlewis]

I don't see a utility in having the class names of the <li> wrapper in the filter for the inner output (walker_nav_menu_start_el).

@jamesmehorter can you provide a use case?

[jamesmehorter]

Use case:

I needed to add a little <div></div> inside menu <li>'s with the classes current-page-ancestor or current_page_parent.

If I added either of those classes manually via nav_menu_css_class, I was then unable to access those classes in the later-run walker_nav_menu_start_el hook to add the html.

(When using a page as a CPT ancestor you have to manually add the classes as mentioned above)

@ericlewis - regardless of use, a later-run hook should always have the most current object-whatever it is. Given that nav_menu_css_class runs before walker_nav_menu_start_el - any change made to the menu via nav_menu_css_class should be accessible in any later hook.

Does that help?

[tyxla]

Merging the CSS classes after the "nav_menu_css_class" filter back to $item->classes

[tyxla]

I just found myself in a similar situation to the use case that @jamesmehorter described above.
I've just attached a small patch that resolves this one.