Parent menu item is still rendered as dropdown when all submenu items are hidden

[benniledl]

If a menu item has child items, and all of those child items are hidden (by right-clicking and hiding them in the list view on the left side of the editor), the parent item is still displayed as if it had a submenu.

As a result, the parent item still shows the submenu indicator arrow and is treated like a dropdown trigger, even though there are no submenu items left.

[niravsherasiya7707]

@benniledl Could you please share more context about the issue and reproduction steps for the issue?

[khushipatel15]

Can You check and add this code snippet.
File: wp-includes/blocks/navigation-link.php

function render_block_core_navigation_link( $attributes, $content, $block ) {

$parent_block = $block; The current navigation-link block being rendered.

... (existing attribute extraction and HTML markup generation for the <a> tag) ...

--- START PROPOSED FIX ---
Determine if this navigation link block has *any visible* inner navigation link blocks.
The navigation block structure is typically:
core/navigation-link (parent)
-> core/submenus
-> [core/navigation-link, core/navigation-link, ...] (children)
$has_visible_submenu_items = false;
if ( ! empty( $parent_block->inner_blocks ) ) {

Assume the first inner block is core/submenus.
This is a safe assumption for a valid navigation-link with children.
$submenu_block = $parent_block->inner_blocks[0];

if ( 'core/submenus' === $submenu_block->name && ! empty( $submenu_block->inner_blocks ) ) {

foreach ( $submenu_block->inner_blocks as $child_link_block ) {

if ( 'core/navigation-link' === $child_link_block->name ) {

Check the 'metadata.visibility' attribute of the child link block.
Default to 'visible' if the attribute is not explicitly set.
$child_metadata = isset( $child_link_block->parsed_blockattrs?metadata? ) ? $child_link_block->parsed_blockattrs?metadata? : array();
$child_visibility = isset( $child_metadatavisibility? ) ? $child_metadatavisibility? : 'visible';

if ( 'hidden' !== $child_visibility ) {

$has_visible_submenu_items = true;
break; Found at least one visible child, so this parent has a visible submenu.

}

}

}

}

}

Replace the existing $has_submenu = ! empty( $parent_block->inner_blocks );
with the new logic based on visible children.
$has_submenu = $has_visible_submenu_items;
--- END PROPOSED FIX ---

Add classes to the <li> element based on $has_submenu.
$li_classes = array();
if ( $has_submenu ) {

$li_classes[] = 'has-link-submenu'; This class often triggers dropdown styling.
Add other classes like 'wp-block-navigation-item--has-submenu' as needed.

}
... (further class processing for current item, etc.) ...

Build the content of the <li> element.
$list_item_content = $block_markup . $attributeslabel? . '</a>'; The <a> tag and label.

if ( $has_submenu ) {

Add the submenu indicator arrow button.
$list_item_content .= '<button aria-label="' . esc_attr( 'Open submenu', 'default' ) . '" class="wp-block-navigationsubmenu-icon wp-block-navigation-itemcontent-icon" data-wp-action="core#toggle" data-wp-on--click="actions.toggleMenuOnHover" data-wp-on--keydown="actions.toggleMenuOnHover" data-wp-bind--aria-expanded="state.isMenuOpen"></button>';

}

Render inner blocks (the actual submenu). These will automatically filter based on their own visibility.
$inner_blocks_content = ;
foreach ( $parent_block->inner_blocks as $inner_block ) {

The core/submenus block itself also needs to ensure it only renders visible children,
but its render callback usually handles this.
$inner_blocks_content .= $inner_block->render();

}

Assemble the final list item HTML.
return '<li class="' . esc_attr( implode( ' ', $li_classes ) ) . '">' . $list_item_content . $inner_blocks_content . '</li>';

}

[devasheeshkaul]

Thank you for sharing the report. I've also created an issue with a fix PR on Gutenberg repo for the same to be handled there as well.

Issue: ​https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/78147
PR: ​https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/pull/78148