Preparing a WordPress menu item as an argument for wp_update_nav_menu_item()

Menu items in WordPress are just posts, but before you can update a nav menu item, you need to do some translation of the Post object into something that wp_update_nav_menu_item will understand.

Below is a function that will take a menu item as an array (e.g. as it is returned from the REST API) and convert the array keys to something that’s ready for wp_update_nav_menu_item() to act on:

  public function prepareMenuItemForUpdate($menu_item_data = []) {

    /* Classes can't be an array, convert it to a string */
    $classes = is_array($menu_item_data['classes']) ? join(' ', $menu_item_data['classes']) : $menu_item_data['classes'];

    $ret = array(
      'menu-item-db-id'         => $menu_item_data['ID'],
      'menu-item-object-id'     => $menu_item_data['object_id'],
      'menu-item-object'        => $menu_item_data['object'],
      'menu-item-parent-id'     => $menu_item_data['menu_item_parent'],
      'menu-item-position'      => $menu_item_data['menu_order'],
      'menu-item-type'          => $menu_item_data['type'],
      'menu-item-title'         => $menu_item_data['title'],
      'menu-item-url'           => $menu_item_data['url'],
      'menu-item-description'   => $menu_item_data['description'],
      'menu-item-attr-title'    => $menu_item_data['attr_title'],
      'menu-item-target'        => $menu_item_data['target'],
      'menu-item-classes'       => $classes,
      'menu-item-xfn'           => $menu_item_data['xfn'],
      'menu-item-status'        => $menu_item_data['post_status'],
      'menu-item-post-date'     => $menu_item_data['post_date'],
      'menu-item-post-date-gmt' => $menu_item_data['post_date_gmt'],
    );

    if ($ret['menu-item-description'] == null) {
      $ret['menu-item-description'] = " "; //This needs a blank space if unset
    }

    if ($ret['menu-item-attr-title'] === null) {
      $ret['menu-item-attr-title'] = "";
    }

    return $ret;

  }
}