how to filter default nav menu

HI @mcbmcb0 It should be possible to do that still with the wp_nav_menu_items filter. I’m not sure about the default menu – but if you are able to use the menu ID it should work with the method shown here:
https://developer.www.ads-software.com/reference/hooks/wp_nav_menu_items/

It really depends on what block is outputting the nav menu item. Assuming it’s the Navigation Link block, you could filter render_block_core/navigation-link.

Here’s the specific hook for filtering a specific block: https://developer.www.ads-software.com/reference/hooks/render_block_this-name/

But it’d help to know more precisely what you’re trying to accomplish to offer the best advice.

This will filter the navigation block in Twenty Twenty Four.

add_filter( 'render_block_core/navigation', 'wpsites_nav_menu_admins', 10, 2 );
function wpsites_nav_menu_admins( $block_content, $block ) {

if ( isset( $block['blockName'] ) && 'core/navigation' === $block['blockName'] ) {

        if ( is_user_logged_in() && current_user_can( 'administrator' ) ) {

            $custom_message = '<p class="admin-message">Welcome, Admin!</p>';
            
            $block_content = $custom_message . $block_content;
        }
    }

    return $block_content;
}

To target a specific menu item., use code like this :

add_filter( 'render_block_core/navigation', 'wpsites_modify_specific_menu_item_for_admins', 10, 2 );
function wpsites_modify_specific_menu_item_for_admins( $block_content, $block ) {

    if ( isset( $block['blockName'] ) && 'core/navigation' === $block['blockName'] ) {

        if ( is_user_logged_in() && current_user_can( 'administrator' ) ) {
    
            $dom = new DOMDocument();
          
            @$dom->loadHTML('<?xml encoding="utf-8" ?>' . $block_content, LIBXML_HTML_NOIMPLIED | LIBXML_HTML_NODEFDTD);
            
  
            $xpath = new DOMXPath($dom);
            

            $menu_items = $xpath->query('//a');

            foreach ($menu_items as $menu_item) {
              
                if ($menu_item->textContent === 'Product') {
                 
                   $menu_item->setAttribute('class', 'admin-custom-class');
                    
             
                    // $menu_item->setAttribute('href', 'https://example.com/admin-special');
                }
            }

         
            $block_content = $dom->saveHTML();
        }
    }


    return $block_content;
}

Hi

thanks for your suggestons. the goal is to hide a menu item for non-admins. As far as i can tell, i’ve duplicated and modified the standard nav menu under ‘patterns’.

unfortunately, the filters for wp_nav_menu_items and render_block_core/navigation-link don’t fire for me, but ‘render_block_core/navigation‘ does! i can catch the item with the code suggested by Brad (thanks!).

$menu_item->parentNode->removeChild($menu_item) would error, so I can hide it by

$menu_item->setAttribute('href', '');
$menu_item->textContent='';

which does leave some padding for the empty <a> , but its tolerable.

On a side note, i’m slightly shocked I have to crawl the DOM to find it, but it runs fast enough regardless.

thanks again!

even better – given we’re in the DOM, i add an item to the nav menu when the conditons are met (rather than removing one when they are now – more fail-safe:

?$frag = $dom->createDocumentFragment();

$frag->appendXML( '<li class=" wp-block-navigation-item wp-block-navigation-link">

? ? ?<a class="wp-block-navigation-item__content" href="/Admin-info/">

? ? ?<span class="wp-block-navigation-item__label">Admin</span></a></li>');

$menu_item->parentNode->AppendChild( $frag ); // at then end