Creating a Dynamic Navigation Menu for WordPress Users
If you’re building a WordPress website that requires users to log in, it’s important to have a dynamic navigation menu that displays different menu items based on whether users are logged in, logged out, or have a specific user role. For example, there’s no point in showing a register or login link to users who have already logged in, or providing a link to a user’s profile when they’re a visitor and don’t have a profile on your website.
Fortunately, there are various plugins available for creating dynamic navigation menus. In this article, we’ll explain how to create dynamic menus using the free User Menus plugin by Jungle Plugins.
Features of the User Menus Plugin
The User Menus plugin provides three main sets of features that are useful for creating dynamic menus:
1. Visibility controls for menu items: You can choose who can see each menu item, such as everyone, logged out users, logged in users, or specific user roles.
2. Logged in user information in the navigation menu: You can display information about the logged in user in the navigation menu, such as “Hello, John Doe.”
3. Login and logout links for the navigation menu: You can add links to allow users to log in or log out of your website.
Using the User Menus WordPress Plugin
Since User Menus is a free plugin hosted on the WordPress.org plugin directory, you can easily install it by following these steps:
1. Log into your WordPress installation.
2. From the Dashboard, navigate to Plugins > Add New.
3. Search for User Menus (created by Jungle Plugins & Daniel Iser).
4. Click the Install Now button.
5. Once the plugin is downloaded and installed, click to Activate Plugin.
Applying Visibility Controls to Menu Items
To apply visibility controls to menu items using the User Menus plugin, follow these steps:
1. From the Dashboard, navigate to Appearance > Menus.
2. Add a new menu item to your menu or expand an existing menu item.
3. Open the “Who can see this link” dropdown and select either Everyone, Logged Out Users, or Logged In Users (Everyone is the default option).
4. If you select Logged In Users, you can then select which user roles can see the menu item if you wish to restrict a menu item to a certain user role(s) only.
5. Once you have applied your desired visibility controls to your menu, click the Save Menu button.
Displaying Logged In User Information in the Navigation Menu
To display information about the logged in user in the navigation menu using the User Menus plugin, follow these steps:
1. From the Dashboard, navigate to Appearance > Menus.
2. Add a new menu item to your menu or expand an existing menu item.
3. Open the “Who can see this link” dropdown and select Logged In Users.
4. Go to the menu item’s navigation label field and click on the grey button with the arrow.
5. Select the user information you want to show in the menu item, such as {first_name}, {last_name}, {username}, {display_name}, {nickname}, or {email}.
6. Click the Save Menu button.
Now when a user logs into your website, they will see their name in your website’s navigation menu.
Adding a Login and Logout Link to Your Menu
To add login and logout links to your website’s navigation menu using the User Menus plugin, follow these steps:
1. From the Dashboard, navigate to Appearance > Menus.
2. In the “Add a new menu item” accordion, click on User Links to expand the menu item type.
3. Select the checkbox for the Login and Logout links and click the Add to Menu button.
4. Expand the menu items and open the “Where should users be taken afterwards?” dropdown and select either Current Page (default option), Home Page, or Custom URL (if selected, you will then need to enter a URL that users should be redirected to).
5. Click the Save Menu button.
That’s it! You’ve now added a dynamic navigation system to your website to improve the experience for your website’s users. If you have any questions or want to share your own experience using User Menus or another plugin, feel free to leave a comment below.
