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Nav Menu Roles

By HelgaTheViking

Site Administration & Utilities / URL Redirects & 301 Management

Nav Menu Roles Review - In-Depth Analysis

Hide custom menu items based on user roles. Customize visibility for logged in, logged out, or all users.

Performance Overview

WPS Score

6.52/10

User Rating

4.9/5 (based on 218+ reviews)

Active Installations

70,000+

Update Frequency

Average It is calculated using the weighted average of same category plugins.

Security Score

1 / 10 (Very Low Risk) It is calculated using the weighted average of all versions.

What It Does

This plugin lets you hide custom menu items based on user roles. So if you have a link in the menu that you only want to show to logged in users, certain types of users, or even only to logged out users, this plugin is for you.

Nav Menu Roles is very flexible. In addition to standard user roles, you can customize the functionality by adding your own check boxes with custom labels using the nav_menu_roles filter and then using the nav_menu_roles_item_visibility filter to check against whatever criteria you need. You can check against any user meta values and any custom attributes added by other plugins.

IMPORTANT NOTE: In WordPress, menu items and pages are completely separate entities. Nav Menu Roles does not restrict access to content. It is only for showing or hiding nav menu items. If you wish to restrict content, you need to also be using a membership plugin.

Support is handled in the WordPress forums. Please note that support is limited and does not cover any custom implementation of the plugin. Before posting, please read the FAQ. Also, please verify the problem with other plugins disabled and while using a default theme.

Comparing to Alternatives

Nav Menu Roles stands out among menu management plugins by focusing on user role-based menu visibility. While alternatives exist, this plugin offers a straightforward approach without unnecessary complexity.

Top alternatives

Nav Menu Roles

Strengths

Simple and intuitive user interface.
Effectively controls menu item visibility based on user roles.
Lightweight and easy to install.
No unnecessary features, focusing on core functionality.

Weaknesses

Limited to role-based menu visibility only.
No advanced customization options.
Lacks integration with other user management plugins.

User Sentiment Analysis

Users consistently praise Nav Menu Roles for its simplicity and effectiveness in managing menu visibility. Feedback highlights ease of use and reliable performance.

Positive highlights

"Amazing plugin and works very well." - A Z
"Easy to use, simply works!" - Constantin Boiangiu
"Exactly what I wanted with the right amount of UI." - Topher
"Good plugin with sleek, discreet design." - artvueuk
"So easy to install and use." - marcusvernon

Common complaints

Limited features beyond role-based visibility.
No premium version for extended functionality.

Weaknesses

Lacks advanced customization.
No support for complex user conditions.

Who Should Use This?

Best for

Site administrators who need a straightforward solution to control menu visibility based on user roles without extra complexity.

Not ideal for

Users seeking advanced menu customization or integration with other user management tools may find this plugin too basic.

Pricing & Value

Free version includes

The free version includes all core features needed to manage menu visibility by user roles effectively without any restrictions.

Final Verdict

Nav Menu Roles is a reliable and easy-to-use plugin that fulfills its purpose of controlling menu visibility based on user roles efficiently.

While it lacks advanced features and a premium version, its simplicity and effectiveness make it a great choice for users needing straightforward menu role management.

Other Notable Features

Here are a few other notable features of this free Nav Menu Roles plugin.

menu visibility

user roles

nav menu

Screenshots

FAQ

This is likely due to a conflict with another plugin (or theme).

As of WordPress 5.4 the wp_nav_menu_item_custom_fields hook has been added to WordPress core.

Nav Menu Roles is therefore attaching directly to this hook without needing to replace the custom Admin Menu Walker, of which there can still be only one. If the Walker is replaced by a theme/plugin and the core hook is not included, then Nav Menu Roles cannot add it’s fields.

A non-exhaustive list of known conflicts:

UberMenu 2.x Mega Menus plugin (UberMenu 3.x supports NMR!)
Add Descendants As Submenu Items plugin
Navception plugin
Suffusion theme
BeTheme
Yith Menu
Jupiter Theme
iMedica theme
Prostyler EVO theme
Mega Main Plugin

Shazdeh had the genius idea to not wait for a core hook and simply add the hook ourselves. If all plugin and theme authors use the same hook, we can make our plugins play together.

Prior to WordPress 5.4, I used this idea and modified my admin nav menu Walker to only adding the following lines (right after the description input):

<?php  // Place this in your admin nav menu Walker do_action( 'wp_nav_menu_item_custom_fields', $item_id, $item, $depth, $args, $id ); // end added section  ?>

Since WordPress 5.4, I no longer replace the Walker at all and would advise other plugins and themes to do the same.

But for those that still are, they definitely need to include the now-core hook.

Ask your conflicting plugin/theme’s author to add this code to their plugin or theme and our plugins will become compatible.

Should you wish to attempt this patch yourself, you can modify your conflicting plugin/theme’s admin menu Walker class.

Reminder: I do not provide support for fixing your plugin/theme. If you aren’t comfortable with the following instructions, contact the developer of the conflicting plugin/theme!

1. Find the class that extends the Walker_Nav_Menu. The fastest way to do this is to search your whole plugin/theme folder for extends Walker_Nav_Menu. When you find the file that contains this text you will know which file you need to edit. Once you find it here’s what the beginning of that class will look like:

class YOUR_THEME_CUSTOM_WALKER extends Walker_Nav_Menu {}

2. Find the start_el() method

In that file you will eventually see a class method that looks like:

function start_el( &$output, $item, $depth = 0, $args = array(), $id = 0 ) {   // some stuff truncated for brevity }

3. Paste the action hook somewhere in this method!

In Nav Menu Roles, I have placed the hook directly after the description, like so:

<p class="field-description description description-wide">   <label for="edit-menu-item-description-<?php echo $item_id; ?>">     <?php _e( 'Description' ); ?><br />     <textarea id="edit-menu-item-description-<?php echo $item_id; ?>" class="widefat edit-menu-item-description" rows="3" cols="20" name="menu-item-description[<?php echo $item_id; ?>]"><?php echo esc_html( $item->description ); // textarea_escaped ?></textarea>     <span class="description"><?php _e('The description will be displayed in the menu if the current theme supports it.'); ?></span>   </label> </p>  <?php  // Add this directly after the description paragraph in the start_el() method do_action( 'wp_nav_menu_item_custom_fields', $item_id, $item, $depth, $args, $id ); // end added section  ?>

The roles in NMR are filterable distinct from the global $wp_roles. This allows for compatibility to be added between plugins that don’t use the core roles to determine access, like some membership plugins.

/**  * Add custom roles to Nav Menu Roles menu list  * param: $roles an array of all available roles, by default is global $wp_roles   * return: array  */ function kia_new_roles( $roles ) {   $roles['new-role-key'] = 'new-role';   return $roles; } add_filter( 'nav_menu_roles', 'kia_new_roles' );

Note, if you want to add a WordPress capability the above is literally all you need. Because Nav Menu Roles checks whether a role has permission to view the menu item using current_user_can($role) you do not need to right a custom callback for thenav_menu_roles_item_visibility` filter.

In case you do need to check your visibility status against something very custom, here is how you’d go about it:

/**   * Change visibility of each menu item   * @param bool $visible   * @param obj $item The complete menu object. Nav Menu Roles adds its info to the following keys {   *         roles - Possible value: "in" (all logged in) | "out" (all logged out) | an array of specific roles, ex: [ "administrator", "editor" ]   *         display_mode - Possible values: "show" (show if conditions met) | "hide" (hide if conditions met)   * return boolean   */ function kia_item_visibility( $visible, $item ) {   if ( isset( $item->roles ) && is_array( $item->roles ) && in_array( 'new-role-key', $item->roles ) ) {   /*  if ( // your own custom check on the current user versus 'new-role' status ) {         $visible = true;       } else {         $visible = false;     }   */  }   return $visible; } add_filter( 'nav_menu_roles_item_visibility', 'kia_item_visibility', 10, 2 );

Note that you have to generate your own if/then logic. I can’t provide free support for custom integration with another plugin. You may contact me to discuss hiring me, or I would suggest using a plugin that supports WordPress’ roles, such as Justin Tadlock’s Members.

Add the following snippet to your theme’s functions.php file:

/*  * Sort the NMR roles  * @param: $roles an array of all available roles with ID=>Name  * @return: array  */ function kia_sort_roles( $roles ) {   if ( is_admin() ) {     $array_lowercase = array_map( 'strtolower', $roles );     array_multisort( $array_lowercase, SORT_ASC, SORT_STRING, $roles );     return $roles;   } } add_filter( 'nav_menu_roles', 'kia_sort_roles' );

If every item in your menu is configured to display to logged in users (either all logged in users, or by specific role), then when a logged out visitor comes to your site there are no items in the menu to display. wp_nav_menu() will then try check its fallback_cb argument… which defaults to wp_page_menu.

Therefore, if you have no items to display, WordPress will end up displaying ALL your pages!!

If you don’t want this, you must set the fallback argument to be a null string.

wp_nav_menu( array( 'theme_location' => 'primary-menu', 'fallback_cb' => '' ) );

You must do this for every effected instance of wp_nav_menu() in your theme templates. It is not possible for me to tell you where they are located, but header.php is a very common location for the main menu.

Alternatively, you could do this universally by adding the following snippet to your child theme’s function.php file or by adding it via the Code Snippets plugin:

/**  * Disables the fallback page menu for all menus  *  * @param array $args Array of wp_nav_menu() arguments.  * @return array  */ function kia_nav_menu_args( $args ) {   $args['fallback_cb'] = '';   return $args; } add_filter( 'wp_nav_menu_args', 'kia_nav_menu_args' );