Food menu not appearing?

[Sentido Funf]

Hey guys,

I’m trying to organise my food menu groups and food items through my home page sidebar navigation. When I go to Appearance>Menu, my only options to add to a new menu are:

Custom Links
Pages
Categories

How do I find the food menu groups and food items that I have already published?

Thanks,
Francis

[Bill Robbins]

Fancis,

Thank you for your business and great question. WordPress sometimes hids the menu groups in the navigation builder.

To make it visible, click “screen options” in your navigation builder and check the box next to “menu groups” and any other sections you’d like to make visible. That will make the menu section visible so you can add it.

If you have any trouble, let me know.

Enjoy your weekend,
Bill

[Sentido Funf]

Great thanks Bill,

I have the menu groups working now but I’m wondering if there is a way to put multiple menu groups on the one page.

I have a short menu to work with and want it to all load on the one page, reading something like:

BURGERS
Cheese burger
w/ fries
Fat Eddy
w/ fries and salad

SHARED
Buffalo wings
w/ Ranch
Wedges
w/ Sour Cream

MAINS
Chicken Parmigiana
w/ salad
BEEF AND MUSHROOM PIE
w/ fries

Of course there are more items under each menu heading but you get the idea. Is this possible?

[Bill Robbins]

It is possible to do that. The easiest option is to add your menu items to a master group that has your entire menu in it, and then add that to your navigation. The only catch there is you won’t have the headings separating the sections.

If you do want to have the headings in between each group, that can be done. In order to do that, I’ll need to create a custom page template for you.

Just send me the names of each menu group you’d like to add and I’ll use those to create the page template for you.

Bill

[Sentido Funf]

That would be fantastic Bill!

I would like simply ‘Menu’ to appear in the side bar navigation. After clicking into the menu I would like the following three headings (which I currently have set as my menu groups) all showing on the same page with their individual food items underneath:

TO SHARE

BURGERS

MEALS

If you need any more info just let me know.

Thanks again,
Francis

[Bill Robbins]

Francis,

No problem. I’ll set it up for you and let you know when it’s ready. Most likely it will be this evening to give you a time table.

Bill

[Bill Robbins]

Francis,

Ok, here’s what you’ll need to do to create the template.

1. Go to the Plugins section of your WordPress control panel and select “Add New.”
2. Search for “WP Editor” and install/activate the plugin.
3. Next open up a text editor on your computer. You can use Notepad on a PC or Textedit on a Mac.
4. Create a new file called page-menu.php and use this code for the content:

5. Save your changes.
6. Next go to the Appearance section in your WordPress control panel and select “Theme Editor.”
7. In the top right you’ll see an area labeled “upload files.” If you don’t see it, go to WP Editor at the bottom of your control panel menu and select “Theme Editor.” Make sure the checkbox next to “upload files” is checked.
8. In the file upload area, choose the page-menu.php file you created earlier and upload it. It doesn’t need to go in a sub-directory.
9. Next choose the style.css file from the list of files on your right and paste this at the very bottom:

   
   .page-template-page-menu-php ul {
   	margin-bottom: 20px;
   }
   

10. Save your changes.
11. Next go to the “Pages” section of your WordPress control panel.
12. Select “Add new” and create a new page.
13. In the right hand column, you’ll see a box labeled “Page Attributes” with a drop-down menu called “Templates.”
14. Choose “Menu” from the drop-down and publish your page.
15. Add the new page to your navigation where you’d like it to be displayed.

That’s how you add in the new menu. I created a spot for three menu groups (To Start, Burgers, and Meals).

If you have any trouble, here’s what I would check first. The template is set to find your menu items based on what’s called the “slug” of the menu group. I assumed the slugs to be:

to-start, burgers, meals

based on the names. If you don’t see your menu items, check the slugs by going to “Food” and selecting “Menu Groups.” There you can edit the slugs so they match the ones above.

Let me know if you run into any trouble or have any questions.

Thanks again and enjoy your weekend,
Bill

[Sentido Funf]

Thanks a lot for that Bill, all worked perfectly.

The two other minor changes I wanted to make was:

– to have the info appear in the side bar that appears for menu groups (as oppose to generic pages).

– to put just one line of space between the last item in each displayed menu group and the title of the next.

You can see what I mean on the page: http://sentidofunf.com.au/?page_id=49

Also is there an easy way to change the order in which food items appear in each menu group?

Thanks again for smashing out all that code for me, great help!

Francis

[Bill Robbins]

Francis,

Let’s see if we can’t get you straightened out:

1) You can use the menu sidebar area on the custom page. Here’s how:

1. Go to the theme editor again, and select “sidebar” from the list of files on your right.
2. Look for this spot:

   
   elseif(is_tax( 'service-group' ) && is_active_sidebar('sidebar-services')) : dynamic_sidebar('sidebar-services');
   

3. Create a new line above that and paste this:

   
    elseif(is_page_template( 'page-menu.php' ) ) : dynamic_sidebar('sidebar-food');
   

4. Save your changes.

That will let you use the menu sidebar on your new page, once you select the “Menu” template (see next point).

2) For the spacing, don’t forget to assign the menu template to your menu page. Since your page has the “name” menu it’s picking up the actual menu items, but not the extra styling you added in step 9 above. Make sure to set the page template and it should pick up that styling which will give you the space at the bottom of each menu group.

If you have any trouble or questions, just let me know,
Bill

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