Upgrade wp_list_pages() to wp_nav_menu()

Following in the series dealing with upgrading to the wp_nav_menu() function in WordPress 3.0 from menus derived from the template tags: wp_page_menu(); wp_list_pages(); and, wp_list_categories(). This post will be covering the options involved in updating to wp_nav_menu() from wp_list_pages().

Like the last post in the series we will look at the default arguments used by each function, starting with wp_nav_menu() ¹:

wp_nav_menu( array(
    'menu'              => '',
    'container'         => 'div',
    'container_class'   => '',
    'container_id'      => '',
    'menu_class'        => 'menu',
    'menu_id'           => '',
    'echo'              => true,
    'fallback_cb'       => 'wp_page_menu',
    'before'            => '',
    'after'             => '',
    'link_before'       => '',
    'link_after'        => '',
    'depth'             => 0,
    'walker'            => '',
    'theme_location'    => ''
    ) );

The following is a default “menu” version of wp_list_pages() ^{2, 3}, often wrapped within a <ul class=”menu”> tag:

<ul class="menu">
<?php wp_list_pages( array(
    'sort_column'       => 'menu_order, post_title',
    'include'           => '',
    'exclude'           => '',
    'exclude_tree'      => '',
    'child_of'          => 0,
    'show_date'         => '',
    'date_format'       => get_option('date_format'),
    'title_li'          => __(''),
    /* 'title_li' set to '' for menus from the default 'Pages' */
    'authors'           => '',
    'echo'              => 1,
    'link_before'       => '',
    'link_after'        => '',
    'depth'             => 0,
    'walker'            => ''
    ) ); ?>
</ul>

Here is the break-down of the wp_list_pages() default options from above:

• 'sort_column' – not used
• 'include' – not used
• 'exclude' – not used
• 'exclude_tree' – not used
• 'child_of' – not used
• 'show_date' – not used
• 'date_format' – not used
• 'title_li' – not used, see below for additional notes
• 'authors' – not used
• 'echo' – similar to wp_nav_menu(); true versus 1 as value
• 'link_before' – same as wp_nav_menu()
• 'link_after' – same as wp_nav_menu()
• 'depth' – same as wp_nav_menu()
• 'walker' – same as wp_nav_menu()

Similar to wp_page_menu(), the ‘sort_column’, ‘include’, ‘exclude’, ‘exclude_tree’, and ‘child_of’ are replaced via the end-user’s specific choices. The ‘show_date’ and its related ‘date_format’ option, as well as the ‘author’ argument, are not available within the default wp_nav_menu() structure. Once again, the balance of the default options in wp_list_pages() matches the defaults found in wp_nav_menu().

Also consider setting the wp_nav_menu() fallback_cb option to 'fallback_cb' => 'wp_list_pages'. This backward compatibility may also be addressed with a custom function as posted by Nicolas Kuttler.

Note: If the 'title_li' => __('') option was being used it may also require the removal of the wrapping <ul> tag in the existing menu structure created with wp_list_pages().