README

A WordPress Gutenberg block that renders classic navigation menus via wp_nav_menu(). Designed as a standalone Composer library that any theme can include.

Features

Menu selector — pick any registered nav menu from a dropdown
Theme location — dynamically lists locations registered by the active theme via register_nav_menus()
Container options — <nav>, <div>, or no wrapper; custom CSS class and aria-label
Depth control — limit how many hierarchy levels to render
Whitespace — preserve or discard whitespace inside the HTML
Reusable — save as a synced pattern for use across the site
Server-side rendered — live preview in the editor via ServerSideRender
Automatically enables Appearance → Menus — even in block themes that don't declare add_theme_support( 'menus' )

Requirements

Requirement	Minimum
WordPress	6.4+
PHP	7.4+
Node.js (development only)	20+

Installation

Via Composer (recommended)

composer require smartlogix/legacy-nav-menu-block

Then load Composer's autoloader in your theme's functions.php (if you haven't already):

require_once __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';

That's it — the block auto-registers via the autoloader. No additional code needed.

Manual installation

Download the release .zip from Releases, extract it into your theme, and require the bootstrap file:

require_once get_template_directory() . '/legacy-nav-menu-block/legacy-nav-menu.php';

Usage

Search for "Legacy Nav Menu" in the block inserter. Configure via the sidebar:

Setting	Description
Menu	Select a specific nav menu or auto-select the first one
Theme Location	Pick a registered theme location; takes precedence over Menu
Container element	`<nav>` (default), `<div>`, or none
Container CSS class	Custom class on the container element
Container aria-label	Accessible label (only for `<nav>`)
Menu CSS class	Class applied to the `<ul>`
Depth	0 = all levels; 1–10 limits hierarchy
Whitespace	Preserve or discard whitespace in HTML output

Tip: If you want theme locations to appear in the block's dropdown, register them with register_nav_menus() in your theme as usual. The block fetches available locations dynamically via the REST API.

Development

git clone https://github.com/namithj/legacy-nav-menu-block.git
cd legacy-nav-menu-block
npm install
npm start        # watch mode
npm run build    # production build
npm run lint:js
npm run lint:css

Releasing

Update the version in composer.json, package.json, block.json, and legacy-nav-menu.php.
Run npm run build and commit the updated build/ directory.
Push to main, then create a GitHub Release.
The Release workflow verifies the build and attaches a .zip to the release.
Packagist auto-updates via its GitHub webhook.

License

GPL-2.0-or-later — see LICENSE.

smartlogix / legacy-nav-menu-block

Maintainers

Details