Menu Customizer Now in Development for WordPress 4.2

WordPress 4.1 was released just yesterday, but core contributors are already planning and working towards 4.2. The Menu Customizer feature plugin is back in development and contributors are hoping to have it ready for inclusion in 4.2. Nick Halsey, who originally started the Menu Customizer work as part of his Google Summer of Code project, will be leading the effort to get the feature prepared for the upcoming release.

During the last release cycle, Halsey was focused on improving the Customizer API in core to add dynamic and contextual controls, sections, and panels. The Menu Customizer plugin has now been updated to be compatible with WordPress 4.1 and is ready to pick up development where it left off. As it’s no longer a GSoC project, Halsey is now actively looking for contributors.

Currently, the menu customizer is usable and offers the ability to assign menus to locations, edit existing menus/menu items, and add new menus.

Halsey outlined a roadmap for preparing the Menu Customizer for merge, which includes a number of PHP and Javascript development tasks, including, but not limited to, the following:

Build-out the core API for adding Customizer sections and controls entirely with JavaScript, #30741 and its related tickets (PHP, JS)

Drag and Drop menu item reordering needs to do sub-menus (code imported from nav-menus.php is commented out in menu-customizer.js currently) (JS)

Fix problems with previewing updates to menu items, and with previewing newly-added menus once items are added (JS)

Redo the add-menu-items “panel” to lazy-load its contents & utilize Backbone sub-views (PHP, JS)

He also hopes to improve the experience of using the customizer on mobile, followed by getting the menu customizer plugin to work on mobile. Halsey is also looking for contributors to assist on the design, code review, a backwards-compatibility audit, and inline documentation.

If you’re curious about how the Menu Customizer works, anyone is welcome to try the plugin and offer feedback. For the time being, it is compatible with WordPress 4.1 but may require 4.2-alpha down the road as it progresses.

Contributor interest is critical for the Menu Customizer to have a shot at inclusion in WordPress 4.2. If you can help in any way, jump in on the Make/WordPress Core post to volunteer.