[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #19371: As of 3.3beta2 WP_Admin_Bar no longer provides a way to access attributes of existing menu items

[WordPress Trac]

#19371: As of 3.3beta2 WP_Admin_Bar no longer provides a way to access attributes
of existing menu items
--------------------------+-----------------------------
 Reporter:  willshouse    |      Owner:
     Type:  defect (bug)  |     Status:  new
 Priority:  normal        |  Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  General       |    Version:
 Severity:  normal        |   Keywords:
--------------------------+-----------------------------
 Up until around 3.3beta1 items in the `WP_Admin_Bar Object` could be
 accessed using this type of syntax, for example to change the CSS class of
 one of the existing menu items:

 {{{
 $wp_admin_bar->menu->{'wp-logo'}['meta']['class'] = 'new-class';
 }}}

 When running `print_r($wp_admin_bar)` the output looked something like
 this:

 {{{
 WP_Admin_Bar Object
 (
         [menu] => stdClass Object
                 (
                         [my-account] => Array
                                 (
 }}}

 However, around version `3.3beta2` the above syntax for changing a menu
 item's CSS class no longer works, and the output from
 `print_r($wp_admin_bar)` reveals a different structure for that object:

 {{{
 WP_Admin_Bar Object
 (
         [nodes:WP_Admin_Bar:private] => Array
                 (
                         [my-account] => stdClass Object
                                 (
                                         [id] => my-account

                                 )
 }}}

 I realize that Wordpress may not want me fiddling with the menus this way,
 and if there was a more standardized way to do this I would love to use
 it, but as far as I know there are only two functions that are available
 to modify the admin bar, `add_menu_item` and `remove_menu_item`, and these
 do not give the flexibility to do things like changing the attributes of
 existing menu items.

 To confirm, I looked at `wp-includes/class-wp-admin-bar.php` it is clear
 that Wordpress has changed the way they define the variables.


 Old Class

 {{{
 class WP_Admin_Bar {
         var $menu;
         var $proto = 'http://';
         var $user;
 }}}

 New Class

 {{{
 class WP_Admin_Bar {
         private $nodes = array();
         private $root = array();

         public $proto = 'http://';
         public $user;
 }}}

 So basically the problem is that there is no longer any way to access
 attributes for existing menu items in the WP admin bar unless I make
 changes to the WP core files myself.

 BTW I submitted this to Stack Exchange for suggestions (
 http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8286798/ ) and the response was that
 the `private` variables should be `protected` variables. At least that
 would give me something to work with.

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/19371>
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