How to set the parent of menu items creating using hook_menu()?

Question

I need creating a series of menu items dynamically based on values from the database.

Here is a example of my hook_menu() function; in this snippet, I removed the DB queries and just added an array to prove the concept:

function MYMODULE_menu() {
  $years = array(2011, 2010, 2009);

  foreach ($years as $year) {
    $items['events/' . $year] = array(
      'title' => $year . ' Events Archive',
      'page callback' => 'page_archive',
      'page arguments' => array(1),             
      'access callback' => TRUE,
      'type' => MENU_NORMAL_ITEM,
      'menu_name' => 'main-menu',
    );  
  }

  return $items;
}

This works and I get three menu items in the Main Menu titled 2011 Events Archive, 2010 Events Archive and 2009 Events Archive.

The problem I am having is the position of the dynamically created menu items in the Main Menu tree; they appear at the top level, but I want they appear under the parent Events menu item.

Currently, my menu tree looks something similar to the following.

• Home
• Events
• About Us
• Contact Us
• 2011 Events Archive
• 2010 Events Archive 2009 Events Archive

It should look like the following.

• Home
• Events
  • 2011 Events Archive
  • 2010 Events Archive
  • 2009 Events Archive
• About Us
• Contact Us

I know you can move the menu items using the Menu editor UI when logged in, but as these will be automatically created by the system; they need to appear automatically under Events without human intervention.

How can this be done? Is there an easier way to do this?

Answer 1

Since the Events menu item links to a node, for which events is a path alias, what you are trying to achieve should work if you define the menu items using the following code (I use "11" as node ID).

function MYMODULE_menu() {
  $years = array(2011, 2010, 2009);

  foreach ($years as $year) {
    $items['node/11/' . $year] = array(
      'title' => $year . ' Events Archive',
      'page callback' => 'page_archive',
      'page arguments' => array(1),             
      'access callback' => TRUE,
      'type' => MENU_NORMAL_ITEM,
      'menu_name' => 'main-menu',
    );  
  }

  return $items;
}

This is necessary because, if events is a path alias for node/11, Drupal doesn't expand events/2011 to node/11/2011. In the same way, it will not expand events/edit to node/11/edit, even thought the Node module defines nodes/%node/edit as one of its menu items.

Answer 2

<?php
/**
 * GOAL AND STRATEGY:
 *
 * node/6 is a top level menu item in a custom menu called 'menu-main-menu'. I'm
 * creating a child menu item using hook_menu with the path of 'member/pick'. I
 * want this menu item to be rendered as a child of node/6 in the main menu, and
 * I want all of this to happen programatically.
 * 
 * Here's how...
 * 
 * 1. Create the child item using hook_menu
 * 2. In hook_menu_link_alter, lookup the mlid of node/6 and apply it as the
 * plid of the child item
 * 
 */

/**
 * Implementation of hook_menu()
 */
function hook_menu() {
  $items = array();
  $items['member/pick'] = array(
    'title' => 'Member Pick',
    'menu_name' => 'menu-main-menu',
    'page callback' => 'member_pick_page',
    'access callback' => TRUE,
    'type' => MENU_NORMAL_ITEM,
  );    
  return $items;
}

/**
 * Implementation of hook_menu_link_alter
 */
function hook_menu_link_alter(&$item) {
  if ($item['page callback'] == 'member_pick_page') {
    $parent_normal_path = 'node/6';
    $plid = db_result(db_query("SELECT mlid FROM {menu_links} WHERE link_path = '%s'", $parent_normal_path));
    $item['plid'] = $plid;
  }
}

Answer 3

Here's how I do it... First, create a menu item that will be representing the group:

$items['admin/content/example'] = array(
  'title' => 'Example menu group',
  'page callback' => 'example_page_2011',
  'access arguments' => array('administer nodes'),
);

Then add your menu items below this group:

foreach ($years as $year) {
  $items['admin/content/example/' . $year] = array(
    'title' => $year,
    'page callback' => 'example_page_' . $year,
    'access arguments' => array('administer nodes'),
    'type' => MENU_LOCAL_TASK,
  );
}

Event though it works (tested on 7.22), I still don't like that redundancy in page callback. If only there was a type called MENU_GROUP... Any better solution is appreciated.