Wordpress - Convert output of nav_menu items into a tree-like multidimensional array

The problem of building a tree from a flat array has been solved here with this, slightly modified, recursive solution:

/**
 * Modification of "Build a tree from a flat array in PHP"
 *
 * Authors: @DSkinner, @ImmortalFirefly and @SteveEdson
 *
 * @link https://stackoverflow.com/a/28429487/2078474
 */
function buildTree( array &$elements, $parentId = 0 )
{
    $branch = array();
    foreach ( $elements as &$element )
    {
        if ( $element->menu_item_parent == $parentId )
        {
            $children = buildTree( $elements, $element->ID );
            if ( $children )
                $element->wpse_children = $children;

            $branch[$element->ID] = $element;
            unset( $element );
        }
    }
    return $branch;
}

where we added the prefixed wpse_children attribute to avoid name collision.

Now we only have to define a simple helper function:

/**
 * Transform a navigational menu to it's tree structure
 *
 * @uses  buildTree()
 * @uses  wp_get_nav_menu_items()
 *
 * @param  String     $menud_id 
 * @return Array|null $tree 
 */
function wpse_nav_menu_2_tree( $menu_id )
{
    $items = wp_get_nav_menu_items( $menu_id );
    return  $items ? buildTree( $items, 0 ) : null;
}

Now it becomes super easy to transform a navigational menu into it's tree structure with:

$tree = wpse_nav_menu_2_tree( 'my_menu' );  // <-- Modify this to your needs!
print_r( $tree );

For JSON, we can simply use:

$json = json_encode( $tree );

For a slightly different version, where we handpicked the attributes, check out the first revision of this answer here.

Update: Walker Class

Here's a rather sketchy idea how we could try to hook into the recursive part of the the display_element() method of the abstract Walker class.

$w = new WPSE_Nav_Menu_Tree;
$args = (object) [ 'items_wrap' => '', 'depth' => 0, 'walker' => $w ];
$items = wp_get_nav_menu_items( 'my_menu' );
walk_nav_menu_tree( $items, $args->depth, $args );
print_r( $w->branch );

where WPSE_Nav_Menu_Tree is an extension of the Walker_Nav_Menu class:

class WPSE_Nav_Menu_Tree extends Walker_Nav_Menu
{
   public $branch = [];

   public function display_element($element, &$children, $max_depth, $depth = 0, $args, &$output )
   {
      if( 0 == $depth )
         $this->branch[$element->ID] = $element;

      if ( isset($children[$element->ID] ) )
         $element->wpse_children = $children[$element->ID];

      parent::display_element($element, $children, $max_depth, $depth, $args, $output);
   }
}

This might give us an alternative approach if it works.

In short the function bellow does create the tree of objects by putting children into a new children property inside the parent object.

Code:

function wpse170033_nav_menu_object_tree( $nav_menu_items_array ) {
    foreach ( $nav_menu_items_array as $key => $value ) {
        $value->children = array();
        $nav_menu_items_array[ $key ] = $value;
    }

    $nav_menu_levels = array();
    $index = 0;
    if ( ! empty( $nav_menu_items_array ) ) do {
        if ( $index == 0 ) {
            foreach ( $nav_menu_items_array as $key => $obj ) {
                if ( $obj->menu_item_parent == 0 ) {
                    $nav_menu_levels[ $index ][] = $obj;
                    unset( $nav_menu_items_array[ $key ] );
                }
            }
        } else {
            foreach ( $nav_menu_items_array as $key => $obj ) {
                if ( in_array( $obj->menu_item_parent, $last_level_ids ) ) {
                    $nav_menu_levels[ $index ][] = $obj;
                    unset( $nav_menu_items_array[ $key ] );
                }
            }
        }
        $last_level_ids = wp_list_pluck( $nav_menu_levels[ $index ], 'db_id' );
        $index++;
    } while ( ! empty( $nav_menu_items_array ) );

    $nav_menu_levels_reverse = array_reverse( $nav_menu_levels );

    $nav_menu_tree_build = array();
    $index = 0;
    if ( ! empty( $nav_menu_levels_reverse ) ) do {
        if ( count( $nav_menu_levels_reverse ) == 1 ) {
            $nav_menu_tree_build = $nav_menu_levels_reverse;
        }
        $current_level = array_shift( $nav_menu_levels_reverse );
        if ( isset( $nav_menu_levels_reverse[ $index ] ) ) {
            $next_level = $nav_menu_levels_reverse[ $index ];
            foreach ( $next_level as $nkey => $nval ) {
                foreach ( $current_level as $ckey => $cval ) {
                    if ( $nval->db_id == $cval->menu_item_parent ) {
                        $nval->children[] = $cval;
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    } while ( ! empty( $nav_menu_levels_reverse ) );

    $nav_menu_object_tree = $nav_menu_tree_build[ 0 ];
    return $nav_menu_object_tree;
}

Usage:

$nav_menu_items = wp_get_nav_menu_items( 'main-menu' );
wpse170033_nav_menu_object_tree( $nav_menu_items );

Output:

Wordpress - Convert output of nav_menu items into a tree-like multidimensional array

Update: Walker Class

Code:

Usage:

Output:

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