# Highlight the Right Menu Item on Custom Post Type Pages

> Marks a menu item as current when visitors view a single item of a custom post type, so the "Portfolio" or "Events" link stays highlighted instead of "Blog".

- Type: PHP
- Runs: Frontend only
- Category: [Page Builders & Themes](https://wpide.com/library/category/page-builders/)
- Tags: menus, post-types, navigation
- Author: WPIDE Team
- Installs: 0
- Updated: 2026-10-28
- Page: https://wpide.com/library/menu-current-parent-for-post-types/

## Code

```php
// Post type => path of the menu item to highlight.
$wpide_menu_parent_map = array(
    'portfolio' => '/portfolio/',
    'event'     => '/events/',
);

add_filter( 'nav_menu_css_class', function ( $classes, $item ) use ( $wpide_menu_parent_map ) {
    $type = is_singular() ? get_post_type() : '';

    if ( ! $type || ! isset( $wpide_menu_parent_map[ $type ] ) || empty( $item->url ) ) {
        return $classes;
    }

    // Stop the blog page from looking active.
    $classes = array_diff( $classes, array( 'current_page_parent' ) );

    $path = wp_parse_url( $item->url, PHP_URL_PATH );

    if ( $path && untrailingslashit( $path ) === untrailingslashit( $wpide_menu_parent_map[ $type ] ) ) {
        $classes[] = 'current-menu-ancestor';
        $classes[] = 'current_page_parent';
    }

    return array_values( $classes );
}, 10, 2 );
```

## Notes

Map each post type to the URL path of the menu item that should light up.

## How to use it

Install the free WPIDE plugin (https://wordpress.org/plugins/wpide/), find "Highlight the Right Menu Item on Custom Post Type Pages" in its snippet library and add it in one click; or create a new PHP snippet in WPIDE (or any code snippets plugin) and paste the code above. More snippets: https://wpide.com/library/