How do I dynamically change the title of a menu link?

I made a menu in administration, structures, menu. I want to change the title, as it appears on the menu, of one of the links based on the gender of the currently logged in user.

I have found several answers to similar questions but I can’t figure out how to implement the solutions. Some of them suggest using hook_menu_alter(&$items) and a separate callback function, but I don’t understand the structure of $items. I was hoping to just print out the value of $items, find the string I wanted to change, and change that value in $items in the hook. Apparently, though, you can’t debug the $items variable because hook_menu_alter is rarely called. I tried to figure out the structure of $items from a bunch of other questions and answers and I found stuff like this:

$items['user/%user_category/edit']['title'] 

Why is ‘title’ a property of a path? Does this mean that every menu on your site that has a link to that path will display the title that you set the above variable to? What if you wanted a link to a specific path on one menu to have a different label than a link to that path on another menu? Isn’t there somewhere I can access and change the title of a menu link like this

$allMenuData['My Custom Menu']['an item on my menu']['title'] 
This article was republished from its original source.
Call Us: 1(800)730-2416

Pixeldust is a 20-year-old web development agency specializing in Drupal and WordPress and working with clients all over the country. With our best in class capabilities, we work with small businesses and fortune 500 companies alike. Give us a call at 1(800)730-2416 and let’s talk about your project.

FREE Drupal SEO Audit

Test your site below to see which issues need to be fixed. We will fix them and optimize your Drupal site 100% for Google and Bing. (Allow 30-60 seconds to gather data.)

Powered by

How do I dynamically change the title of a menu link?

On-Site Drupal SEO Master Setup

We make sure your site is 100% optimized (and stays that way) for the best SEO results.

With Pixeldust On-site (or On-page) SEO we make changes to your site’s structure and performance to make it easier for search engines to see and understand your site’s content. Search engines use algorithms to rank sites by degrees of relevance. Our on-site optimization ensures your site is configured to provide information in a way that meets Google and Bing standards for optimal indexing.

This service includes:

  • Pathauto install and configuration for SEO-friendly URLs.
  • Meta Tags install and configuration with dynamic tokens for meta titles and descriptions for all content types.
  • Install and fix all issues on the SEO checklist module.
  • Install and configure XML sitemap module and submit sitemaps.
  • Install and configure Google Analytics Module.
  • Install and configure Yoast.
  • Install and configure the Advanced Aggregation module to improve performance by minifying and merging CSS and JS.
  • Install and configure Schema.org Metatag.
  • Configure robots.txt.
  • Google Search Console setup snd configuration.
  • Find & Fix H1 tags.
  • Find and fix duplicate/missing meta descriptions.
  • Find and fix duplicate title tags.
  • Improve title, meta tags, and site descriptions.
  • Optimize images for better search engine optimization. Automate where possible.
  • Find and fix the missing alt and title tag for all images. Automate where possible.
  • The project takes 1 week to complete.