# Create Menu Item

<!-- meta: type=create-menu-item; location=Menu; category=Step (action); platforms=Joomla and WordPress (where applicable) -->

## Overview

Create Menu Item is a **Step (action)** in **Menu**. Creates a new Joomla menu item linking to a page, article, or component view.

When the flow reaches this step, JOrchestrator executes **Create Menu Item** against your linked site or an external integration, using the field values you set on **General** and **Design**. Downstream steps can read the output payload fields defined for this node.

## Why use this node

Create Menu Item is a **action step** in the **Menu** group. Action steps run in the middle or end of a flow. They perform work on your CMS, call external services, or transform data for the next step.

Typical reasons teams add **Create Menu Item** to a flow:

- Create Menu Item on your linked Joomla site when the flow reaches this step
- Create menu item based on webhook, schedule, or CMS event data
- Integrate Menu operations with messaging, AI, or database steps in one canvas

## Example workflows

Common patterns on the canvas:

1. **Trigger or Webhook** → upstream steps → **Create Menu Item** → **Send Email** or CMS update
2. **Scheduled trigger** → **Create Menu Item** → **Debug** (while testing) → production action

## How to set it up

Menu type, title, link type, and parent item on the Design tab.

## Good to know

Alias and component routing follow com_menus rules — invalid links fail at save time.

## Properties panel

The designer shows these tabs for this node:

| Tab | Purpose |
|-----|---------|
| **Info** | Plain-language description and output payload fields for downstream steps |
| **General** | Canvas label and read-only node ID |
| **AI** | Optional assistant to help draft settings from plain language |
| **Design** | Node-specific configuration fields |

### System (automatic — not edited by the user)

These fields are managed by the designer or runtime — you do not type into them directly:

| Property key | Label | Type | Required | Visible when | Notes |
|--------------|-------|------|----------|--------------|-------|
| `_nodeId` | Node ID | `node-id` | No | — | — |
| `_payloadFields` | Available Fields | `payload-panel` | No | — | — |

### User-configured — General tab

| Property key | Label | Type | Required | Visible when | Notes |
|--------------|-------|------|----------|--------------|-------|
| `label` | Label | `text` | No | — | Node label |

### User-configured — Design tab

| Property key | Label | Type | Required | Visible when | Notes |
|--------------|-------|------|----------|--------------|-------|
| `menuLinkType` | Item type | `select` (`url` \| `component` \| `separator` \| `heading` \| `alias`; default: `url`) | No | — | — |
| `title` | Title | `payload-text` | **Yes** | — | Menu label or {{placeholder}} |
| `link` | Link | `payload-text` | No | `menuShowLinkField` | index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1 or https://… |
| `alias` | Alias (optional) | `text` | No | — | URL segment; auto if empty |
| `published` | Published | `select` (`0` \| `1`; default: `1`) | No | — | — |

### CMS-backed (options from the linked site)

| Property key | Label | Type | Required | Visible when | Notes |
|--------------|-------|------|----------|--------------|-------|
| `menuType` | Menu | `menu-type-select` | **Yes** | — | Select menu (from Joomla) |
| `parent` | Parent item | `menu-item-select` | No | — | Under which item (or root) |

### CMS site configuration (not on this node's properties panel)

Credentials, API keys, mailers, SMTP, and integration defaults are configured in the CMS plugin under **Node Configuration**, not per step on this node. Link the flow to a domain before testing CMS-backed fields.

## Output payload fields

After this step runs, later nodes can reference these fields using placeholders such as
`{{create_menu_item.id}}`.

| Field key | Type | Description |
|-----------|------|-------------|
| `id` | string | Primary record identifier. |
| `title` | string | Title text for the created or updated record. |
| `link` | string | Canonical link URL for the record. |
| `menuType` | string | Joomla menu identifier (e.g. mainmenu). |
| `parent_id` | string | Parent category or menu item ID. |
| `alias` | string | URL-safe alias / slug. |
| `type` | string | Text value from this node's output. |
| `published` | number | Published flag (0 or 1). |

## Validation rules

- **Title** (`title`) must be filled before the flow can be saved.

## Related nodes

Other steps in the same area of the palette:

- **Delete Menu Item** (`delete-menu-item`) — Menu
- **Update Menu Item** (`update-menu-item`) — Menu