# Update Menu Item

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

## Overview

Update Menu Item is a **Step (action)** in **Menu**. Updates an existing menu item's title, link, type, or position.

When the flow reaches this step, JOrchestrator executes **Update 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

Update 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 **Update Menu Item** to a flow:

- Update Menu Item on your linked Joomla site when the flow reaches this step
- Update 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 → **Update Menu Item** → **Send Email** or CMS update
2. **Scheduled trigger** → **Update Menu Item** → **Debug** (while testing) → production action

## How to set it up

Select the item by menu type and alias or id.

## Good to know

Clear site cache after bulk menu changes if a caching plugin serves stale navigation.

## 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 |
|--------------|-------|------|----------|--------------|-------|
| `title` | New title (optional) | `payload-text` | No | — | Leave blank to keep |
| `menuLinkType` | Item type (optional) | `select` (`` \| `url` \| `component` \| `separator` \| `heading` \| `alias`; default: ``) | No | — | — |
| `link` | New link (optional) | `payload-text` | No | `menuShowLinkField` | Leave blank to keep |
| `alias` | Alias (optional) | `text` | No | — | Leave blank to keep |
| `published` | Published (optional) | `select` (`` \| `0` \| `1`; default: ``) | No | — | — |

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

| Property key | Label | Type | Required | Visible when | Notes |
|--------------|-------|------|----------|--------------|-------|
| `menuType` | Menu | `menu-type-select` | No | — | Select menu |
| `id` | Menu item | `menu-item-select` | **Yes** | — | Item to update |
| `parent` | New parent (optional) | `menu-item-select` | No | — | Leave blank to keep tree position |

### 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
`{{update_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). |

## Related nodes

Other steps in the same area of the palette:

- **Create Menu Item** (`create-menu-item`) — Menu
- **Delete Menu Item** (`delete-menu-item`) — Menu