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  5. Custom Menu Items

Custom Menu Items

In addition to the built-in menu items, you can add your own custom menu items to your app’s main menu. Custom menu items are great for linking members to an external website — like a benefits portal — or for putting a specific piece of your own content (a resource, article, event, or form) front and center on the home screen. To get here, go to Local → Edit local and click the Menu Items tab.

Menu Items tab showing the + New Menu Item button in the upper right

Adding a Custom Menu Item

  1. Click the + New Menu Item button in the upper right of the Menu Items tab. This opens the New Menu Item dialog.
Empty New Menu Item modal with Label, Description, Icon, and Type fields
  1. Fill in the fields:
    • Label (required) — The name members will see in the menu. Keep it short so it fits on one line on a phone screen.
    • Description (optional) — A short subtitle shown under the label in the app.
    • Icon (optional) — The icon shown next to the label. See Choosing an Icon below.
    • Type (required) — Where the menu item takes the member when they tap it. See Link Types below.
  1. Click Save. The new item is added to the bottom of the menu with an added tag. To publish the change to the app, scroll to the bottom of the page and click Update.
Member Benefits custom menu item row with added tag, pencil edit icon, and trash delete icon

Choosing an Icon

Click the Icon field to open the icon picker, then type in the search box to filter. For example, type gift to find a gift-box icon for a benefits menu item. Click any icon to select it.

Icon picker open with gift typed in the search box and a matching gift icon below

Link Types

The Type field controls where the menu item takes the member when they tap it. There are two main categories: external links and links to your own content inside the app.

External Link

Choose External Link to send members to a web page outside the app. A URL field appears — paste in the full address (starting with https://). When the member taps the menu item, the page opens in the app’s built-in browser.

Menu item modal filled in with Member Benefits label, gift icon, External Link type, and afscme.org benefits URL

Internal Content

Choose an internal content type to link the menu item to something you’ve already created in the app manager. Pick a type, then pick the specific item from the Select Item list that appears. You can search by title.

Menu item modal with Forms type selected and a list of forms to choose from

The available internal types are:

TypeWhat the member sees
ResourcesOpens a category or a single resource directly
NewsOpens a news feed.
ArticleOpens a single news article directly.
EventsOpens a single event directly.
FormsOpens a custom form for the member to fill out.

Editing or Deleting a Custom Menu Item

Each custom menu item row has a pencil icon on the right to edit it and a trash icon to delete it. Click the pencil to reopen the same form you used to create the item. Click the trash icon to remove the item from the menu.

Edit Menu Item modal pre-filled with the Member Benefits item's values

Reordering and Hiding

Custom menu items behave just like the built-in items in the rest of the table. Drag the move icon (+) on the left to reorder them, and uncheck the Enabled checkbox to hide an item from the app without deleting it. You can also use the Label Override field to change what members see, without editing the item itself.

Broken Links

If a menu item points to internal content that is later deleted, deactivated, or (for events) has already ended, the row is flagged in the Menu Items tab so you can fix it. Broken items are also hidden from the app automatically, so members never see a dead link. Click the pencil icon to point the item at a different piece of content, or delete the item if it’s no longer needed.

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