Display a custom navigation block instead of the default one

Question

I am working on a Magento 2.1.7 shop and I have created a child-theme of Magento Blank.

In the back-end, I have created a block with a custom, hard-coded, navigation like:

<nav>
 <ul>
  <li><a href="http://www.examplewebsite.com/">Home</a></li>
  <li><a href="http://www.examplewebsite.com/about">About</a></li>
  <li><a href="http://www.examplewebsite.com/blog">Blog</a></li>
  <li><a href="http://www.examplewebsite.com/contact">Contact Us</a></li>
 </ul>
</nav>

By default, Magento displays links to the product categories in the top menu:

<block class="Magento\Theme\Block\Html\Topmenu" name="catalog.topnav" template="html/topmenu.phtml" ttl="3600" before="-"/>

How do I, instead, display my custom links block?

Answer 1

To show your Custom Block Navigation , you simply need to create a widget

• Go to admin > content > widgets > add widget

• Select type as CMS static Block and choose your theme whichever you are using

• Fill all the details ( Title / Assign to Store Views / Sort Order to "0"

• Add layout update > Display on all pages / Container: After page header

• Widget options > Select your block

Keep your cache disabled or clean/flush your cache

You can remove your default navigation by below code in your custom Magento_Theme module, if required.

<referenceBlock name="catalog.topnav" remove="true" />

Magento_Theme\layout\default.xml

I hope this will help you out and others as well