Parsing nested list does not go down to level 3

I have a JSON representing menu items.

A menu item can have a sub menu item, which in turn can have another sub menu item and so son.

The input JSON relates the menu items through a parent id. I'm trying to convert this to a model where each menu item has a slice of its sub menu items.

The sub menus go three levels deep. I've managed to parse upto two levels but I have no idea why the third level isn't being parsed. I've been debugging this problem for hours. I would appreciate some help.

menu2.sjon

[
  {
    "category_id": 4,
    "category_id_400": "'SCHOO",
    "name": "School Supplies",
    "parent_id": 2,
    "position": 2,
    "level": 2,
    "status": 1,
    "url": "http://www.booksrus.kw/sa-en/school-supplies.html"
  },
  {
    "category_id": 141,
    "category_id_400": "'SCHBA",
    "name": "School Bags",
    "parent_id": 4,
    "position": 12,
    "level": 3,
    "status": 1,
    "url": "http://www.booksrus.kw/sa-en/school-supplies/school-bags.html"
  },
  {
    "category_id": 269,
    "category_id_400": "'AEP",
    "name": "Bags Knapsack with Trolley",
    "parent_id": 141,
    "position": 1,
    "level": 4,
    "status": 1,
    "url": "http://www.booksrus.kw/sa-en/school-supplies/school-bags/bags-knapsack-with-trolley.html"
  }
]

menu.go

package main

import(
	"fmt"
	"encoding/json"
	"io/ioutil"
	"sort"
	"bytes"
)

type MenuItems []MenuItem

func (a MenuItems) Len() int           { return len(a) }
func (a MenuItems) Swap(i, j int)      { a[i], a[j] = a[j], a[i] }
func (a MenuItems) Less(i, j int) bool { return a[i].Category_id < a[j].Category_id }

type MenuItem struct{
	Category_id int `json:"category_id"`
	Category_id_400 string `json:"category_id_400"`
	Name string `json:"name"`
	Parent_id int `json:"parent_id"`
	Position int `json:"position"`
	Level int `json:"level"`
	Status int `json:"status"`
	Url string  `json:"url"`
	Subs []MenuItem `json:"subs"`
}

func (m MenuItem) String() string{

	 var buffer bytes.Buffer
	 buffer.WriteString(fmt.Sprintf("%d %s\n",m.Category_id,m.Name))
	for _,s := range m.Subs{
		buffer.WriteString(fmt.Sprintf(">	%s\n",s.String()));
	}

	return buffer.String()
	//return fmt.Sprintf("CategoryId: %d, ParentId: %d,Name: %s, Sub: %v\n",m.Category_id,m.Parent_id,m.Name,m.Subs);
}

func (m *MenuItem) TryAdd(other MenuItem) bool{

	if other.Parent_id == m.Category_id {
		
		m.Subs = append(m.Subs,other);
		return true
	}else{
		for _,sub := range m.Subs{
			if found := sub.TryAdd(other);found{
				return true
			}
		}
	}

	return false
}

func main() {
	rootItems := make([]MenuItem,0)
	bytes, err := ioutil.ReadFile("menu2.json")

	if err != nil{
		fmt.Printf("Reading: %s\n",err.Error())
		return;
	}

	var menuItems []MenuItem
	err = json.Unmarshal(bytes,&menuItems)

	if err != nil{
		fmt.Println(err.Error())
		return
	}

	sort.Sort(MenuItems(menuItems))
	
	for _,item := range menuItems{
		if item.Parent_id == 2{
			rootItems = append(rootItems,item)
		}else{
			for i:=0;i<len(rootItems);i++{
				if found := rootItems[i].TryAdd(item); found{
					break;
				}else{
					fmt.Printf("No Action: Id: %d, Name: %s, Parent: %d.\n",item.Category_id,item.Name,item.Parent_id)
				}
			}
		}
	}

	fmt.Printf("\nRootitems:\n%s\n",rootItems)
}

Output

Rootitems:
[4           School Supplies
>	141           School Bags
//Third level should appear here
]

This loop in the TryAdd function is most probably your issue:

for _, sub := range m.Subs {
    if found := sub.TryAdd(other); found {
        return true
    }
}

The sub variable in this loop is actually a copy of the slice element. Any changes you make there will not persist back to the the element that is stored in the slice.

You should be able to solve this issue by not working with the element's copy, but referencing it by its index instead:

for i := range m.Subs {
    if found := m.Subs[i].TryAdd(other); found {
        return true
    }
}