Method recursively iterates over items and adds `isActive` and `hasActiveChild` fields
function parseNavItem (item) {
        if (item.route === req.path) {
            item.isActive = true;
        }

        // replace object by array structure
        var childArray = [];
        for (var child in item.children) {
            var subItem = parseNavItem( item.children[ child ] );
            if (subItem.isActive || subItem.hasActiveChildren) {
                item.hasActiveChildren = true;
            }
            // check if user can access item
            if (userHasAccess(subItem)) {
                childArray.push(subItem);
            }
        }
        // sort by _w
        childArray.sort(function (a, b) { return a._w - b._w });
        item.children = childArray;

        return item;
    }