Wordpress Plugin : Admin Drop Down Menu « planetOzh

One thing I wanted to improve in the Admin area of my Wordpress blog was the header menu. I want to be able to reach any admin page in one click, instead of first clicking on the first level link (”Manage” for example) and then only on a submenu link (”Comments“) So here is a very neat plugin : the Worpdress Admin Drop Down Menu

Show me

Want to try before you buy ? Well, sure (except for the “buy” part) I made up this demo page especially for you.

It should work fine under Firefox 2.x, Opera 9.something and MSIE 6 on Windows. At least it does on my computer.

Give me

Get the plugin :

Activate and enjoy. Another friendly install & forget piece of PHP.

Features

The plugin concept itself is rather simple :

• Hide the various admin menus that are splattered all over the place in WordPress 2.5 (wasted space!)
• Insert a new menu on the top dark grey bar, which is unused (wasted space!) otherwise
• Remove a few useless links (wasted space!) on the upper right corner

Javascript is involved in order to hide useless links and to make stuff compatible with MSIE6. On modern browsers, everything works even with Javascript disabled.

As I’ve said, I’ve tested it to make it work with MSIE6 and Firefox. If you use it with another cosmetic plugin for the admin interface, it could go moo. If you use it with another browser it could go moo. If you modify the CSS part of the plugin to suit your colors and mood, it could go moo. I should rank pretty well on Google for “it could go moo” with such a disclaimer.

Options

By popular demand, the plugin comes with an editable option. Located at the beginning of the script, you’ll find:
$wp_ozh_adminmenu['display_submenu'] (boolean) will display, if set to true, the original Vanilla submenu. Defaults to false.

$wp_ozh_adminmenu['too_many_plugins'] (integer) define the maximum number of entries in a vertical dropdow menu before it switches to horizontal mode. Tweak this if you have so many entries that it drops longer than your screen height. (note: this option is deactivated when used along with Fluency)

Bonus

Thanks to Dean J. Robinson and his extraordinary CSS skills, Worpdress Admin Drop Down Menu is compatible with the uberclassy Fluency, a very beautiful plugin that redefines the whole admin area.

Requirements

This plugin is intented for serious Power Users only, and as such has very strict requirements :

• A Wordpress blog (designed for 2.5, won’t work on 2.3.3 or older)
• Enough lazyness to feel that sparing a click or two each day is worth it
• A comfortable chair and a fat internet connection

(Although the last point is not directly required to run my plugin, I’ve found that it can greatly enhance your internet experience)

Release History

• 30 dec 2005: 1.0, initial release
• 30 dec 2005: 1.1, minor code cleaning and Tiger Admin compatibility ! (screenshot)
• 9 jan 2006: 1.2, fixing some glitches with multi page plugins (Akismet for one) and minor CSS improvements (horizontal scrollbar in Firefox)
• 15 feb 2006 : 1.3, fixing a problem with plugins within subfolders on Windows platforms, hence with a backslash in path (akismet\akismet.php for one)
• Some day I forgot: 1.3.1, minor CSS tweaks
• 10 mar 2008 : 2.0, complete rewrite for WordPress 2.5 only
• 3 avr: 2.0.2, fixing a few stuff including incorrect submenu links below plugin toplevel menus

Older Version

Version 1.3.1 is designed for WordPress 1.5 to 2.3.3 and is still available:

The awesome demo of this older version is still available, of course.

Feedback

Sure. Feed me back. Like it? Blog about it. Love it? Click on the download link, see the Paypal button appear, and give it some clicks!

Share This