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 :
ozh-admin-drop-down-menu.zip
Extract and upload to your blog, preserving directory structure if any.
Note: download counter here and stats on wordpress.org may differ and reflect the number of downloads before this plugin was hosted on the plugin directory
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:
- wp_ozh_adminmenu.txt (download and save as .php)
- wp_ozh_adminmenu.php (highlighted code, copy and paste in a blank file, but do not download as is)
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!
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commented, on 06/Apr/08 at 6:04 pm # :
The bottom-align problem where [ozhmenu a] links protrude 1 pixel outside the blacnk menu bar can be fixed by adding:
#wphead { #border-top-width: 31px; }
right before line 380 of the plugin (the bottom of the style declarations).
The # is a hack where only ie7 and downwards will process the extra pixel of border for wphead, eliminating the misalignment.
I’ll be loking at the black link background thing now although that looks a little more complicated for my paltry coding abilities :)
wrote, on 06/Apr/08 at 6:54 pm # :
The black link background after hovering on IE7 and 6 can be fixed by adding:
ul#ozhmenu li ul li { background: transparent !important; }
to the end of the style declarations (line 380 in the plugin).
Apparently IE is taking the [li] element’s background in preference over the [a] element’s background after the hover! Which is typical IE BS… But it’s fine after that line.
If you look at the code with Firebug you’ll notice there’s an inline style [ background color rgb(70,70,70) ] sneaking onto the [ ul#ozhmenu li ul li ] elements somehow. That’s what’s causing the problem and that’s why the transparent background declaration with !important tag fixes it (I have no idea why that inline style is showing up though).
Anyway, thanks for a brilliant, essential plugin Ozh, I really don’t mean to pick at it or anything, hopefully it’s been a bit of help for those poor IE users :)
commented, on 06/Apr/08 at 10:10 pm # :
So after noodling around a bit more I found a way to fix everything in a way that uses no hacks and validates. The following will fix all styling issues in IE that I could find (including a couple I just found just now) without hacking and without messing any other browser up:
#ozhmenu { background: #474747; width: 100%; }
#ozhmenu li ul li { background: transparent !important; }
#ozhmenu li:hover a, #ozhmenu li a:hover { color: #555; }
that should be it.
wrote, on 06/Apr/08 at 10:12 pm # :
Stuart » Thanks to you! I’m adding this for the next update.
commented, on 07/Apr/08 at 5:00 pm # :
Great plugin. I appreciate that I can right-click from the drop-down menu, and open the new page in another browser tab. However, I deal with many plugins, and thus I have a long list of options in the “settings” listing. It’s full and I can’t see the rest of my list of options… I could provide a screen shot to you, if you wish…
Thanks…
Chris Masse
replied, on 07/Apr/08 at 6:34 pm # :
Thanks for fixing the issue with WordPress 2.5 Multiple Image Uploader. I should have posted it on your site, but didn’t scroll down far enough to realize that I could leave a comment!
Your plugin rocks.
replied, on 07/Apr/08 at 7:38 pm # :
You’re welcome Ozh, it’s a pleasure to help out a plugin which has helped me out so much already.
In addition to those three lines in my last post you might also add:
#media-upload-header #sidemenu { display: block; }
As I just now realized that the image uploader menu also disappears in IE for some reason.
wrote, on 08/Apr/08 at 2:08 am # :
FYI, this plugin breaks the WordPress visual editor using Safari 3.1 build 4525.13. Reproducible.
Works fine in Firefox 2.0.0.130. Intel Mac OS 10.4.11.
commented, on 08/Apr/08 at 2:16 am # :
Maybe on line 346…
background-image: url(images/comment-stalk.gif);
change comment-stalk.gif to either comment-stalk-classic.gif or comment-stalk-fresh.gif?
My WP 2.5 didn’t come with a comment-stalk.gif
This is a great plugin. Those clicks add up over time. Thanks.
replied, on 08/Apr/08 at 7:07 am # :
frisco » doh, you’re probably right. I began coding in the early 2.5 beta days, and images were different. I’m changing this right now, thanks for the notice!
wrote, on 08/Apr/08 at 7:19 am # :
One other thing: unfortunately, I just had to deactivate this, so sad. I also use a plugin called Post Thumb Revisited and from the Settings menu, it normally brings up a sub-menu. With Admin Drop Down, the submenu is missing. Haven’t figured out why or how to fix yet, so this is just an FYI. I’ll let you know if I find out more.
wrote, on 08/Apr/08 at 8:16 am # :
frisco » I see no problem with this plugin on my test blog. Submenu is here under Settings.
thought, on 08/Apr/08 at 6:01 pm # :
Hi,
Thanks for this great plugin. FYI, there is an incompatibility between “Similar Posts” and “Admin Drop Down Menu”. The sub-menu of “Similar Posts” does not appear.
Thanks for listening.
Chris Masse
wrote, on 08/Apr/08 at 6:55 pm # :
Chris Masse » “Similar Posts” appears right into the screenshot you’ve sent. Please double check.
replied, on 08/Apr/08 at 10:55 pm # :
FYI, here’s what the Post Thumb Revisited author had to say about a possible problem:
“I’ve given a quick look at it and the reason is most probably because it overrides css and jquery routines and therefore messes up post-thumb option page.”
I rechecked it under IE and FF, and it is a problem. The only changes I made to your plugin was comments #283 & #289 and backing those out (just to be safe) had no impact. I’ve checked briefly for plugin conflicts, and so far found none.
I’ll also say that I went back to activating Admin Drop Down for a simple reason. I’m not reconfiguring PTR every day. For everyday use, Admin Drop Down is such a time saver that it’s a better tradeoff to de-activate ADD for the rare event when I need to revise PTR options.
wrote, on 08/Apr/08 at 11:17 pm # :
frisco » I still don’t see any problem with PRT and my plugin. Could you send me a screenshot, or more detail? I want to check if what you see could be a generic problem.
thought, on 09/Apr/08 at 12:49 am # :
Ozh,
Indeed, the main “Similar Posts” menu page appears… However, “Similar Posts” has 4 other sub-pages, which don’t appear when your plugin is on. That’s what I meant.
I should have sent you another sreen shot, in fact, the next one, after I have clicked on “Similar Posts” in “Settings”, and you would have seen that the other sub-pages don’t appear…
thanks,
Chris Masse
said, on 09/Apr/08 at 2:28 am # :
In my case, I can confirm it’s not a plugin conflict. I deactivated all plugins, activated Admin Drop Down, then activated PTR, and no submenu.
thought, on 09/Apr/08 at 8:12 am # :
frisco & Chris » OK, gotcha.
Contact your plugin authors and ask them *not* to use <ul id=”submenu”> for their submenu. This DOM id is already used by WordPress’ menu, which my plugin hides. It’s all their faults :)
In the meanwhile, edit the beginning of my plugin and set $wp_ozh_adminmenu['display_submenu'] to true
pingback on 09/Apr/08 at 10:52 pm # :
[...] selector changes in K2’s markup. They’ve done some nice things with the admin UI, and the new Admin Drop Down Menu makes it way [...]