[wp-hackers] Plugin Settings Menu Location

[Jamie]

On this, something I think should be considered is a catch all plugin 
page for settings. I have seen some clients have so many smaller plugins 
loaded, which all have their own settings page and only one or two 
settings in there. After awhile, the submenus start getting very 
unmanageable.

Perhaps something along the lines of a settings sub page under plugins 
with an API to easily add a setting to that page, which appears under 
the plugin name. No plugins use that page? Don't show that settings sub 
menu under plugins. Akismet would be a good candidate for such a page, 
and probably a good way to get it kicked off, so it would go something 
like this:

AKISMET
.
.....Key
......Autodiscard
.
.
.
Next plugin
.
....setting

etc
etc



I know personally there have been times I have written stuff and decided 
to say "change this on line X in plugin.php to what you want", instead 
of hooking in a special page for just a single option.

Jamie Holly




Alexander Beutl wrote:
> >A user knows what plugins they have and have not activated
> Users don't know anything they only use stuff. They do not care how the
> admin made things working they just use them. If you can not understand this
> you never set up a blog for a client - but maybe you would be able to
> imagine a client is happy enogh if he just finds what he'd search under
> manage right there at manage.
>
>
> > > Something else to consider is the weight of precedent: almost all of
> >> the popular plugins I can think of...
> >... do it the wrong way. Insert "jump off a bridge" analogy here.
> Ok - Matt has made WordPress the #1 Blogging Platform in the world all by
> himselfe. It wasn't the comunity nor the plugin builders. /irony-off
> You say all those plugin builders are wrong? Where would WP be without them?
> Not nearly where it is now - so they can not be such wrong at all nor did
> they jump off a bridge.
>
> >my plugin configuration pages are going into the plugins menu.
> Please do me a favor and overthink this issue when you create a plugin where
> a 'user' (not admin!) needs to be able to manage or write anything. I do not
> give admin-login to my clients and I don't allow the plugin menu for them.
> It is fine to add pages like the one of akismet there, since they are
> PluginSetup and will never be needed again. Sometimes I allow settings -
> sometimes I don't. If I do not I wouldn't want one to mess around with the
> settings and therefor wouldn't want any settings somewhere else. If I do
> allow them, but do not allow plugins I want exactly this: Don't change
> plugins, do not install/deinstall them and do not start managing them. But
> if you want - change the options.
>
> You know: The menu also deals with the permissions and therefor one really
> needs to think it over what a pages really does and one should add it to the
> right menu...
>
> >I think that some kind of standard should be
> >established so that when an admin or a user wants to change a setting,
> >they know where to go to do that
>
> Standards are nice as long as there is something which can fit into
> standards rules. Since WP Plugins do totally different stuff and hook into
> everything WP offers they need to spread the menues around just like they
> spread features.
>
> The recommendation is: Think about what you do before you do it and ask
> yourselfe where someone would actually search for something. If you only
> have settings it should be obvious. If you have an installation routine you
> wouldn't even need a menu entry - if there would be any possibilities to ask
> the admin for some installation data which wouldn't need to change at any
> time. This would be a nice feature!
>
> Another one is: Put your stuff where the users which should be able to use
> it will be able to do and there where users which shouldn't aren't able to.
> The last one can easily be dropped, since it is easy to check permissions
> and die if they aren't met. The first one can not since when there is no
> "plugin" menu you can not access any "plugin menu pages". No matter how hard
> you try. Therefor you shoulnd't place anything which an editor, author or
> contributor would need access to inside plugins menu obviously - no matter
> if it is part of a plugin or not.
>
> Alex
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