For some projects, there are going to be times where there’s not a lot of new stuff to explore, you know? You get the requirements, you know how to solve the problems, and then you move forward with building the solution.

Then other projects that come your way and though you may not know how to do them at the beginning of the project, you know you’ll be able to do so programmatically because if it’s written in code, it’s going to be possible.

And the more you become familiar with a given set of tools or platform (like WordPress), then the more likely you are to “think in terms” of that platform, right?

Perhaps one case in point is working with the administration menu in WordPress. When it comes to projects that others build, I don’t know if they aim to create as positive experience on the front-end as the back-end, but I think it’s import to consider the entire application as an experience for the user.

Customizing the WordPress Administration Menu

And that’s why when it comes to little things – even the menu, for example – that it’s important. But what do I mean by that?

Customizing the WordPress Administration Menu

So let’s say for example that you’re building a solution for someone in WordPress, and they aren’t going to use the blogging functionality, but they do have:

  • a set of custom post types,
  • need to manage the appeaerance,
  • user roles,
  • general options,

And they need to manage those.

As far as I’m concerned, once you get sign off [of course], then it’s fine to rearrange the menu. But how can you do that in a way that’s as elegant as possible?

By Example

Let’s say, for purposes of example; you have a few custom post types on top of the original standard Page type.

  • Homepage
  • About
  • Profile

And then there are the rest of the menu items. How do we go about customizing the WordPress administration menu for our users?

Here’s one example:

If you hook into the custom_menu_order and menu_order hooks and manipulate the $menuOrder array, then you’re able to provide something based on the code you see above.

For Your Users

Granted, this also assumes you’ve giving your post types custom user friend names quality dashicons, and so on, but that’s beyond this post and you get the idea: This is about customizing the WordPress administration menu.

So, sure, your mileage may vary but with the examples and links above, you should have all you need for personalizing the experience for your users.