WP Admin Submenus

A performant, robust, and secure WordPress plugin that adds intelligent submenus to the WordPress admin for quick access to posts, taxonomies, and users.

Features

• Smart Submenus: Automatically adds submenus to post types, taxonomies, and user roles for quick access
• Configurable: Settings page to enable/disable submenus for specific post types
• Performance Optimized: Efficient queries with proper caching and no persistent object cache issues
• Polylang Compatible: Automatically filters content by default language when Polylang is active
• Secure: Built with WordPress security best practices (nonces, sanitization, capability checks)
• Responsive Design: Scrollable submenus with clean, accessible styling
• Automatic Updates: Integrates with GitHub releases for seamless plugin updates

Installation

1. Upload the plugin files to /wp-content/plugins/wp-admin-submenus/
2. Activate the plugin through the 'Plugins' menu in WordPress
3. Go to Settings > Admin Submenus to configure which post types should have submenus

Automatic Updates

This plugin uses the Plugin Update Checker library to enable automatic updates from GitHub releases.

How it works:

• The plugin automatically checks for new releases on GitHub
• When a new version is released, WordPress will notify you in the Plugins page
• You can update directly from your WordPress admin, just like WordPress.org plugins
• No manual downloading or uploading required

For developers:

• Create a new release on GitHub with a version tag (e.g., v1.0.1)
• The plugin will automatically detect the new version
• Users will be notified and can update with one click

Configuration

Settings Page

Navigate to Settings > Admin Submenus to configure:

• Enable Submenus For: Select which post types should display submenus (all eligible post types are enabled by default)
• Items Per Menu: Set the maximum number of items to show before the "See more" link appears (default: 20)

Default Behavior

• All content post types are enabled by default (except core WordPress types like posts, attachments, revisions, etc.)
• Post types must be either public (front-end content) OR have a top-level admin menu (show_in_menu === true) to be included
• This allows both public content types and internal admin-only post types while filtering out plugin configuration screens
• Shows up to 20 items per submenu
• Automatically excludes internal/system post types:
  • Core WordPress internal types (blocks, templates, navigation, etc.)
  • ACF internal types (field groups, fields, post types, taxonomies, options pages)
  • Formidable Forms internal types
  • Ninja Forms submissions
• Taxonomies and user roles are always shown (following the same exclusion rules)

Filters

wp_admin_submenus_excluded_post_types

Filter the list of post types to exclude from submenus:

add_filter('wp_admin_submenus_excluded_post_types', function($excluded) {
    $excluded[] = 'my_custom_post_type';
    return $excluded;
});

wp_admin_submenus_excluded_taxonomies

Filter the list of taxonomies to exclude from submenus:

add_filter('wp_admin_submenus_excluded_taxonomies', function($excluded) {
    $excluded[] = 'my_custom_taxonomy';
    return $excluded;
});

wp_admin_submenus_desc_sorted_post_types

Specify post types that should be sorted in descending order (useful for year-based content):

add_filter('wp_admin_submenus_desc_sorted_post_types', function($post_types) {
    $post_types[] = 'yearly_reports';
    return $post_types;
});

Security Features

• Capability Checks: All menu items respect WordPress capabilities
• Nonce Verification: Settings page uses WordPress Settings API with automatic nonce handling
• Input Sanitization: All user input is properly sanitized
• Output Escaping: All output is escaped to prevent XSS attacks
• Direct Access Prevention: Blocks direct file access

Performance Optimizations

• Efficient Queries: Uses no_found_rows, disables meta/term cache updates when not needed
• Smart Pagination: Fetches limit + 1 items to efficiently determine if "See more" is needed
• Static Caching: Configuration cached per request to prevent redundant calculations
• No Persistent Cache: Avoids Object Cache Pro compatibility issues

Translation (i18n)

The plugin is fully translation-ready and includes:

• Text Domain: wp-admin-submenus
• Translation Template: languages/wp-admin-submenus.pot - Use this as a base for new translations
• Included Translations:
  • French (fr_FR)
  • Spanish (es_ES)
  • German (de_DE)

For Translators

1. Copy languages/wp-admin-submenus.pot to languages/wp-admin-submenus-{locale}.po
2. Translate the strings using a tool like Poedit or your preferred translation editor
3. Compile the .po file to .mo using msgfmt or the included script:

   cd languages
   bash compile-translations.sh

Accessibility

The plugin follows WCAG 2.1 Level AA accessibility guidelines:

• ARIA Labels: All form controls have proper ARIA labels for screen readers
• Keyboard Navigation: Full keyboard accessibility throughout
• Semantic HTML: Proper use of fieldsets, legends, and form labels
• Screen Reader Support: Hidden labels and descriptions for assistive technologies

Requirements

• WordPress 5.0 or higher
• PHP 7.4 or higher

License

GPL v2 or later

Support

For issues and feature requests, please use the GitHub issue tracker.