WordPress MU

I released the updates for the 2.7-compatible version of my simple dashboard plugin this morning. Code can be found here:

http://wpmudevorg.wordpress.com/project/simple-dashboard

It lets you turn on and off all the widgets on the dashboard, and lets you override the primary and secondary feed. It also lets you turn off the ability for the users to customize those feeds. (So, if you want to lock them to one feed you can.) It does not prevent them from just getting rid of the feed entirely, or from re-ordering.

Enjoy!

It must be fate DeannaS...it must be fate! I was just searching the wpmudev.org site to try and find your contact info to ask you a question about your plugin...

I am starting to configure an MU install for a group of users and just downloaded and installed your Simple Dashboard plugin. It's absolutely great, fantastic work and a great tool for MU admins!

However, I have a question...or better yet, a feature request if possible. I have turned off all dashboard widgets via your plugin, and I also have the "custom content" widget installed. All users are setup as subscribers currently. My goal is for these users to only see the custom content widget, but the "Right Now" section is still showing. This is the section that shows "At a Glance", "Storage Space", what theme is used, etc.

Is this a widget? If so, would it be possible to add the option to remove this as well?

I just snagged it and used it today too! It is indeed awesome.

The right now is a widget that could be turned off/on. I don't have time today, but I might be able to add that tomorrow.

This is what the widget is called:
$wp_meta_boxes['dashboard']['normal']['core']['dashboard_right_now']

To turn it off, you could add the following line of code at line 84:

unset($wp_meta_boxes['dashboard']['normal']['core']['dashboard_right_now']);


That, of course, won't get you the gui part of it - but it's a quick and dirty fix for you.

Thank you so much, great to know! I've added that code and *poof* it disappeared:)

DeannaS, you are a master!...(uh mistress?)

Mistress :)

Okay, the official code has been updated to version 1.3.1 - redownload for the gui interface to turn on/off the right now widget.

http://wpmudevorg.wordpress.com/project/simple-dashboard

Updated, and working great!

I tried putting the php file in my mu-plugins and I don't get any options in my admin/options section. This is not a plugin issues, because it does not "apply" any of my wpmu plugins. Do I have to get another setting? Thanks!

Checked Site Admin -> Options? Haven't noticed new options down the page? :)

There are no new options. It's like these plugins have not applied.

Changes anything in your wp-config? I mean, did you change a path to mu-plugins there?

Put the files directly in the mu-plugins folder. if the plugins are all in subfolders within mu-plugins they WON'T GET SEEN.

Yes, it was in the mu folder HOWEVER they did not have the PHP extension. I added .php and it worked - duh!

This upgrade could be very helpful. I also use the custom-content widget to provide announcements and static help information on the user dashboard, so this lets me get all the extra stuff out of the way so "normal" users are less confused and intimidated.

One silly question though. Administrators really need the normal Dashboard widgets, so I only want them turned off for everyone else. Is there some way to do that already? If not, can you put a "wrapper" around your widget to do something like "if the user's role is a || b || c then skip this"? And then add something on the Options page that lets me select the roles that should get all the widgets?

Feel free to tell me to read the manual if the answer is totally obvious to everyone else - I'm just learning Wordpress.

Thanks for the plugin. One concern is when I give non-english name to feeds, it doesn't display correctly. Could you plese fix this?

Just installed on wpmu 2.7, but I don't see any option page or even link to the options...

btw, the wpmudev download file is broken. The downloaded file is missing .php

I found it under wpmu option...

is this compatible with wpmu 2.8.5.x ?

Appears to be. I just ran a quickie test on a blog I updated today. Looks to be working. If you find problems, holler and I'll look into them.

Hi DeannaS and thank you very much for this plugin.
I'm testing with WPMU 2.8.6 and everything works.
I have a question (or suggestion): is it possible to customize the "help" links on the top of dashboard? I think that could be very useful to disable those links or override them with custom url to give to our users an help suited to our installation of WPMU instead of an aid from WordPress.
What do you think about?

Hm... I dunno. I'll have to look into it. I can't remember off the top of my head if there are any hooks for that or not.

Okey doke, easy peasy:

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wpmu-simple-dashboard/

Wonderful!
Now I can change the help text but unfortunately still remain the 2 links to the WP documentation (http://codex.wordpress.org/) and to the support forum (http://wordpress.org/support/).
Please, have you a suggest to override or delete them?

Hi DeannaS,
no news for my question? :(

Just now saw the question, frankeyboard. Here's the deal, I can change the text under "Other Help." But, there's no hook to change that title. So, I created a separate option for changing the text underneath it. If you leave it blank, the original links will show up. If you add text to the "Change Other help", they'll show up under that h5.

It's version 1.3.4, and as soon as the repository catches up, it will be available here:

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wpmu-simple-dashboard/

Note, that this ONLY affects the dashboard page. So, on other pages, they'll still see those links. If you want to make it so that the Other Help is changed for all pages, you can add the following to line 440:

add_filter('default_contextual_help', 'cets_simple_dashboard_other_default_help');

That assumes, of course, that you've done something with the other default help, as that doesn't include a check that you have when you do it that way.