WordPress MU

What's the savest way to remove the Dashboard from the admin area?

In wp-admin I've disabled index.php and renamed wpmu-admin.php to index.php. The admin area now opens on Site Admin, skipping the Dashboard, which is closer to what I want.

But Dashboard is still on the menu. Unfortunately menu.php is a code page. I can't figure out what's going on in that page.

Which lines can I remove or edit to remove Dashboard from the menu bar without messing up the system?
How can I rename the link on Site Admin to index.php? (It apparently works without renaming, but it feels wrong...)
How can I let Site Admin open default on one of the options, like Blogs?

OK, I've removed this block:

$menu[0] = array(__('Dashboard'), 'read', 'index.php');

if ( strstr($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], 'edit-pages.php') )
$menu[5] = array(__('Write'), 'edit_pages', 'page-new.php');
else
$menu[5] = array(__('Write'), 'edit_posts', 'post-new.php');
if ( strstr($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], 'page-new.php') )
$menu[10] = array(__('Manage'), 'edit_pages', 'edit-pages.php');
else
$menu[10] = array(__('Manage'), 'edit_posts', 'edit.php');
$menu_perms = get_site_option( "menu_items" );
if( is_array( $menu_perms ) == false )
$menu_perms = array();

That seems to work. Or have I now messed up other corners of the system? Should I change the numbers for the menu items, now that $menu[0] is gone?

When a member now goes to his admin area he gets this:

You do not have permission to access this page.

So renaming wpmu-admin.php to index etc. is probably not a good idea...

definetly don't rename wpmu-admin.php. As for renaming the dashboard why not just customize it?

However, if you really just want to remove it, do this:

1) remove the line from menu.php ($menu[0] = array(__('Dashboard'), 'read', 'index.php');)
2) open up index.php, clear all the code and add this:

<?php
header( 'Location: site-admin.php' ) ;
?>


That is the best way to remove the dashboard with only a minimal headache everytime you upgrade. :)

As for renaming the dashboard why not just customize it?

That's what I've done. I've changed the two RSS feeds, (ie the site blog and the sitewide posts feed), changed the footer links in the footer to our local support sites and forum, and added in the "Space Remaining" plugin.

Thanks for the suggestions! I'm going with customizing the Dashboard now.

My goal is to simplify the admin area for members as much as possible and turn it into more of an all purpose personal start page.

Is there no such thing as a public profile page in WP? With name, location, interests, etc. and a picture? (I guess I have to use an author template)

My ideal solution would be a combination of a Dashboard + public profile, ie a profile page where the admin functions show up when the member's logged in.

Digging thru the forum now...

Is there no such thing as a public profile page in WP?

Either that or grab the Misty Look theme and see how it's done on that theme.

Hi, any progress by reducing the menu as far as possible?

I want to keep it simple for my users, too - write, edit and manage categories should be enough...

You can simply remove the dashboard with a plugin:

http://www.ilfilosofo.com/blog/2006/05/24/plugin-remove-the-wordpress-dashboard/

Or you can customise it:

http://wp-plugins.net/wiki/index.php?title=X-Dashboard

Or... (my favourite)... you can turn it into a mini aggregator for users:

http://mu.wordpress.org/forums/topic.php?id=2481&replies=3

-

Incidentally... despite all of these tweaks for some reason the edublogs.org dashboards have taken to freezing their content and not refreshing... I have a sneaking suspicion that this could be a server thing? Could there be any other reason (where the only things edited are the base feeds).

Cheers, James

Couldn't we just remove the dashboard by inserting comments like this in our wp-admin/index.php lines 135 - 137?

<!--<div id="devnews"></div>

<div id="planetnews"></div>-->

Yes. That just removes the contents though.

I actually like the dashboard myself. :)`

Me too :-)

My blog users won't be able to understand English o_O I'm planning to remove them and replace with lunabyte's Dash Notes instead.

By the way how do we code to place a certain page to show in the dashboard?

What do you mean a certain page? YOu mean like in the menu along the top? It's in the codex:

http://codex.wordpress.org/Adding_Administration_Menus

Why not use a lang file for the dashboard, and then use feeds from your own site instead of the default ones?

Makes more sense than taking away functionality.

That I'm not sure yet how to use feeds from my own site. Could you guys guide me on how to do it? -I'm still new to php

Could you guys guide me on how to do it? I'm still new to php

Take a look at the wp-admin/index-helper.php file. They're defined in there and it's a simple matter of replacing the URLs for the feeds. I found it by opening up the files and poking around. (That's a hint by the way) Had nothing to do with php.

Thanks I think what you meant is the wp-admin/index-extra.php

Sorry about that. It's renamed on my install.

so all that the index-extra.php file controls is the dashboard?

I have it open right now, and I made a backup:) so it appears I can just remove the entire sections regarding the rss feeds.

actually it looks like I can remove everything right?

I like the idea of customizing it, but I don't like how slow the dashboard is, when a user logs in, it hangs, and I figure it is because it is fetching these feeds.

I tried deleting just one of the feeds, but no matter what I did, it seems to remove all of them. This is what my file looks like now, is this ok? Im not sure if I need this file for anything els.

After making these changes though, the dashboard comes up much quicker, like instantly.

`<?php
require_once('admin.php');
require_once (ABSPATH . WPINC . '/rss.php');

?>

It hands because of the feed. They should be cached though. Needs to reviewed on teh regular wordpress trac though probably as it's copied right from wordpress I believe.

Dr mike, can you tell me how to do this?

"That's what I've done. I've changed the two RSS feeds, (ie the site blog and the sitewide posts feed),"

I don't have an index-helper.php on my install..

@kdesilva
It's /wp-admin/index-extra.php. It's mentioned up abaove.

ok, thanks - there is no index-extra.php in my install ... however I was able to find where the wordpress development feed was and change it to my main site's feed - but it only show's the first post..

I also want to change the "other wordpress news" to a feed that picks up the latest news from around the entire site, but I'm guessing that's more complicated?

Well, if you don't have a index-extra.php, I'm a bit concerned as it's 5 months old. What version are you running?

Before that the code would be found in the /wp-admin/index.php file

1.0..

like I said - I found out where to change the feed, but it just doesn't update..