Request: Allow FDP to be placed under the Tools menu

Hi Norm,

Why would you like to have this option? I ask because maybe you can already reach your goal. If you go to Settings Icon => Roles Manager you can decide which users can see Freesoul Deactivate Plugins. See here for more details: https://freesoul-deactivate-plugins.com/how-deactivate-plugiins-on-specific-pages/roles-manager/

In this case, you would totally hide it when the specified users are logged in. I don’t know if this would fit your needs. Let me know.

If you want to hide the top-level menu item for everybody you can use this custom CSS:

#toplevel_page_eos_dp_menu {
    display:none
}

The CSS has to be loaded in the backend. Maybe you can just add this in a functional plugin or in the functions.php of the child theme:

add_action( 'admin_head',function(){
    ?>#toplevel_page_eos_dp_menu{display:none}<?php
} );

Then the FDP menu item (Plugins Manager) will be only under the Plugins menu item.

Would it be ok for you?

Have a great day!

Jose

@normsash

Hi Jose. This request is to mostly reduce the clutter on the main admin menu. It won’t work to use roles because admin needs to have access to FDP, but in the case where there are multiple admins on the site, not all admins would typically use FDP (mostly, only I would use it.)

I typically view utility plugins like FDP as tools, and like to put them under the tools admin menu.

But in any case, this is just a suggestion for you to consider and isn’t urgent.

Thanks so much! You have a great plugin!
-Norm

Thank you Norm!

You are right but it’s not so easy to do something that is good for everybody.

Many people when installing a plugin if don’t immediately see a top-level menu item don’t understand what to do and uninstall the plugin without searching in the submenus or trying to read the description.
Because FDP is still not very popular and has still many new users who have never seen it before and install it for the first time, I prefer to still keep the top-level menu item. It’s after the Plugins menu item not near the top, so for me it doesn’t disturb too much. Of course, if you have many plugins that add a top-level admin menu item, one less top-level menu item is better than one more. I totally understand it. But think about all those plugins that add multiple top-level menu items and try to insert them all at the top.
For example, WooCommerce adds the menu items WooCommerce, Products, Analytics, and Marketing. And there are also other plugins that do something similar. If every plugin added only one top-level menu item you would have fewer of them
The problem is that the core doesn’t give plugin authors the possibility to easily create grandchildren submenu, you can only create a submenu, but not the submenu of a submenu, and they also allow plugins to add any kind of notice everywhere. Then the backend becomes a mess, especially if you have many plugins, I know it. But in this phase, FDP needs to be seen after you install it for the first time. It’s already a plugin that is not so easy in the beginning, if the user has also to spend too much time to find the settings the first impression they have is too negative.

Moreover, for me under Tools, you should have all the things that are related to plugins or core functions that give you the possibility to do something without saving any settings (Import, export, search and replace…). When a plugin provides settings, not everybody expects to see it under tools.
I think the best place would be under Plugins. It already has the submenu item Plugins Manager under the top-level menu item Plugins. When it becomes more popular the idea is to keep it only there. The users will be more used and it will not be a problem to keep it only under Plugins. FDP is a plugin manager, and I think this is a good place. Under Plugins, you can see the installed plugins, add a new plugin, and with FDP you can manage the plugins. I think it has the sense to put it there. What do you think? In the future, it will probably be only there, but it has to grow a little before removing the top-level menu item.

Until then I suggest you the custom CSS, or if you want I can add something to the code and you will be able to define a constant in wp-config.php to hide the top-level menu item. Then you would have it only under Plugins.
Something that looks like define( ‘FDP_TOP_LEVEL_ADMIN_MENU’,false );
What do you think? Or would you like a checkbox that you can uncheck? This would also be possible.

Have a great day!

Jose

Ah! I had completely forgot that you have another entry “Plugins Manager” under “Plugins”. Sorry, my bad ??

I’m totally OK with having FDP under Plugins and it makes perfect sense to me. It works just as good as having it under Tools, maybe even a little more.

And I fully understand that users could get confused looking for FDP after installing and not finding it in the main admin menu and not familiar with where to find it (under Plugins).

So with all that in mind, would it make sense to just have an option in settings to “Show in top-level Admin” that would be checked by default? Then it would always show FDP in Admin menu by default for new installs, but the administrator could have the option of unchecking it, in which case they know they can find it under Plugins?

And yes, I’m fine with hiding it via CSS even if you aren’t able to put in a settings checkbox. No reason to do anything special for me.

Thanks!

Many thanks to you Norm!

If you want to try version 1.9.3.7.RC-1 you will find the section “FDP Preferences” when you edit your user profile (Users => Profile).
I thought this is the best place where to put the checkbox, so every user can decide if they want to see the FDP top-level admin menu, and it adds no additional database queries. If the user doesn’t uncheck it no data are written into the database and all will be as it was until now.
If in the future there are also other preferences about the FDP backend pages or the admin navigation, I will probably put them there.

Thank you very much for the suggestion!

If you want you can download v. 1.9.3.7.RC-1 from here: https://downloads.www.ads-software.com/plugin/freesoul-deactivate-plugins.1.9.3.7.RC-1.zip

Have a great day!

Jose