[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #40651: Plugins: Make it easier to find plugin settings after install

[WordPress Trac]

#40651: Plugins: Make it easier to find plugin settings after install
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 Reporter:  melchoyce        |       Owner:
     Type:  feature request  |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal           |   Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  Plugins          |     Version:
 Severity:  normal           |  Resolution:
 Keywords:                   |     Focuses:  ui, administration
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Comment (by kellenmace):

 Thanks for the recommendation, Mel and for linking to the plugin, Weston.
 The Show Plugin Menu Items on Activation plugin was my solution to this
 issue. It essentially stores a copy of the global $menu and $submenu
 arrays before the plugin(s) is activated, then after it is activated,
 accesses those global arrays again and does a diff to determine which are
 the newly added menu items. It then shows admin pointers if there are 1-3
 new menu items, or displays a notice stating that there are non/many (more
 than 4). If this feature were rolled into core, I expect that both the
 process for determining which menu items are new and indicating the new
 ones would likely be different. But perhaps my plugin can serve as an
 example of how such a feature could work.

 I think if a feature like this were rolled into core, it may make sense to
 do it this way:
 * Add an action inside of the add_menu_page() and add_submenu_page()
 functions that captures and saves the original data as each menu item is
 added.
 * Hook a function to an action hook that fires after all menu items have
 been added and save their data to the options table.
 * Hook another function to that same action hook that checks to see if any
 plugins have been activated. If they have, it could get the saved data
 from the options table and compare it with the newly generated data for
 the current page load to determine which item items are new.

 That would be a cleaner way of doing it rather than relying on the global
 $menu and $submenu arrays like my plugin does, since some of those menu
 items contain HTML and other data. So capturing the original data from
 when menu items were originally added using add_menu_page() and
 add_submenu_page() would be preferable.

 Lastly, this same feature could be expanded to work for themes as well,
 where WP would notify users of any newly added menu items after a theme is
 activated. Maybe that's beyond the scope of this ticket, though, based on
 the title.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/40651#comment:2>
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