[wp-hackers] Plugin Settings Menu Location

[Otto]

On Sun, May 18, 2008 at 4:08 PM, Alexander Beutl <xel at netgra.de> wrote:
> You are only speaking about "use once and forget" pages - and what you
> describe is the perfectly wrong thing to do even if it sounds right. Why?
> Imagine I write a plugin which really is for handling plugins. The admin
> has... lets say 10 Plugins installed and every single one puts in its own
> settings page at plugins menu. The admin would need to seek trough 10
> different one-time-settings-pages to find the page which would really do
> something with their plugins.

And the *name* of the pages gives them no clues? I mean, I would not
expect "Akismet Configuration" or "Timezone Configuration" to be about
anything other than those plugins...

> They should be accessable right out of the plugins description text (or at
> least somewhere near that) and shouldn't take any menu item at all... but
> AFAIK there is no way to do that today. Perfect way would be:
> a) Press install
> b) come to config page - configure and save
> c) come back to plugin page - maybe start at a) again...
> d) if you ever want to change something again go to the plugins page and
> scroll down to the plugin click on a link and be back at that config page.
>
> One should ONLY out one time config stuff there - of course.

That is reasonable, and it's possible for a plugin to do that, I
think. Change the redirect after the plugin activation to point to
your own configuration page. However, I think such a method is
confusing, because it breaks from all other plugins. When you activate
a plugin, the sequence should not vary from the expected "plugin
activated" screen. Having simply a new menu item appear draws the eye
to that area visually and implies a next logical step. No need to be
explicit about it.

> Besides: Blogsettings wont change very often too.

Not at all. Stuff in the settings menu generally changes way more
often than plugin settings will. Which is my main concern, of course.
I think that the "Plugins" menu should be reserved for "rarely
visited" pages, although I cannot draw a specific line in the sand as
to what qualifies where. It may be appropriate for a plugin to create
a "Settings" subpage, but more often than not, I do not think that it
is, even though most plugins put their pages there.