Improve 'Right Now' in Network Admin

[DrewAPicture]

It seems like there are a few things that could be done to make 'Right Now' in the Network Admin a little more informative and functional:

1. Add the current WordPress version and applicable 'Update to X' and/or 'Update Network' buttons. Currently in NetAdmin the version is only displayed in the footer and (sort of) in /network/update-core.

2. List and link the site and user counts in similar fashion as the single-site 'Right Now' box

3. List and link theme and plugin counts

First pass

Screencap of first-pass

20946.first-pass.diff​ is a rough first-pass at adding/linking totals for sites, users, themes and plugins and adding the WordPress version info. Screenshot here: 20946-first-pass-screen.png​.

In mimicking wp_dashboard_right_now(), I've also added in a couple of hooks in essentially the same places:

• mu_right_now_network_table_end at the end of the Totals table
• mu_right_now_table_end at the end of the Tools table

Tweaked version of first-pass

Small one: "Create a new site|user" should really say "Add a new site|user" for consistency with terminology on the Sites and Users screens.

Replying to DrewAPicture:

20946.first-pass.diff​ is a rough first-pass at adding/linking totals for sites, users, themes and plugins and adding the WordPress version info.

I don't think we should be mimicking the code in the current Right Now section, which is pretty terrible. It's not easy to remove items from this list (you need to use CSS), you can only add items to the bottom, and when you do so you have to manually add all the crappy markup around each item to match the existing items. The list of items should be an array with a filter on it rather than an action sitting at the bottom. This applies to the non-network admin Right Now widget too, but that's probably better addressed in another ticket.

Create becomes Add, adjusted widths

Replying to johnbillion:

Small one: "Create a new site|user" should really say "Add a new site|user" for consistency with terminology on the Sites and Users screens.

Easy enough. I also adjusted the percentage widths for the tables.

The list of items should be an array with a filter on it rather than an action sitting at the bottom. This applies to the non-network admin Right Now widget too, but that's probably better addressed in another ticket.

I agree, if not only because the code is verbose and repeated enough that it almost makes more sense to dump it out of an array.

20946.3.diff​ covers the first part. I'll play around with the second part. Appreciate the suggestions.

introduces $mu_rightnow array

20946.4-array.diff​ is a pretty dirty attempt at printing the rows from an array. Would greatly appreciate some feedback on whether this is too hacky an approach.

Damn, that looks just like the $menu global. I don't think we want any more code like that.

Replying to scribu:

Damn, that looks just like the $menu global. I don't think we want any more code like that.

Open to suggestions. I did it without a global but wasn't sure about object vs array and just gave it an optimistic go.

Something similar to the WP_Admin_Bar API perhaps?

I'm game. Haven't worked much with writing classes but seems it's the wave of the future.

It's been the wave of the future for a few decades now. :P

I remembered that to insert an item into the admin bar, you have to rely on hook priority, which is a pretty round-about way of doing it, IMO.

How about something more like jQuery:

$right_now->append( array(
  'id' => 'user-count',
  'label' => _n_noop( 'User', 'Users' ),
  'count' => 1000
  'url' => ...
) );

We can generate both the number and text classes from the 'id' key.

This would just add the element at the end of the list.

We'd also have:

$right_now->prepend( array(
  ...
) );

$right_now->insert_before( 'some-other-id', array(
  ...
) );

$right_now->insert_after( 'some-other-id', array(
  ...
) );

$right_now->replace( 'some-other-id', array(
  ...
) );

$item = $right_now->get( 'some-other-id' );

$right_now->remove( 'some-other-id' );

This could also be used for the regular admin box.

After reading ​The Demise of the Personal Dashboard, I don't think I'll be focusing on the Right Now widgets anymore.