Add "Update available" option to "Plugins" on the admin menu

[Josiah S. Carberry]

I update plugins on my site several times a week. I add a new plugin maybe once or twice a year.

I generally perform the update from the list of plugins rather than going directly to updates, as might appear in the admin toolbar.

From the perspective of usability and efficiency, it would be much more useful to have the options "Updates available" under the "Plugin" entry in the admin menu, than "Add new". So I am suggesting that this option be added to the main admin menu, visible when and if such updates are available.

I am not suggesting that "Add new" be removed.

[mrmadhat]

Doesn't this feature already exist?

[Josiah S. Carberry]

screen shot showing that updating the plugins is not an option on the Plugin entry when plugin updates are available

[Josiah S. Carberry]

No. See the screenshot above.

[danieltj]

If you click on the Plugin link in the admin menu, it'll take you to the unfiltered list of plugins where you can update them. I'm not sure how hopeful it'd be to add another link to the menu.

[Josiah S. Carberry]

You could say exactly the same thing about adding new plugins. If it is worthwhile to have an "Add new" option for "Plugin", then surely it is worthwhile to have an update option, which is used at least two orders of magnitude more frequently.

[catchmyfame]

@Josiah S. Carberry I've wanted this for a while and just wrote up the code that does it in a plugin. Essentially you can create your own plugin or modify your functions.php.

add_action('admin_menu', 'add_plugin_submenu_items');
function add_plugin_submenu_items() {
    // Add submenu items to the left hand plugins menu to quickly jump to the active, inactive, and update available pages.
    if ( current_user_can( 'manage_options' ) ) {
	add_submenu_page( 'plugins.php', 'Active', 'Active', 'manage_options', 'plugins.php?plugin_status=active');
	add_submenu_page( 'plugins.php', 'Inactive', 'Inactive', 'manage_options', 'plugins.php?plugin_status=inactive');
	add_submenu_page( 'plugins.php', 'Updates', 'Updates', 'manage_options', 'plugins.php?plugin_status=upgrade');
    }
}

The only caveats are that it will always show the Updates submenu option even if there aren't any, and it doesn't include the update count if there is one.

[Josiah S. Carberry]

Replying to catchmyfame:
Yes, something like that would save clicks. Thanks! I note that there is an extraneous single quote in your code, which I have removed below:

add_action('admin_menu', 'add_plugin_submenu_items');
function add_plugin_submenu_items() {
    // Add submenu items to the left hand plugins menu to quickly jump to the active, inactive, and update available pages.
    if ( current_user_can( 'manage_options' ) ) {
	add_submenu_page( 'plugins.php', 'Active', 'Active', 'manage_options', 'plugins.php?plugin_status=active');
	add_submenu_page( 'plugins.php', 'Inactive', 'Inactive', 'manage_options', 'plugins.php?plugin_status=inactive');
	add_submenu_page( 'plugins.php', 'Updates', 'Updates', 'manage_options', 'plugins.php?plugin_status=upgrade');
    }
}

[welcher]

When there are updates available for either plugins or themes, there is an indicator in the admin bar that takes the user to an updates page where they can choose what to update.