sort items in the admin menu

[Denis-de-Bernardy]

it's desirable to keep the wp items to the top of the list. but the items added by plugins could arguably be sorted automatically using strnatcasecmp applied to the menu item's title.

this is what I used until 2.7.1:

function sort_admin_menu()
{
	global $submenu;
	
	#dump($submenu);
	
	foreach ( $submenu as $key => $menu_items )
	{
		switch ( $key )
		{
		case 'edit.php':
		case 'upload.php';
		case 'link-manager.php';
		case 'edit-pages.php';
			$stop = 2;
			break;

		case 'themes.php':
			$stop = 2;
			unset($menu_items[10]); # theme and plugin editors
			unset($menu_items[15]); # add new theme
			break;

		case 'plugins.php':
			$stop = 2;
			unset($menu_items[15]); # theme and plugin editors
			break;
		
		case 'index.php':
		case 'edit-comments.php':
		case 'users.php':
		case 'profile.php':
		case 'tools.php':
		case 'options-general.php':
			$stop = 1;
			break;
		
		default:
			# don't reorder menus added by plugins
			$stop = sizeof($submenu[$key]);
			break;
		}
		
		$unsortable = array();
		$sortable = $menu_items;
		reset($sortable);

		while ( $stop != 0 )
		{
			$mkey = key($sortable);
			$unsortable[$mkey] = current($sortable);
			unset($sortable[$mkey]);

			$stop--;
		}

		uasort($sortable, array('sem_fixes_admin', 'menu_nat_sort'));

		$submenu[$key] = array_merge($unsortable, $sortable);
		
		if ( count($submenu[$key]) == 1 )
		{
			unset($submenu[$key]);
		}
	}
} # sort_admin_menu()


#
# menu_nat_sort()
#

function menu_nat_sort($a, $b)
{
	return strnatcmp($a[0], $b[0]);
} # menu_nat_sort()

if there is any interest, I'll change the above as needed cook up a patch.

[Denis-de-Bernardy]

Attached patch will do the following:

• Leave WP submenu items as they currently are
• Append all submenu items added by plugins, natcase-sorted by menu name

The key benefit is when you've a zillion plugins that add stuff to settings. As things are, they end up in a mostly random order. With the patch, it's nice and neat.

[ryan]

Plugins that add their own top-levels currently can control the order in which the submenus appear beneath that top-level. This seems like it would override that case.

[Denis-de-Bernardy]

I happen to maintain a few such plugins. :-)

Contrary to WP menu items, add_menu_page and add_sub_menu page all have a page title argument. As a result, $_data[3] is always set. The only case where it would not be set if the globals are modified directly.

[ryan]

I tested with Nextgen Gallery and its submenu items are reordered. An About page that was at the end of the list is now at the top of the list. Since its at the top of the list, it becomes the default page for that top-level rather than the intended Overview page.

[ryan]

Postponing to 2.9, where we will be doing some other menu enhancements.

[Denis-de-Bernardy]

new patch makes sure only WP menu items are done.

[Denis-de-Bernardy]

still applies clean, in case there's any interest.

[Denis-de-Bernardy]

fix a bug in the previous patch

[Denis-de-Bernardy]

new patch fixes a bug on index.php when akismet is enabled. It's now checking for !empty() instead of isset().

[westi]

I'm not sure that this is necessary.

Moving to Future for now.

[Denis-de-Bernardy]

Replying to westi:

I'm not sure that this is necessary.

you obviously aren't the only one...