Is the new WordPress 3.1 admin bar pluggable and how can I extend it?

3 comments

1. Yoast’s plug-in is actually a very good example if all you want to do is add menus. Basically, the admin bar is just an alternate set of links to the same plug-in admin pages you have in the sidebar. To add the top-level SEO menu, Yoast does the following:

   $wp_admin_bar->add_menu( array( 'id' => 'wpseo-menu', 'title' => __( 'SEO' ), 'href' => get_admin_url('admin.php?page=wpseo_dashboard'), ) );
   

   This adds a menu named “wpseo-menu” to the admin bar and directs users to the plug-in’s dashboard when they click the link. Child links are added in a similar fashion:

   $wp_admin_bar->add_menu( array( 'parent' => 'wpseo-menu', 'id' => 'wpseo-kwresearch', 'title' => __( 'Keyword Research' ), '#', ) );
   

   You just specify the “parent” of the menu you’re adding.

   Then you can go as deep as you need to, calling $wp_admin_bar->add_menu() when you need to and specifying the appropriate information.

   ---

   For reference, the variable, $wp_admin_bar is an instance of the class WP_Admin_Bar() within WordPress. It has several different methods and properties, but the one you’re most interested in here is, obviously, add_menu(). This method accepts certain parameters:

   • title – default false
   • href – default false,
   • parent – default false – pass the ID value for a submenu of that menu
   • id – defaults to a sanitized title value.
   • meta – default false – array of any of the following options: array( 'html' => '', 'class' => '', 'onclick' => '', target => '' );

   But the rest of the WP_Admin_Bar() class is pluggable. It just depends on what exactly you’re trying to do and how you want to do it.

   See Also:

   • SVN of Yoast’s plug-in: read halfway through the file to find the menu definitions in wpseo_admin_bar()
   • PHPXref of class WP_Admin_Bar()

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2. small example, i had write this also on wp-hackers list before view days

   function wp_codex_search_form() {
       global $wp_admin_bar, $wpdb;
   
       if ( !is_super_admin() || !is_admin_bar_showing() )
           return;
   
       $codex_search = '<form target="_blank" method="get" action="http://wordpress.org/search/do-search.php" style="margin:2px 0 0;">
           <input type="text" onblur="this.value=(this.value=='') ? 'Search the Codex' : this.value;" onfocus="this.value=(this.value=='Search the Codex') ? '' : this.value;" maxlength="100" value="Search the Codex" name="search" class="adminbar-input">
           <button type="submit" class="adminbar-button">
               <span>Go</span>
           </button>
       </form>';
   
       /* Add the main siteadmin menu item */
       $wp_admin_bar->add_menu( array( 'id' => 'codex_search', 'title' => 'Search Codex', 'href' => FALSE ) );
       $wp_admin_bar->add_menu( array( 'parent' => 'codex_search', 'title' => $codex_search, 'href' => FALSE ) );
   }
   add_action( 'admin_bar_menu', 'wp_codex_search_form', 1000 );
   

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3. Download the nightly build, and check out these two files;

   • wp-includes/admin-bar.php
   • wp-includes/class-wp-admin-bar.php

   The class WP_Admin_Bar is essentially the ‘API’, whilst the file admin-bar.php uses it to build the default bar and fire off a load of hooks.

   function my_admin_bar()
   {
       global $wp_admin_bar;
       $wp_admin_bar->add_menu(array(
           'parent' => 'my-account', // optional
           'id'     => 'my-unique-id',
           'title'  => '',
           'href'   => ''
       ));
   }
   add_action('admin_bar_menu', 'my_admin_bar');
   

   That’s pretty much the basics – this is all I’ve gathered from a quick gander myself (to be honest, it’s a bit annoying the hook admin_bar_menu doesn’t pass back the instance of WP_Admin_Bar – I hate all these globals!)

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