Wordpress dashboard hacks for developers and freelancers

1. WORDPRESS DASHBOARD HACKS FOR
DEVELOPERS AND FREELANCERS
By Pankaj Subedi

2. SOURCE AND REFERENCES ::
 http://www.studiograsshopper.ch/
 http://www.wprecipes.com
 http://www.catswhocode.com
 http://wpsnipp.com

3. THE DASHBOARD IS AN ESSENTIAL PART OF
WORDPRESS, AS IT IS THE PLACE WHERE YOU WRITE
POSTS AND INSTALL PLUGINS. BUT AS A DEVELOPER
AND/OR FREELANCER, YOU HAVE TO BE CAREFUL
ABOUT WHAT YOUR CLIENTS ARE DOING ON THE
DASHBOARD OF THEIR WORDPRESS POWERED
WEBSITES. TODAY, I HAVE COMPILED 10 SUPER
USEFUL HACKS TO CUSTOMIZE, MODIFY OR ENHANCE
WORDPRESS DASHBOARD.

4. REMOVE MENU ITEMS FROM WORDPRESS
ADMIN BAR
Here is a super useful code snippet for developers who wants to prevent their
clients to access some dashboard menus, such as “Plugins” or “Settings”. Paste
this code into your theme functions.php file to remove menus from the admin bar.
function wps_admin_bar() {
global $wp_admin_bar;
$wp_admin_bar->remove_menu('wp-logo');
$wp_admin_bar->remove_menu('about');
$wp_admin_bar->remove_menu('wporg');
$wp_admin_bar->remove_menu('documentation');
$wp_admin_bar->remove_menu('support-forums');
$wp_admin_bar->remove_menu('feedback');
$wp_admin_bar->remove_menu('view-site');
}
add_action( 'wp_before_admin_bar_render', 'wps_admin_bar' );

5. REMOVE THE SCREEN OPTIONS TAB WITH
SCREEN_OPTIONS HOOK
Don’t need the “Screen Options” button? Here is a simple hack to
remove it. Paste the code below into yourfunctions.php file, save it, and
you’re done.
function remove_screen_options(){
return false;
}
add_filter('screen_options_show_screen',
'remove_screen_options');

6. CHANGE DEFAULT “ENTER TITLE HERE” TEXT
WITHIN POST TITLE INPUT FIELD
If for some reason you need to replace the “Enter title here” text within post
title input field by a custom text, here is an easy way to do it. Define a new
text on line 2, then paste the code into your functions.php file.
function title_text_input( $title ){
return $title = 'Enter new title';
}
add_filter( 'enter_title_here', 'title_text_input' );

7. CHANGE DASHBOARD FOOTER TEXT
Changing the dashboard footer text is pretty easy as well. Update the code
below with your custom text on line 2, then include the snippet into
your functions.php file.
function remove_footer_admin () {
echo "Your own text";
}
add_filter('admin_footer_text',
'remove_footer_admin');

8. DISABLE THE “PLEASE UPDATE NOW” MESSAGE IN
WP DASHBOARD
Security is indeed a crucial aspect of a website and you should always
update all blogs you manage to prevent any risk of hacking. But when
working with clients, sometimes you may want to hide the “please
update now” message generated by WordPress when a new version is
available.
Simply add this code to your functions.php file to hide the message.
if ( !current_user_can( 'edit_users' ) ) {
add_action( 'init', create_function( '$a',
"remove_action( 'init', 'wp_version_check' );" ),
2 );
add_filter( 'pre_option_update_core',
create_function( '$a', "return null;" ) );
}

9. DISABLE THEME SWITCHING
The best way to prevent your clients from switching theme is definitely
by disabling theme switching. Paste the following code
into functions.php and your clients will not be able to switch themes
anymore.
add_action('admin_init', 'slt_lock_theme');
function slt_lock_theme() {
global $submenu, $userdata;
get_currentuserinfo();
if ($userdata->ID != 1) {
unset($submenu['themes.php'][5]);
unset($submenu['themes.php'][15]);
}
}

10. CHANGE WORDPRESS DASHBOARD COLORS
If you ever wanted to be able to change WordPress dashboard colors
(as well as font or even display) without having to edit WordPress
core files, you’ll like this hack for sure.
The following example features a basic style change (grey header is
replaced by a blue one) but you can easily add as many styles as you
wish within the <style> and </style> tags.
function custom_colors() {
echo '<style
type="text/css">#wphead{background:#069}</style
>';
}
add_action('admin_head', 'custom_colors');

11. CREATE CUSTOM HELP MESSAGES
If you’re building a site for a client and they have some problems with some
parts of the dashboard, a good idea is to provide contextual help to the
client.
The following hack will allow you to add a custom help messages for the
blog admin. As usual, you only have to paste the code into
your functions.php file.
function my_admin_help($text, $screen) {
// Check we're only on my Settings page
if (strcmp($screen, MY_PAGEHOOK) == 0 ) {
$text = 'Here is some very useful information to help you use this
plugin...';
return $text;
}
// Let the default WP Dashboard help stuff through on other Admin
pages
return $text;
}
add_action( 'contextual_help', 'my_admin_help' );

12. CHANGE WORDPRESS DEFAULT FROM EMAIL
ADDRESS
If you want to change WordPress default FROM email adress,
simply paste the following snippet into yourfunctions.php file. Don’t
forget to put the desired email adress on line 5 and desired name on
line 8.
add_filter('wp_mail_from', 'new_mail_from');
add_filter('wp_mail_from_name',
'new_mail_from_name');
function new_mail_from($old) {
return 'admin@yourdomain.com';
}
function new_mail_from_name($old) {
return 'Your Blog Name';
}