Title: AdminSanity
Author: Tony Hayes
Published: <strong>March 15, 2021</strong>
Last modified: June 23, 2025

---

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# AdminSanity

 By [Tony Hayes](https://profiles.wordpress.org/majick/)

[Download](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/adminsanity.1.0.4.zip)

 * [Details](https://twd.wordpress.org/plugins/adminsanity/#description)
 * [Reviews](https://twd.wordpress.org/plugins/adminsanity/#reviews)
 *  [Installation](https://twd.wordpress.org/plugins/adminsanity/#installation)
 * [Development](https://twd.wordpress.org/plugins/adminsanity/#developers)

 [Support](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/adminsanity/)

## Description

AdminSanity brings sanity through sanitization to your WordPress Admin Area. Cleanly.

AdminSanity started as a Gist to address the WordPress Admin Menu clutter, automatically
splitting and re-ordered menu to clean up the mess that appears as more and more
plugins are added to a WordPress site. This idea was inspired by [this TRAC proposal for a “Simplified WordPress Admin Navigation”](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/47012),
as a proof of concept for a potential core Feature plugin.

Now, it includes modules not just for cleaning up and improving accesss to both 
the _Admin Menu_ and _Admin Bar_, but also includes a module for turning _Admin 
Notice_ clutter at the top of your admin screen into an tabbed notice type display
interface! This means a sigh of relief guaranteed, or your money back! (Actually
nevermind – it’s free – just like your Admin Area soon will be free of clutter!)

Oh and plus did I mention it supports responsive width changes and admin colour 
schemes?! 😀

#### AdminSanity Menu

The AdminSanity Menu module automatically sorts the Admin Menu into three sections:

 * _Content_ – Dashboard, all Post Types | Media, Links and Comments
 * _Manage_ – Settings, [Plugin Settings], Appearance, Plugins, Users, Tools
 * _Extensions_ – any other extra top level menu items not present by default

And, to add an extra layer of navigation accessibility, a meta-menu level has been
added to each of the Admin Menu sections, with the corresponding labels: _Content_,
_Manage_ and _Extensions_. So that rather than trying to replace the existing Admin
Menu design (which would be hard to make backwards compatible), it is just adapted
to provide improved menu access.

Additionally, a new “Plugin Settings” menu item has been added, with any Settings
submenu items moved there _that are not there by default_ (ie. from WordPress itself.)
This greatly improves the ease of navigation in your admin area when searching for
either Core or Plugin settings.

Then, for even faster ease of access, an “Expand menu” icon has been added at the
top of the Admin Menu (to complement the existing “Collapse menu” icon at the bottom)
which expands to provide a full page three column display of the entire Admin Menu
with all submenus expanded so you can instantly see every menu at once. Wow!

#### AdminSanity Notices

The AdminSanity Notice module attempts to solve probably **the** most long-standing
thorn in any WordPress user’s side – the distracting amount of _NOTICES_ at the 
top of every single Admin page! By providing a tabbed interface for notice types(
_Error_, _Update_, _Warnings_, _Messages_, _Notices_), you get a colour-coded and
at-a-glance display of how many notices of each type there are, so you can prioritize
and stay on task.

Clicking on any of the notice types instantly displays all the notices for that 
type. Nice! And as an added bonus, if you want to access Notices by their user notice
level, you can do that too. Clicking on the _Notices_ label reveals an extra tab
menu that is sorted by notice type instead: _All_, _General_, _Network_, _Admin_
and _User_. Neat!

#### AdminSanity Bar

After experiencing the Admin Bar getting cluttered also and splitting itself into
two lines (and thus making some of the bar items unclickable!) I decided to add 
some responsive height handling to fix the bar display when this happened. And also,
add a new “Shuffle” Cycler icon to the start of the Admin Bar, which cycles the 
visibility of the different Admin Bar items. Each click of the icon will cycle through
three display options, giving you faster access to what you were looking for:

 * All Bar menu items (Default Admin Bar view)
 * Default Bar menu items (added by WordPress)
 * Non-default Bar menu items (from plugins and themes)

And again, similar to the Admin Menu, for faster ease of access to all Admin Bar
items at once, a “Dropdown” toggle item is added at the end of the Admin Bar, providing
an expanded view of all bar menu items and their submenus (including nested submenus
which are accessible via dropdown arrows for those submenu items.) Nifty!

#### Come Get Some Admin Sanity!

Isn’t it time for **AdminSanity** to bring some sanity back to your Admin Area?!

## Installation

 1. Upload plugin .zip file to the `/wp-content/plugins/` directory and unzip.
 2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in the WordPress Admin

## FAQ

### How do I get started?

Once you have activated the plugin you will see these changes in your WordPress 
Admin area:

**Admin Menu**
 – a sorted menu with three sections: Content, Settings and Extensions–
an “Expand menu” item at the top to view a full page expanded Admin Menu – an additional
Plugin Settings menu item for non-default settings pages **Admin Notices** – notices
are grouped into clickable dropdown tabs according to notice types – clicking on
Notices reveals an extra menu sorted by notice level **Admin Bar** – a “Shuffle”
cycler icon to cycle between all, default and extra bar items – a “Dropdown” toggle
icon to expand the Admin Bar and view all submenus

See the full plugin description for more details on what each of these modifications
does.

### Where are the Plugin Settings?

A settings page is available via the Plugin Settings submenu (or the Settings submenu
when the Menu module is inactive.)
 Configuration is also currently available via
constants and filters (see below.)

### Can I use this as a must-use plugin?

Yes. Simply copy the individual module file(s) you wish to use into your `/wp-content/
mu-plugins/` directory. Alternatively you can also copy the entire plugin into that
directory if you wish.

### How do I turn a specific module off?

Modules can be disabled via te settings page or by defining any of the following
constants as `false`:

    ```
    ADMINSANITY_LOAD_MENU, `ADMINSANITY_LOAD_BAR`, `ADMINSANITY_LOAD_NOTICES`
    ```

eg. `define( 'ADMINSANITY_LOAD_MENU', false );`

Or returning `false` to any of the following value filters:

    ```
    adminsanity_load_menu, `adminsanity_load_bar`, `adminsanity_load_notices`
    ```

eg. `add_filter( ‘adminsanity_load_bar’, ‘__return_false’ );

### Can I turn off some of the additional features?

Yes, on the plugin settings page. These features can be also disabled using constants
or filters in the same way as above:

| Feature | Constant | Filter |
 | Meta Menu Headings | ADMINSANITY_MENU_METAS |
adminsanity_menu_metas | | Plugin Settings Menu | ADMINSANITY_MENU_PLUGINS | adminsanity_menu_plugins
| | Expand Menu Icon | ADMINSANITY_MENU_EXPANDER | adminsanity_menu_expander | |
Bar Frontend Loading | ADMINSANITY_BAR_FRONTEND | adminsanity_bar_frontend | | Bar
Item Switcher | ADMINSANITY_BAR_CYCLER | adminsanity_bar_cycler | | Bar Dropdown
Toggle | ADMINSANITY_BAR_DROPDOWN | adminsanity_bar_dropdown |

### Can I keep the position of some items in the Admin Menu?

Yes. Although tricky, a filter for this was included in the initial proof of concept
Gist for the admin menu. Simply return an array of admin menu slugs to the filter`
adminsanity_menu_keep_positions` and AdminSanity will attempt to keep those menu
items from moving when it sorts the other items (See example in plugin code, function`
adminsanity_menu_keep_position_test`.) Note that depending on the menu items’s initial
position, this may have mixed results in where it appears in relation to the other
newly rearranged menu items.

## Reviews

There are no reviews for this plugin.

## Contributors & Developers

“AdminSanity” is open source software. The following people have contributed to 
this plugin.

Contributors

 *   [ Tony Hayes ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/majick/)

[Translate “AdminSanity” into your language.](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/adminsanity)

### Interested in development?

[Browse the code](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/adminsanity/), check
out the [SVN repository](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/adminsanity/), or subscribe
to the [development log](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/adminsanity/) by
[RSS](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/adminsanity/?limit=100&mode=stop_on_copy&format=rss).

## Changelog

#### 1.0.4

 * Updated: Plugin Panel (1.3.5)
 * Fixed: Admin Bar Frontend module loading option key

#### 1.0.3

 * Improved: do not load Menu/Notices on Block Editor pages
 * Fixed: removed conflicting postbox class on notifications box
 * Admin Menu: changed expanded menu autoload to on-demand load
 * Admin Menu: keep menu positions for top WordPress.Com items
 * Admin Bar: fix to conflict with post type template edit pages
 * Admin Bar: auto disable bar module on WordPress.Com
 * Admin Notices: added Elementor Notice class
 * Admin Notices: do not float right after collapse click

#### 1.0.2

 * Updates: Plugin Panel (1.2.8)
 * Admin Bar: fix undefined post_type on post list/edit screens
 * Admin Menu: fix undefined index warning for debug mode

#### 1.0.1

 * Added: Plugin Panel library v1.2.2
 * Added: plugin settings for Plugin Panel
 * Added: plugin images for admin page
 * Fixed: Conflict with Bar and Woocommerce Product Attributes page

#### 1.0.0

 * Fixed: explicitly sanitize and/or validate GET/REQUEST values
 * Fixed: added missing menu style media query close bracket

#### 0.9.9

 * Admin Menu: add full page expanded admin menu
 * Admin Menu: admin menu expander icon to admin bar
 * Admin Menu: clone admin colour scheme rules
 * Admin Bar: add full dropdown admin bar menu
 * Admin Bar: added option to disable module on frontend
 * Admin Bar: added mobile width responsiveness styles
 * Admin Notices: improve menu styles and add count bubbles
 * Admin Notices: add Commerce message types menu
 * Admin Notices: added height animations to menu
 * Fixed: standardize all function, constant and filter names
 * Fixed: function and style integration between modules
 * Fixed: added float reset div after admin notices box

#### 0.9.8

 * Loader: add loading of AdminSanity modules (using constants and filters)
 * Admin Bar: initial version with cycler between default and extra items
 * Admin Notices: add classes to notice types as subarray values
 * Admin Notices: fix to handle ‘notice-success’ as Message notice type
 * Admin Menu: added dropdown Meta-Menus to Sections: Content, Manage, Extensions
 * Admin Menu: new Plugin Settings menu item for non-default Settings submenu items
 * Admin Menu: added meta menu order filtering (prototype)
 * Admin Menu: added menu separator IDs to menu item classes

#### 0.9.7

 * Admin Notices: initial version to sort and display notice levels and types

#### 0.9.6

 * Admin Menu: added some bugfixes to initial admin menu

#### 0.9.5

 * Admin Menu: initial proof of concept for split admin menu reordering (Gist)

## Meta

 *  Version **1.0.4**
 *  Last updated **9 months ago**
 *  Active installations **20+**
 *  WordPress version ** 4.0.0 or higher **
 *  Tested up to **6.8.5**
 *  Language
 * [English (US)](https://wordpress.org/plugins/adminsanity/)
 * Tags
 * [admin bar](https://twd.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/admin-bar/)[admin menu](https://twd.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/admin-menu/)
   [Admin notices](https://twd.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/admin-notices/)[cleaner](https://twd.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/cleaner/)
   [wordpress admin](https://twd.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/wordpress-admin/)
 *  [Advanced View](https://twd.wordpress.org/plugins/adminsanity/advanced/)

## Ratings

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## Contributors

 *   [ Tony Hayes ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/majick/)

## Support

Got something to say? Need help?

 [View support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/adminsanity/)

## Donate

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