Dashboard quick links widget

Description

A lightweight plugin to allows admins to create an admin dashboard widget with frequently accessed links for quick access.

I originally developed this plugin after spending hours creating client/user documentation for every WordPress project. Instead of writing step-by-step navigation documentation, I used this plugin to organise all necessary links on the single widget for non-technical users. As a developer, I also use this script myself to organise frequently accessed links for quick access.

Links format

Each link should be entered in a separate line in the following format
(the fourth parameter, i.e. font awesome icon class is optional)

Link text|Button link|Button text|font-awesome icon class

Examples

Post blog|/wp-admin/post-new.php|Post blog
Post blog|/wp-admin/post-new.php|Post blog|fa fa-cog
Post blog|/wp-admin/post-new.php newtab|Post blog|fa fa-cog`

If you have any feedback or queries please contact me at hemthapa.com

Screenshots

  • Dashboard widget preview
  • plugin settings dialog

Installation

  1. Install the plugin from within the Dashboard or upload the directory dashboard-quick-link-widget and all of its contents to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory of your website

  2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress

  3. Configure the widget options and links on Settings->Dashboard links widget.

  4. Preview and confirm the dashboard widget.

  5. That’s all, Now users can simply click on the button in the dashboard widget to access the page.

FAQ

How to format the list of the links?

You need to list each link in a separate line in the following format
Link text|Button link|Button text|font-awesome icon class

(fourth parameter, i.e. Font Awesome icon class is optional)

Example:

Post new blog|/wp-admin/post-new.php|Create new post|fa fa-cog

How to open links in new tab?

By default, all links open in the same tab, if you want to open all the links on the widget in a new tab tick the ‘Open all links in a new tab’ box.

However, if you want to open only selected links in a new tab, add the keyword ‘newtab’ after the link.

Example:

Post new blog|/wp-admin/post-new.php newtab|Post new blog

How to add a divider or additional info in between the links?

If you need to add any text, divider or any plain or HTML content in between the links, please add the new line with ‘#’ in the front. Any new lines starting with # are rendered as it is in the widget. You can add any HTML tags in this line.

Example:
#<strong> Section title </strong>
Post new blog|/wp-admin/post-new.php|Post new blog
#<hr/>
Post new blog|/wp-admin/post-new.php|Post new blog

Why Font Awesome icons is not working properly?

Please make sure correct the Font Awesome version is selected.

Reviews

ለካቲት 5, 2024
Just what we needed!! Hopefully this plugin gets updated on a regular basis. Currently while writing not supported by the latest WP version 6.4.3 (but it works). Also maybe an improvement suggestion - for me i would have liked an option to make all buttons the same length. So they sit more evenly, but that is a personal preference. Great work !!!
ሕዳር 14, 2022
I manage many WordPress sites and it's often a pain to find a frequently used menu item buried within tons of options. I actually developed my own plugin for that reason (called Admin Menu Search), but even then I got tired of typing in the filter to find the menu item I wanted. I found this plugin by searching for "Admin Links" and after a little bit of setup, it's really handy!! Excellent plugin idea and very useful! Thank You!
ለካቲት 25, 2021
This is my first plugin review. Plugins like AIOSEOP, Jetpack - why would I even bother rating them? But this little plugin is so simple, specific and handy, that I just can't help saying thank you to the author. I've got a couple of pages that I update almost daily, and I thought hey, on my dashboard there are a bunch of blocks I never use, why not put something useful there, like some direct page edit links. It would save me a couple minutes every single time. Hey, and there must be a plugin for this, right? ) And here it is ) Took me a couple of minutes to set up, works great. If you ever write another plugin like this one, let us know!
ጥሪ 26, 2021
A great and EASY plugin which work without any problems. 1 thing which you can probably add: new tab for custom links (possible atm for all but not for single links). Thanks for making it and keep it up!!
Read all 8 reviews

Contributors & Developers

“Dashboard quick links widget” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

Changelog

1.6.0

4 Sep 2023

  • Support for custom HTML block is added to add text, space or whatever you like in between the links to categorise and manage the links block
  • Support for multiple version of Font Awesome icon is added
  • Individual links can now be set to open in a new tab