How to Add "Quick Links" onto the Admin "Home" Dashboard

[turner2f]

I see on the Home Page of the Admin's dashboard that there is a place for adding custom "Quick Links" to the left-side navigation.

------------------------

NOTE :

If you go to . . .  

blest/language/en_us/admin_main.php

You will see the following code . . .

23. // Index
24. $lang['AdminMain.index.page_title'] = 'Dashboard';
25. $lang['AdminMain.index.heading_quicklinks'] = 'Quick Links';
26. $lang['AdminMain.index.no_quicklinks'] = 'No Quick Links have been set.';
27. $lang['AdminMain.index.manage_widgets'] = 'Manage Widgets';
28. $lang['AdminMain.index.customize_dashboard'] = 'Customize Dashboard';

 

How do we add our own custom "Quick Links" to the left-side navigation bar ?
 

1) - Is it via a plugin ?

2) - Is it via the Admin interface ?

3) - Or do the links have to be hard-coded in  ? If yes, which .PDT file ?

 

...

[turner2f]

QUICK NOTE:

I found the following code at . . .

blesta/app/views/admin/default/admin_main.pdt

 

<section class="quick_links">
                        <h3><?php $this->_('AdminMain.index.heading_quicklinks');?></h3>
                        <ul>
                        <?php
                        if (!empty($quicklinks)) {
                            foreach ($quicklinks as $quicklink) {
                        ?>
                            <li>
                                <div class="quick_link">
                                    <a href="<?php $this->Html->_($quicklink->uri);?>"><?php $this->Html->_($quicklink->title);?></a>
                                </div>
                                <i class="fa fa-pencil pull-right"></i>
                            </li>
                        <?php
                            }
                        } else {
                        ?>
                            <li><?php $this->_('AdminMain.index.no_quicklinks');?></li>
                        <?php
                        }
                        ?>
                        </ul>
 </section>

 

So how do we add our own custom "Quick Links" to the left-side navigation bar ?
 

1) - Is it via a plugin ?

2) - Is it via the Admin interface ?

3) - Or do the links have to be hard-coded in  ? If yes, which .PDT file ?

 

...

 

 

[Jono]

  Visit the page and click the star icon just below the nav on the left side of the screen

[turner2f]

@Jono

Thanks for the reply.

Is there a way we can HARD CODE in our own "custom" links.

For instance, I have a Wordpress website that has an interface for the different employees to have THEIR OWN separate, private calendars.

A function that Blesta does not currently support.

____________________________________

So I would like to HARD CODE a URL link within the left-side navigation of the Blesta Admin home page that would take the employees to the WordPress website .


1) - Can you please provide an example of where we would HARD CODE a custom URL link to a separate website within the code at . . .

blesta/app/views/admin/default/admin_main.pdt
 

 

<section class="quick_links">
                        <h3><?php $this->_('AdminMain.index.heading_quicklinks');?></h3>
                        <ul>
                        <?php
                        if (!empty($quicklinks)) {
                            foreach ($quicklinks as $quicklink) {
                        ?>
                            <li>
                                <div class="quick_link">
                                    <a href="<?php $this->Html->_($quicklink->uri);?>"><?php $this->Html->_($quicklink->title);?></a>
                                </div>
                                <i class="fa fa-pencil pull-right"></i>
                            </li>
                        <?php
                            }
                        } else {
                        ?>
                            <li><?php $this->_('AdminMain.index.no_quicklinks');?></li>
                        <?php
                        }
                        ?>
                        </ul>
 </section>

 

...

[Jono]

You can do this either in the view app/views/admin/default/admin_main.pdt or in the controller app/controllers/admin_main.php.  In the view you would change:

                        if (!empty($quicklinks)) {

To something like this

                        $quicklinks = array_merge([(object)['uri' => 'https://yourwordpress.com', 'title' => 'WordPress Calendar']], (isset($quicklinks) ? $quicklinks : []));
                        if (!empty($quicklinks)) {

OR in the controller you could change:

        $this->set(
            'quicklinks',
            $this->Staff->getQuickLinks($this->Session->read('blesta_staff_id'), $this->company_id)
        );

To something like this:

        $this->set(
            'quicklinks',
            array_merge(
                [(object)['uri' => 'https://yourwordpress.com', 'title' => 'WordPress Calendar']],
                $this->Staff->getQuickLinks($this->Session->read('blesta_staff_id'), $this->company_id)
            )
        );

 

[turner2f]

@Jono

Thanks for the tip.

I will try it out .

[turner2f]

@Jono

Works great.

How do we make it so that the "target" is "Blank"  ?

(  target="_blank"  )

===================

Look forward to your reply.

[Jono]

Be sure you have a way to keep track of what files have custom modifications   That being said, there is no natural mechanism for target=blank.   You could a modify the view and change

                                    <a href="<?php $this->Html->_($quicklink->uri);?>"><?php $this->Html->_($quicklink->title);?></a>

To

                                    <a href="<?php $this->Html->_($quicklink->uri);?>"<?php $this->Html->ifSet($quicklink->external) == true ? ' target="blank"' : '';?>><?php $this->Html->_($quicklink->title);?></a>

And then add 'external' => true in the array for each of your links in the controller

[turner2f]

@Jono

I apologize.  I should have mentioned that the file I was needing to alter is . . . 

" admin_main.pdt "

Found at:

blesta/app/views/admin/default/admin_main.pdt

 

How do I modify that particular file so that it has a ( target="_blank" ) for the custom Quick links ?

 

 

[Jono]

Yup, my response applies to that file and the admin_main.php controller.  I believe that is line 33 in the admin_main.pdt view file

[Alk]

On 10/13/2020 at 4:45 PM, Jono said:

  Visit the page and click the star icon just below the nav on the left side of the screen

 

Thanks for this topic.

For future reference for anyone else; when you add a quick link via the star icon, Blesta adds the links into the database table "staff_links". So if you need to edit them, you can do so in that table.

I had a problem whereby I had added some quick links, but subsequently changed the admin URL of Blesta and so the quick links were still using the old URLs. It was not possible to unstar existing quick links, as the linked pages were not recognised. Fortunately, it was an easy fix in the database - thanks Blesta!