Adding pages to all the WordPress submenus

Most WordPress plugin tutorials tell you to add your option pages to the Settings submenu, and that’s that. Did you know that add_options_page() isn’t your only choice?

Here are the functions to add pages to all the major submenus:

<br />
<?php<br />
//Settings<br />
add_options_page (page_title, menu_title, capability, handle);<br />
// Tools<br />
add_management_page (page_title, menu_title, capability, handle);<br />
// Appearance<br />
add_theme_page (page_title, menu_title, capability, handle);<br />
// Posts<br />
add_posts_page (page_title, menu_title, capability, handle);<br />
// Pages<br />
add_pages_page (page_title, menu_title, capability, handle);<br />
// Users<br />
add_users_page (page_title, menu_title, capability, handle);<br />
?><br />

The page_title is the text that will appear as the <title> and <h2> tags on your option page. The menu_title is the text that will appear as an item in the navigation menu — you might use a shorter phrase there. The capability is a relevant capability a user should have in order to do stuff with your plugin options. (It’s not the role, because lots of plugins modify the basic roles, so it’s safer to check for a specific capability.)

For example, if you’re creating a plugin that manages user roles and capabilities, you might call your option page Role Manager, and the function containing your the form markup might be ‘role_manager_plugin_options’. If you wanted to put the page under Users, you’d write the following:

<br />
// add the page to the navigation menu<br />
add_action('admin_menu', 'role_manager_plugin_add_page');</p>
<p>function role_manager_plugin_add_page() {<br />
   // Add a new submenu under Users:<br />
   add_users_page('Role Manager Options', 'Role Manager', 'edit_users', 'role_manager_plugin_options');<br />
}<br />

(Updated to correct add_user_page() to add_users_page(). Thanks, Ozh!)

This is part of the chapter on creating plugins in Beginning WordPress 3.