Simplifying and customizing admin features

We have to use the core features as much as possible to get the maximum benefits of using WordPress for site development. This includes the use of frontend theme features, as well as the existing backend features, that mainly focuses on post-related functionality. So, it's obvious that developers need to customize these features to suit the requirements of each website. In this section, we are going to look at several customizations of commonly used backend features.

Creating custom dashboard widgets

We had a brief introduction to the Dashboard Widget API in Chapter 6, Practical Usage of WordPress APIs. Basically, a dashboard is a collection of widgets built for administration purposes. Unlike frontend theme widgets, we don't have an interface for adding or removing admin dashboard widgets. So, we have to build custom solutions to build new dashboard widgets as well as remove the existing ones. In this section, we are going to look at the process...