Sorting an Admin menu

How admin menus can be sorted

Top Level Menus (Configuration, Tools, etc.)

By default, the list under each of the main admin menu titles (Configuration, Catalog, Modules etc…) are ordered according to each menu items sort_order in the database (which is set on initial installation). However, it is possible to alpha-sort these entries which may be more desirable as they often become extended with Plugins.

In Zen Cart 1.5.8 and above, this functionality is controlled in the admin main language file, eg. admin/includes/languages/lang.english.php

In Zen Cart 1.5.7, this functionality is controlled in the admin main language file, eg. admin/includes/languages/english.php

The constant which is set in these files is

MENU_CATEGORIES_TO_SORT_BY_NAME

which sets a comma-separated list of the menu_key values to be sorted alphabetically. (Note these values come from the admin_menus database table.)

The default value of the constant MENU_CATEGORIES_TO_SORT_BY_NAME is reports,tools, which means the Reports menu and the Tools menu are all sorted alphabetically. To sort more menus alphabetically, add the desired menus to this list.

eg: 'configuration,catalog,modules,customers,taxes,localization,reports,tools,gv,acccess,extras'

Sorting Sub-Menus under the Configuration Menu

Under the Configuration menu (My Store, Minimum values etc,), the list in each submenu can also be alphasorted.

Zen Cart 1.5.8

In release 1.5.8 and forward, the new constant CONFIGURATION_MENU_ENTRIES_TO_SORT_BY_NAME is used to determine which submenus are sorted by adding a comma-separated list of the configuration IDs (gID) of each submenu, e.g. ‘1,2,3,4’ etc

The gID of each submenu can be ascertained by hovering the cursor over each submenu item and noting the number of the final parameter gID of the link,

eg. for Minimum Values: https://MYWEBSITE/MY_ADMIN/index.php?cmd=configuration&gID=2

The default value of this constant is ‘1’, which means that by default, only Configuration > My Store is alphabetically sorted; other configuration menus are sorted according to the sort_order value of each entry in a configuration group.

Zen Cart 1.5.7

In release 1.5.7, to sort a Configuration submenu listing (such as My Store) by name, admin/configuration.php must be modified manually to check for the gID of the desired menu and alter the SELECT query at the start of the tbody, to ORDER BY configuration_title instead of ORDER BY sort_order for that menu.



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Last modified December 4, 2024 by Chris Brown (57d3b41).