Intercept WordPress Admin Dashboard for Alerts

Question

How can I make a plugin send an alert to one's dashboard at the top right below where the WordPress upgrade notice might normally appear?

I imagine I need some kind of add_filter() or add_action() call in the plugins' code.

Answer 1

Insert the following code in either a functions.php of your theme, or in a plugin. It's a sample that you can adapt and take further. In this demo, I wanted to demonstrate where you could post a message saying that the user needs to update a plugin.

<? function addDashboardAlert() { ?>
<style type="text/css">
.alert {
padding-top:4px;
padding-bottom:6px;
padding-left:302px;
background-color:#ebfbff;
border-bottom:1px solid #CCC;
display:none;
}
</style>
<script type="text/javascript">
$j = jQuery;
$j().ready(function(){ //when page has fully loaded
  $j('h2:contains("Dashboard")').parent().prev().after('<div id="my-plugin-alert" class="alert">X Plugin 2.0 is available. <a href="">Upgrade Now!</a></div>');
  setTimeout("$j('#my-plugin-alert').fadeIn('slow');clearTimeout();",1000);
});
</script>
<? } add_action('admin_head','addDashboardAlert'); ?>

First, it intercepts admin_head to insert some Javascript. In the Javascript, since we know that current WordPress's include jQuery, but loads it with the .noConflict() option, then we can assign the jQuery to $j to keep it short in our code. When the page has fully loaded, it looks for an H2 that contains "Dashboard", meaning the Dashboard page. It then traverses up the DOM a little to a nice slot where it can insert the alert and then adds one there. It concludes with a professional fadeIn() call.

Answer 2

NICE thanks for the share !!!