New Plugin to Style your Plugin on WordPress Admin with Default Styles!

WordPress is developing fast – this also applies to the design of the backend. So it is important not to use your own styles in the admin area and use tags and classes of WordPress. This is the best way you can simplify your work as a developer and you don’t have to test the design with every update. Unfortunately, there are quite extensive opportunities in the backend to implement the requirements. Several different classes and HTML structures are used. To be able to look up something this simple, I have developed a small Plugin, which tinkers in the development environment and quickly represents the necessary elements. Here you see two screenshots with the differences between version 3.1 and 3.2 of WordPress and the current contained elements of the Plugin.

You can find the Plugin in Github and it would be great if you expand it, add new ideas and possibilities to it: – github.com/bueltge/WordPress-Admin-Style


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9 responses to “New Plugin to Style your Plugin on WordPress Admin with Default Styles!”

  1. Dimitris Avatar

    Wow nice, i will definitely use it on the next version of my wp plugin.

    Thanks

  2. jezza101 Avatar

    Very nice.

    I was actually browsing around looking for ways in which I can tighten up the code in my two plugins and make them look more “professional”.

    I was just thinking how poor my admin pages were so I look forward to making use of all the WP built in bits to make them more polished.

    Cheers.

  3. AutoBlogged Avatar
    AutoBlogged

    I think it is a great idea to use standard WordPress styling in your plugin, and we used to do that all the time but we have been burned so much we just had to stop doing it in our plugins.

    The problem is that the WordPress styles have a tendency to change enough from release to release and these changes often don’t consider backwards compatibility. We have seen styles changed significantly and even the names changed at times. Just the fact that you need a separate screenshot for v3.1 and v3.2 illustrates this point.

    It is very annoying when you need to release an update to your plugin just because WordPress came out with a new version that changes styles and now your sidebar doesn’t look right. Plus there are admin plugins out there that mess with the default styles and by not using the WordPress styles you insulate your plugin from these modifications.

    Still I think it is a great idea but just wish we could rely on the WordPress styles enough to use them.

  4. Tom (dB) Avatar

    Thanks for this, it’s a great idea and will certainly save me a lot of time and effort in the future.

  5. Chuck Reynolds Avatar

    This is nice… I like seeing libraries coming out for WP now… norcross with their admin metabox one and some others i’ve seen along with this one… this is good… Thanks for the work put into it!

  6. Michael Avatar
    Michael

    This is definately going to be of use – thanks for sharing – looks nicely laid out and user friendly

  7. Chad Avatar

    Great plugin Frank! This is a must for plugin developers to easily develop admin panels that look well integrated. Thanks for sharing!

  8. Mads Avatar

    “it is important not to use your own styles in the admin area and use tags and classes of WordPress”

    Totally agree. Those of us who have used WP for ages have seen way to many alternative admin interfaces to count.

    Thanks for making the plugin writers remember to use the standard tags and classes (and thanks to the plugin writers for writing the plugins 🙂

  9. Chuck Reynolds Avatar

    the 2 col setup seems broken in 3.3 beta/nightly… they’re working on responsive admin and my plugins using this are broke.. right column is full width under the left main column