Edit MODX Elements and Perform Other Actions From the Manager Main Menu

In my previous article we looked at how to edit specific files from the MODX Manager’s Main Menu. In this one, we’ll see how to edit MODX objects and perform other actions from the Main Menu.

Editing MODX Objects From the Manager’s Main Menu

With a similar process to the one describe in my last article, you can also edit specific MODX objects (Resources, Chunks, Templates, TVs, Plugins, and Snippets) from the Main Menu.

Suppose that you have a long Resource that you will be working on over several days, you can click on it in the tree, or right-click and select “Edit” or “Quick Edit”, but suppose your site is large, and you have a giant list of Resources. You can drag the page to the top of the list, or search for it with the Manager’s search box, but you can also put a link to edit that Resource on the Main Menu.

Here are the steps to create the menu entry:

1. While editing the Resource, go up to the browser’s address entry and, with your mouse, highlight everything from the first ampersand (&) to the end of the URL. Be sure to include the ampersand. Click on Ctrl-c to copy the highlighted text.
2. Go to System (gear icon) —> Menus.
3. Click on the “Create Menu” button.
4. Click on the “Parent” dropdown menu and select “Main Menu”.
5. Put the Name of the Resource in the key field. It doesn’t have to be the full name.
6. Add a description (optional).
7. Put resource/update in the “Action” field.
8. Put core in the namespace field.
9. Paste the code you copied into the “Parameters” field using Ctrl-v.
10. Click on the “Save” button.
11. If you clear the cache and reload the Manager page, you should see your new menu item in the Main Menu. You can change its location by going to System (gear icon) —> Menus, and click and drag it to where you want it. Make sure it’s still a direct child of the Main Navigation entry.

Other Objects

You can do what we did above with Resources for any MODX object by following the same steps we used above, but changing the “Action” field. Here are the appropriate actions:

• Chunks—element/chunk/update
• Templates—element/template/update
• Snippets—element/snippet/update
• Plugins—element/plugin/update
• TVs—element/tv/update

You’ll still have to copy the part from the asterisk to the end of the URL and put is in the “Parameters” field. Be sure to use the core namespace.

Manager Functions

You can put almost any Manager Action onto the Main Menu. One method is to just find the current menu entry and either drag it up under the Main Navigation entry, of edit it and change its “Parent” field to Main Navigation.

If you don’t want to move it (maybe the change is temporary) just look at the current menu entry and create a new one with Main Navigation in the parent field and fill the other fields to match the original one. You can use a different name if you like.

For example, to create a Main Menu item that will take you to the Manage/Users panel, follow these steps:

1. Go to System (gear icon) —> Menus.
2. Click on the “Create Menu” button. Put “Users” in the “Lexicon Key” field.
3. Put Main Navigation in the "Parent” Field.
4. Put security/user in the “Action” field.
5. Put core in the “Namespace” field.
6. (Optional) put view_user in the “Permissions” field.
7. Click on the “Save” button.
8. Clear the Site Cache.
9. Reload the Manager page.

Clear Cache

Here’s another example showing how to put a button to clear the cache on the Main Menu. This one’s a little different. Put “Clear Cache”, or something similar, in the “Lexicon Key” field (if you use refresh_site it will be translated). Leave the “Action” and “Parameters” fields blank, but put this in the “Handler” field:

MODx.clearCache(); return false;

If you put refresh_site_desc in the “Description” field, the description will be translated.

Save the menu item.

Multiple Items Under One Heading

You may have multiple menu entries you’d like to add under one Main Menu entry. For example, you might have too many entries to add them all to the main menu. They might be things you have trouble finding, or Resources or Elements that you edit often.

Just create a Main menu item in the core namespace (let’s call it “Quick Links”) as described above with blank “Action” and “Parameters” fields, and Main Navigation as the “Parent”. Be sure to save it.

Then, create your menu items using steps above, specifying the menu item you just created as the parent.

You can drag the menu items up or down to reorganize them in the drop-down menu.

Permissions

As I mentioned in my previous article, there may be some users on your site who shouldn’t be able to edit the files (or see the menu items). Protecting the menu items is simple. You may have noticed the “Permissions” field when you created your menus. That field can contain a comma-separated list of permissions (or a single permission) a user must have in order to see the menu item. Adding the sources permission will restrict access to users who have the right to manage Media Sources, for example. You can use any permissions here that are listed in the Administrator Policy. You can also create a custom permission here (call it anything you like) and add it to the Administrator Policy Template.

Important! If you mess with permissions, keep two things in mind. First, be careful typing them. If you misspell a permission, not only will it not work, you won’t have that permission, and you won’t see the menu item in the menu or in the tree, so you won’t be able to fix it except by going into the database in PhpMyAdmin. Second, make sure that you have the permission you enter before adding it, or the menu item will disappear from the tree.

---

Bob Ray is the author of the MODX: The Official Guide and dozens of MODX Extras including QuickEmail, NewsPublisher, SiteCheck, GoRevo, Personalize, EZfaq, MyComponent and many more. His website is Bob’s Guides. It not only includes a plethora of MODX tutorials but there are some really great bread recipes there, as well.