add_submenu_page( string $parent_slug, string $page_title, string $menu_title, string $capability, string $menu_slug, callable $callback = '', int|float $position = null ): string|false
Adds a submenu page.
Contents
Description
This function takes a capability which will be used to determine whether or not a page is included in the menu.
The function which is hooked in to handle the output of the page must check that the user has the required capability as well.
Parameters
-
$parent_slug
string Required -
The slug name for the parent menu (or the file name of a standard WordPress admin page).
-
$page_title
string Required -
The text to be displayed in the title tags of the page when the menu is selected.
-
$menu_title
string Required -
The text to be used for the menu.
-
$capability
string Required -
The capability required for this menu to be displayed to the user.
-
$menu_slug
string Required -
The slug name to refer to this menu by. Should be unique for this menu and only include lowercase alphanumeric, dashes, and underscores characters to be compatible with sanitize_key() .
-
$callback
callable Optional -
The function to be called to output the content for this page.
Default:
''
-
$position
int|float Optional -
The position in the menu order this item should appear.
Default:
null
Return
string|false The resulting page's hook_suffix, or false if the user does not have the capability required.
More Information
Notes
- NOTE:If you’re running into the “You do not have sufficient permissions to access this page.” message in a wp_die() screen, then you’ve hooked too early. The hook you should use is
admin_menu
. - For
$menu_slug
please don’t use__FILE__
it makes for an ugly URL, and is a minor security nuisance. - Within the rendering function
$function
you may want to access parameters you used inadd_submenu_page()
, such as the$page_title
. Typically, these will work:- $parent_slug:
get_admin_page_parent()
- $page_title:
get_admin_page_title()
, or simplyglobal $title
- $menu_slug:
global $plugin_page
.
- $parent_slug:
- This function should normally be hooked in with one of the the admin_menu actions depending on the menu where the sub menu is to appear:
admin_menu The normal, or site, administration menu user_admin_menu The user administration menu network_admin_menu The network administration menu
Source
File: wp-admin/includes/plugin.php
.
View all references
function add_submenu_page( $parent_slug, $page_title, $menu_title, $capability, $menu_slug, $callback = '', $position = null ) {
global $submenu, $menu, $_wp_real_parent_file, $_wp_submenu_nopriv,
$_registered_pages, $_parent_pages;
$menu_slug = plugin_basename( $menu_slug );
$parent_slug = plugin_basename( $parent_slug );
if ( isset( $_wp_real_parent_file[ $parent_slug ] ) ) {
$parent_slug = $_wp_real_parent_file[ $parent_slug ];
}
if ( ! current_user_can( $capability ) ) {
$_wp_submenu_nopriv[ $parent_slug ][ $menu_slug ] = true;
return false;
}
/*
* If the parent doesn't already have a submenu, add a link to the parent
* as the first item in the submenu. If the submenu file is the same as the
* parent file someone is trying to link back to the parent manually. In
* this case, don't automatically add a link back to avoid duplication.
*/
if ( ! isset( $submenu[ $parent_slug ] ) && $menu_slug !== $parent_slug ) {
foreach ( (array) $menu as $parent_menu ) {
if ( $parent_menu[2] === $parent_slug && current_user_can( $parent_menu[1] ) ) {
$submenu[ $parent_slug ][] = array_slice( $parent_menu, 0, 4 );
}
}
}
$new_sub_menu = array( $menu_title, $capability, $menu_slug, $page_title );
if ( null !== $position && ! is_numeric( $position ) ) {
_doing_it_wrong(
__FUNCTION__,
sprintf(
/* translators: %s: add_submenu_page() */
__( 'The seventh parameter passed to %s should be numeric representing menu position.' ),
'<code>add_submenu_page()</code>'
),
'5.3.0'
);
$position = null;
}
if (
null === $position ||
( ! isset( $submenu[ $parent_slug ] ) || $position >= count( $submenu[ $parent_slug ] ) )
) {
$submenu[ $parent_slug ][] = $new_sub_menu;
} else {
// Test for a negative position.
$position = max( $position, 0 );
if ( 0 === $position ) {
// For negative or `0` positions, prepend the submenu.
array_unshift( $submenu[ $parent_slug ], $new_sub_menu );
} else {
$position = absint( $position );
// Grab all of the items before the insertion point.
$before_items = array_slice( $submenu[ $parent_slug ], 0, $position, true );
// Grab all of the items after the insertion point.
$after_items = array_slice( $submenu[ $parent_slug ], $position, null, true );
// Add the new item.
$before_items[] = $new_sub_menu;
// Merge the items.
$submenu[ $parent_slug ] = array_merge( $before_items, $after_items );
}
}
// Sort the parent array.
ksort( $submenu[ $parent_slug ] );
$hookname = get_plugin_page_hookname( $menu_slug, $parent_slug );
if ( ! empty( $callback ) && ! empty( $hookname ) ) {
add_action( $hookname, $callback );
}
$_registered_pages[ $hookname ] = true;
/*
* Backward-compatibility for plugins using add_management_page().
* See wp-admin/admin.php for redirect from edit.php to tools.php.
*/
if ( 'tools.php' === $parent_slug ) {
$_registered_pages[ get_plugin_page_hookname( $menu_slug, 'edit.php' ) ] = true;
}
// No parent as top level.
$_parent_pages[ $menu_slug ] = $parent_slug;
return $hookname;
}
Changelog
Version | Description |
---|---|
5.3.0 | Added the $position parameter. |
1.5.0 | Introduced. |
User Contributed Notes
You must log in before being able to contribute a note or feedback.
Slugs for $parent_slug (first parameter)
Dashboard: ‘index.php’
Posts: ‘edit.php’
Media: ‘upload.php’
Pages: ‘edit.php?post_type=page’
Comments: ‘edit-comments.php’
Custom Post Types: ‘edit.php?post_type=your_post_type’
Appearance: ‘themes.php’
Plugins: ‘plugins.php’
Users: ‘users.php’
Tools: ‘tools.php’
Settings: ‘options-general.php’
Network Settings: ‘settings.php’
Adding a submenu page to a custom post type
If you want to add a submenu type to a custom post type, such as a reference page for a custom post type created by a plugin, you can use for the
$parent_slug
parameter whatever you see up top on the “All Posts” view for that post type. For instance, for a custom post type “Book,” the$parent_slug
could be'edit.php?post_type=book'
.Example:
Inside menu created with add_menu_page()
If you are attempting to add a submenu page to a menu page created via
add_menu_page()
the first submenu page will be a duplicate of the parentadd_menu_page()
.If you want a submenu page in this scenario, you should first create a duplicate of your
add_menu_page()
and then add youradd_submenu_page()
:Example submenu with php class
Top ↑
Feedback
The & in the add_action is unnecessary here, and a holdover from PHP v4 which hasn’t been supported in decades. It should be removed — By Tom J Nowell —
Example
To hide your submenu link from a top level menu item to which it belongs you would instead do
Top ↑
Feedback
When using
null
as the$parent_slug
, the$page_title
won’t be properly applied on the page, it will be empty. This can be fixed through theadmin_title
filter – Use theget_current_screen
function to verify if the ID belongs to your page, then modify the title accordingly. — By ancientro —Regarding the 1st note in the More Information section above, you may also run into the “Sorry, you are not allowed to access this page.” message even if you’ve hooked correctly into the
admin_menu
hook. This error message will happen if all of these are true:add_menu_page
, andadmin_menu
hook for theadd_submenu_page
call, so the submenu page may be fired before the parent page–causing an error.Solution: Add a lower priority, such as 99, to the action that creates the submenu page. For example:
When working with the Classes, You can add_submenu_page by following Make sure the callable is static function.
To anyone else troubleshooting an unexpected issue with this function, please PAY ATTENTION to the final argument, specifically the $function, it has to be a STRING, the name of the function, not a call to the function itself. Amateur mistake, I know, but sometimes you just make the simplest of errors.
Bad:
Good:
To further clarify adding a page without it showing in the menu/submenu, using this code:
You would then access this page via this URL:
/wp-admin/options.php?page=my-custom-submenu-page
Top ↑
Feedback
If you want to create and admin menu for role editor or role author you can proceed in several ways: I chose to change capability access for some of the pages in a plugin from ‘manage_options’ to ‘edit_others_posts’ for editor role or to ‘edit_posts’ for author role. (You can keep other sub-menus with ‘manage_options’ . You can have different capabilities access in the same plugin.) e.g.
Do not forget to test page function capabilities also in same way:
— By capbussat —
In some special cases (like above) if you pass
null
inparent_slug
, it will generates deprecation warnings when running under PHP 8.1, because the provided$parent_slug
is passed tostrpos()
and tostr_replace()
. Instead use empty string if needed like:If you are working within a Class, the “function” parameter for the add_submenu_page should be an array, with the first value in the array being an instance of the class while the second value in the array will be a method in the object (given as a string).
Example below
If you’re trying to put your custom sub page under a url like:
https://www.example.com/wp-admin/admin.php?page=custom-settings
Then you should just use the
custom-settings
for the parent slug.In my use case I wanted to put a custom taxonomy under an ACF Options Page, and I used this:
Parent slugs like ‘tools.php’ can be found in the old doc https://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/add_submenu_page#Parameters