Modern admin dashboard

OldNGrey:

The Orders Page uses MAX_DISPLAY_SEARCH_RESULTS_ORDERS
The Home widget page uses $recentOrdersMaxRows in admin\includes\extra_datafiles\dist-site_specific_admin_overrides.php

Unless I've gotten hold of a rogue file somewhere, dist-site_specific_admin_overrides.php is a non-used template with suggestions for settings. In 2.2.0-alpha, it has```
// Maximum number of rows to display in the new orders section of the dashboard widget// Used in: admin/includes/modules/RecentOrdersDashboardWidget.php
//
// Change 25 below to the number of rows you require.
//$recentOrdersMaxRows = 25;

I think it's actually line 19 of admin/includes/modules/dashboard_widgets/RecentOrdersDashboardWidget.php

And, the bug is, when line 19 is changed to 20, it does not affect the page. Commenting it out has no effect either.

I haven't tried renaming the dist file and changing settings there.

balihr:

Also, are you suggesting to show ALL statuses in that space with the same counters that's currently in the sidebar? This would work with probably 3-4 statuses, but I have a client with 10 statuses - imagine the clutter this would cause... I can't decide which IDs are more important (someone might have ID 75 as Processing), and if you want to have admin control over which orders show and which don't, ugh...
Well, it was not a good idea, I forgot about the fact you can have as many status as you want...

But your idea of customized color is great. This color code system helps to get what is on the screen faster than any writing.

In ​dist-site_specific_admin_overrides.php ```
// Change 25 below to the number of rows you require.
//$recentOrdersMaxRows = 25;

remove the comment at the beginning off line 71 so it becomes 

$recentOrdersMaxRows = 25

and now there are 25 new orders listed on the admin home page.

There are some other settings in that file that are really useful like turning off product images on invoices

The coloring is an excellent idea. Right now we're focused on getting 2.2 out the door but as soon as that's done we'll discuss these changes. Thanks for these improvements!

Some updates:

• dashboard reworked to allow stupid-simple customization - now with drag-and-drop panels
• recent orders widget updated to include selected order statuses in top line
• header whitespace down to minimum
• order status color coding available on Orders Status page
• color coding used on Dashboard, Orders and Orders Status page (with dashboard using Bootstrap fallback for IDs 1-4)

Some info

Dashboard
Drag-and-drop panels can be moved around, but not 100% freely. The layout of the dashboard is:
row 1: main zone (col-9) + sidebar (col-3) (or in simple terms, 75%+25%)
row 2: bottom zone (full width)
Recent Orders and Sales Graphs are too big to fit in any zone other than main (but you can swap them).
Traffic History can only be in the bottom zone.
All other widgets can be rearranged between sidebar and bottom zone.

Recent Orders
Top row shows Pending and Processing "pills" by default (assuming IDs 1 and 2). To change it, you can either edit the RecentOrdersDashboardWidget.php file or set and override in includes/extra_datafiles/site_specific_admin_overrides.php (docs):

$target_status_ids = [1,2,4,7]; // IDs you want to show
$show_status_pills = false; // if you don't want the pills at all

Orders Status
Added color code field to the status add or edit sidebox.

I would suggest installing all 3 modifications (dashboard + header + status color) for the best experience, but all 3 are packed separately in hopes of getting better feedback.

Download link still the same as in Post #1 (for v2.1.0).

I'll play with inline css later on.

Partial blank page and the following:

File Contents( /home/enignet/_test/logs/myDEBUG-adm-20260114-181651-212929-error.log)[14-Jan-2026 18:16:51 UTC] Request URI: /******/, IP address: ###.###.###.###, Language id 1
#0 [internal function]: zen_debug_error_handler()
#1 /includes/classes/db/mysql/query_factory.php(757): trigger_error()
#2 /includes/classes/db/mysql/query_factory.php(701): queryFactory->show_error()
#3 /includes/classes/db/mysql/query_factory.php(280): queryFactory->set_error()
#4 /******/includes/modules/dashboard_widgets/RecentOrdersDashboardWidget.php(37): queryFactory->Execute()
#5 /******/index_dashboard.php(88): include('/home/enignet/_...')
#6 /******/index_dashboard.php(315): render_zone()
#7 /******/home.php(27): require('/home/enignet/_...')
#8 /******/index.php(16): require('/home/enignet/_...')
--> PHP Fatal error: FATAL MySQL error 1054: Unknown column 's.orders_status_color_code' in 'field list' :: SELECT o.orders_id, o.customers_name, o.customers_id, o.date_purchased,
o.currency, o.currency_value, o.orders_status,
ot.text as order_total, ot.value as order_value,
s.orders_status_name, s.orders_status_color_code
FROM orders o
LEFT JOIN orders_total ot ON (o.orders_id = ot.orders_id AND ot.class = 'ot_total')
LEFT JOIN orders_status s ON (o.orders_status = s.orders_status_id AND s.language_id = 1)
ORDER BY o.orders_id DESC LIMIT 10 ==> (as called by) /******/includes/modules/dashboard_widgets/RecentOrdersDashboardWidget.php on line 37 <== in /includes/classes/db/mysql/query_factory.php on line 757.

dbltoe:

Partial blank page and the following:

Oh! In that case, the following is wrong:

balihr:

I would suggest installing all 3 modifications (dashboard + header + status color) for the best experience, but all 3 are packed separately in hopes of getting better feedback.

Status color modification is REQUIRED, header is optional. Make sure you visit Localization->Orders Status so it runs the required alter table command.
Whoops :lamo:

Actually, no, not required anymore, just updated index_dashboard.php and RecentOrdersDashboardWidget.php so you don't NEED to add it, but it's recommended.

Now getting Undefined variable $product in \admin\includes\modules\dashboard_widgets\RecentOrdersDashboardWidget.php on line 193.

Lack of coffee and copy/paste... Sorry about that.
Updated the zip file - RecentOrdersDashboardWidget.php now updated (and back to foreach instead of while)

I really like thi snew interface.
The only change I have needed to make is to declare $recentOrdersMaxRows as global in "admin/includes/modules/dashboard_widgets/RecentOrdersDashboardWidget.php" to alter the number of new orders displayed,
and the value set in "/admin/includes/extra_datafiles/site_specific_admin_overrides.php"

Plugin packed and submitted to the official Plugins section, pending approval.
https://www.zen-cart.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=2426

I've opted for the entire revamp, including header and order status color codes to be part of the plugin. Separate sets of files are included in the zip file, but the main one provides the best experience because it includes all three.

Feedback and suggestions for improvement still most welcome!

Github: https://github.com/zenexpert/modern-admin-dashboard/

Many thanks to OldNGrey, dbltoe, pilou2 and carlwhat for your help and advice.

Are there any files from a previous version that are not being overwritten with this version, or should we revert to a fresh install before uploading the new version?

dbltoe:

Are there any files from a previous version that are not being overwritten with this version, or should we revert to a fresh install before uploading the new version?

I'm 99.5% sure you can just drop these files in and overwrite the existing ones. Your orders.php might have been modified for some other plugins so it's worth comparing before installation, but if you're sure none of the involved files were modified by OTHER plugins, then you can simply overwrite. The 2 new files (auto_loaders and init_includes files) are there only to add the database field for status color if it doesn't already exist and they will be deleted automatically.

If you download the files from Github, you're downloading the full set and that's it. If you download them from my site (or from the Plugins section once approved), you'll see the directories that separate each of the three "mods".

As usual, an issue gets spotted after I pack the files and submit the plugin...

This issue exists ONLY if you're using Ceon URI Mappings. That plugin uses javascript to inject the the URI Mapping field on the admin Edit Category pages. The way it works is that it simply looks for a <form> tag and injects the input field at the end. This never caused a problem because there were no other forms on this page, but this plugin has a new form in the header (order search). So, you end up with a broken header and the URI mapping field in the header, which then of course doesn't get updated because it's in the wrong form.

There are 2 options: you can either remove the order search form in the header, or you can fix you Ceon URI Mapping plugin and instruct it to specifically target the categories form instead of just the first form it finds. Depending on the version of the plugin you're using, the file is in admin/includes/ceon_uri_mapping_javascript.php OR admin/includes/javascript/ceon_uri_mapping_javascript.php

The required code changes are really simple and are described here.

an issue gets spotted after I pack the files and submit the plugin

Exactly...hence I rarely submit anything! I would prefer that that a plugin just has a link to a repository where it exists instead of outdated files.

torvista:

Exactly...hence I rarely submit anything! I would prefer that that a plugin just has a link to a repository where it exists instead of outdated files.[/COLOR]

I agree 110%, but I think people prefer seeing the plugin here in the official list, instead of "downloading from untrusted sources". I know you're gonna say Github is not one of that, but it's still not the official repo, is it?
I very well remember one of the members here telling me that she won't download or use a plugin from my site before it's approved and listed in the Plugins section... You need to remember that common sense is a luxury with some people. :smile:

For that reason, perhaps plugins that actually get used and maintained, could gradually be shifted to the Zen Cart repository. Would make the project look more alive than it does now.

As an occasional contributor of a mod or to an upgrade of an older mod, I am a big fan of the current process. swguy does a great job in helping protect the Zen Cart users. I wish we had two or three of him to help out.

Scott has caught things in submissions that I missed, omitted, or needed modernization.

Without the current system, I fear we would quickly go down the road of wordpress with all sorts of demons hidden in non-monitored mods.

dbltoe:

As an occasional contributor of a mod or to an upgrade of an older mod, I am a big fan of the current process. swguy does a great job in helping protect the Zen Cart users.** I wish we had two or three of him to help out**.

Scott has caught things in submissions that I missed, omitted, or needed modernization.
Yes, Scott is doing a great job, but the problem is that it takes quite some time for a plugin to be approved after it's submitted. I do understand it's A LOT of work to check everything that's been submitted and IMHO it really should involve more people to distribute the load, but the team is already just a few people and the lack of interest in the platform is becoming more obvious every day.

dbltoe:

Without the current system, I fear we would quickly go down the road of wordpress with all sorts of demons hidden in non-monitored mods.
Agreed. Github repos are a double-edged sword and you can never be too sure about what you're adding to your site. With the official Plugins section, you can get a plugin with a bug or missing feature (when compared to Github), but at least you know it's been through Scott's vigilant review and there's nothing malicious in the code... @Scott: :cheers: