Simplify your WordPress Network Dashboard

Oct2011

If you’re setting up a WordPress Network or Multisite, there’s a good chance you’ll have users that won’t be tech savvy. In that case, you’ll want to make the WordPress backend as user-friendly as possible. One step towards that end is to simplify the Dashboard.

The WordPress Codex provides useful documentation about the Dashboard API, but it remains silent on how to customize the Dashboard across a WordPress Network. To remove Dashboard widgets, add the following function to your theme’s functions.php:

function remove_dashboard_widgets() {
   global $wp_meta_boxes;
   unset($wp_meta_boxes['dashboard']['normal']['core']['dashboard_right_now']);
   unset($wp_meta_boxes['dashboard']['normal']['core']['dashboard_recent_comments']);
   unset($wp_meta_boxes['dashboard']['normal']['core']['dashboard_incoming_links']);
   unset($wp_meta_boxes['dashboard']['normal']['core']['dashboard_plugins']);
   unset($wp_meta_boxes['dashboard']['side']['core']['dashboard_quick_press']);
   unset($wp_meta_boxes['dashboard']['side']['core']['dashboard_recent_drafts']);
   unset($wp_meta_boxes['dashboard']['side']['core']['dashboard_primary']);
   unset($wp_meta_boxes['dashboard']['side']['core']['dashboard_secondary']);
 }
 add_action( 'wp_dashboard_setup', 'remove_dashboard_widgets' );

Remove the lines for the widgets you’d like to keep visible.

Alternatively, to make things a little easier, you can unzip and upload the following file to your Plugins folder and Network Activate it from the WordPress Network Admin: remove-dashboard-widgets.php

Customizing the Dashboard is just one of the many steps you can take to make things a little easier for your users.