Missing Link
for ExpressionEngine 2
Missing Link connects the dots between ExpressionEngine's control panel and the frontend of your site by providing an Admin menu to any logged in users with control panel access.
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Features
- Simplicity. With Missing Link, managing content becomes completely intuitive. Just navigate to an entry-specific page on the site, click the Admin button and select from any of the relevant content management controls.
- Zero configuration (if you like). Missing Link automatically detects the permissions of the logged in user and shows them the appropriate links. For example, a content contributer might only be shown the Publish and Edit controls, whilst a superadmin will be shown everything from content management links to site administration links. You can also choose to forcibly disable individual links that you don’t want to display to any users.
- Convenience. Missing Link provides direct access to all of the key areas of the control panel, from every single page on your site. Items available include:
Entry Controls
- Entry view count
- Edit This Entry
- Manage This Entry’s Comments
- Delete This Entry
Content Management Controls
- Publish an Entry (dropdown)
- Edit Entries
Site Management Controls
- Control Panel
- Categories
- Channels
- Custom Fields
- Members
- System Preferences
- Templates
- Logout
- Easy to install. Upload the files, add a couple of plugin tags to your global header/footer template and you’re done. Missing Link takes advantage of several commonly used jQuery plugins. In order to avoid conflicts, a settings page is provided so that you can disable individual plugins.
- Consistency. Missing Link automatically detects the control panel theme that the user has set and styles its menu accordingly. For example, here’s how the menu looks for users on the Fruit CP theme.
Usage
Installation
- Upload the missing_link folder to system/expressionengine/third_party.
- Add {exp:missing_link:head} within the <head> tags in your header template.
- Add {exp:missing_link:body entry_id="{entry_id}"} to any globally included template, within <body>. For the entry-specific links to appear an entry ID must be provided – the easiest way to do this is via embed variables. Here’s an example:
Inside your main template
{exp:channel:entries channel="news" limit="1"}
{embed="includes/header" entry_id="{entry_id}"}
<h1>{title}</h1>
{embed="includes/footer"}
{/exp:channel:entries}
Inside includes/header
{exp:missing_link:body entry_id="{embed:entry_id}"}
Additional Notes
- MissingLink will automatically detect whether or not the entry_id parameter has been provided, so if you’re viewing a page which is not specific to a single entry, say your site’s homepage, then the entry controls will not be shown.
- If your site already uses jQuery then go to Extensions > Missing Link > Settings > Compatibility Settings and disable jQuery core as well as any plugins your site already uses. This will ensure there are no conflicts.
- If you do use your site’s existing copy of jQuery then ensure that {exp:missing_link:head} is included after jQuery in your markup.
- If you use EE’s Masked CP feature and your third_party folder resides above the web root then you will need to relocate the missing_link/assets folder to somewhere publicly accessible, then set the Assets URL value in Missing Link’s settings.
- Optional: You can disable individual links entirely, for all users, via the Missing Link extension settings.
- Important: Because Missing Link makes it much easier to manage your site’s content you should be doubly careful when using EE’s auto-login feature and should always ensure you logout after managing your site via a shared machine. Not that you shouldn’t be doing that already.
License
Each license purchase entitles you to install Missing Link on one production site and any number of private, in-development sites.
Keyboard Shortcuts
Missing Link includes two custom keyboard shortcuts:
- CTRL-G will toggle the Missing Link menu
- CTRL-E will instantly load the Edit This Entry link, if one is present
If you would prefer that the shortcuts used the ALT modifier then you can set that in the Missing Link settings, under Extras. You can also disable shortcuts altogether via the same page, if you wish.
jQuery Version Compatibility
As the beta releases of Expression Engine 2 shipped with jQuery 1.3 and jQuery UI 1.7 I added the option to disable some or all of EE’s bundled jQuery packages so that Missing Link would play nicely with more recent jQuery releases. The EE 2.1 release should render the compatibility settings unnecessary for most people as it includes up to date jQuery and jQuery UI packages (1.4 and 1.8 respectively). Nonetheless, in the event that you still want to override some or all of the EE jQuery packages, here’s how you do it:
- Go to Addons > Extensions > Missing Link > Settings > Compatibility Settings and disable the plugins you do not want Missing Link to load.
- Now add the older/newer versions of the plugins to your header template alongside the {exp:missing_link:head} code. Bear in mind that jQuery and jQuery UI core should be included first in your markup, then any plugins.
Missing Link is not compatible with jQuery 1.2 or below.
ExpressionEngine 2.1
Missing Link is compatible with EE 2.1, however the first EE 2.1 build (20100712) contained a bug which broke Missing Link along with any other addons that utilise the EE jQuery module. The bug has since been fixed and newer EE builds should work without issue.
Changelog
- 1.1.2
- EE 2.1 compatibility (see note above)
- 1.1.1
- Bug fix for the disable ‘Manage entry comments’ preference
- 1.1
- Added support for EE installations outside the web root
- Added keyboard shortcuts
- 1.0
- Shiny. New.
Feedback & Support
Currently all support is being handled via email, following the closure of the official EE third party addon forums. You may still find that the Missing Link thread on the archived forums is of use.