Client instructions on Control Panel home?

Question

I'm trying to find an easy way to have basic instructions displayed when the client opens the CP (I'm using NSM Publish Hints for detailed instructions on entry windows).

I was using DashEE, which was great, but since EE2.9, it hasn't been functioning properly so that I can't update anything.

How do you all provide basic on-screen instructions to the client so that when they open the Control Panel it's obvious how they should proceed?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

You could inject JS using this add-on into the area of the Control Panel you want the the help text to appear - then you can expand it to all relevant pages you want help on - not just the CP homepage.

JS...

$(document).ready(function($) {
    $(".contentMenu.create").before('<div class="helpText contentMenu"><p>Help Text goes here</p></div>');
});

Example CSS...

.contentMenu.helpText {
    background-color: honeydew;
    width: auto;
    margin: 0 40px 30px;
    float: none;
    padding: 20px;
}

Result...

Obviously change your JS target for different pages in the Control Panel.

Answer 2

If these are static instructions (they generally won't be changing), you could craft an EE Accessory to just insert a new element on the CP Home Page with your instruction in them.

https://ellislab.com/expressionengine/user-guide/development/accessories.html

Here's a pseudo-ish-code example:

function set_sections()
{
    // Check to see if you're on the CP Home Page
    // if not, return false

    // use the ee()->cp->add_to_foot() to add jQuery to insert stuff
    // kinda like this:
    ee()->cp->add_to_foot('
        $(document).ready(function(){
            $("#mainContent").prepend("<div class=\"contentMenu helptext\" style=\"width: 93.6%;margin-bottom: 1em;\"><div class=\"heading\"><h2>Help Text</h2><ul class=\"homeBlocks item\"><li>Help! I need to tell you all the helping things!</li></ul></div></div>");
        });
    ');
}

And tada!

Edit Welp, if it's something you need to change constantly, here is one option. Store a snippet with your instructions, and dump that instead of static stuff. Call your snippet cp_help_text or something. Snippet content:

<div class="contentMenu helptext" style="width: 93.6%;margin-bottom: 1em;">    
    <div class="heading">
        <h2>
            Help Text
        </h2>
        <ul class="homeBlocks item">
            <li>
                Help! I need to tell you all the helping things! Easily changed from the Design -> Template -> Snippets.
            </li>
        </ul>
    </div>
</div>

And back to the accessory:

...
$snippet = ee()->db->select()
                   ->from('snippets')
                   ->where('snippet_name', 'cp_help_text')
                   ->get()->row_array();

ee()->cp->add_to_foot('
    $(document).ready(function(){
        $("#mainContent").prepend("'.$snippet['snippet_contents'].'");
    });
');
....

Yup, seems convoluted! Perhaps someone can give you a better answer.