Zenbu - Documentation

Installation

  1. Unzip the zip file you have downloaded
  2. Copy the zenbu folder found at system/expressionengine/third_party/zenbu into your system/expressionengine/third_party/ folder
  3. Copy the zenbu folder found at themes/third_party/zenbu into your themes/third_party/ folder
  4. In the Control Panel, go to Addons » Modules and click the "install" link next to "Zenbu"
  5. Install both the module and extension
  6. You can access the addon from the Modules section of the Control panel, or initially if you're a Super Administrator, from the navigation "Content » Edit" dropdown menu.

Enabling access to Zenbu for other member groups

As Zenbu is a module, to enable access to Zenbu for target member groups outside of Super Admins, module access must be enabled.

  1. In Members » Member groups, click the Edit group link for your target member group
  2. Enable (set to “yes”) the following permissions:
    • Module Access Privileges » Can access module: Zenbu
    • Control Panel Access » Can access ADD-ONS section
    • Control Panel Access » Can access ADD-ONS » Modules
  3. At the bottom of this page, click the “Update” button to save these settings.

Usage

Edit channel entries section

The Edit Channel Entries section is accessible from the Modules section or from the Control Panel's main navigation, under Content » Edit, for member groups that have this feature turned on.

Entry filtering: Without any filtering, Zenbu shows you an entry listing with standard entry data, such as status, entry date, etc. Filter your search results from the various dropdowns in the "Search Entries" search form. By filtering by channel, you will see additional custom field data specific to the selected channel. You can filter by channel, status, sticky state, author, category, number of entries displayed by page, etc.

Targeted filtering of custom fields: You can filter entries by the presence or abscence of a particular keyword in titles, titles and all custom fields (Matrix field not yet supported), or a specific custom field from the last dropdown right of the "keyword" input field. The presence or abscence of the keyword in fields can be triggered by the "in/not in" dropdown.

Displayed Entry data longer than screen: Some entries have a lot of data, and the results table in Zenbu may be longer than the Control Panel width. In those cases, scroll the results table to the right to see the remaining column. Alternatively, turn off the display of some columns from the Display settings section.

Multi-edit entries: You can select multiple entries for editing or deletion by checking the left-hand checkboxes next to the corresponding entries, and select "Edit" or "Delete" at the bottom of the control panel under the Entries label to access EE's multi-entry editor. Categories can be added or removed in a similar way, by selecting "Add" or "Remove" under the Categories label. (Note: Although you are returned to Zenbu once you completed editing/deleting entries, adding/removing categories returns you to EE's standard Edit channel entries section. I hope to change this in the future)

Display settings section

This section lets you control how entry data and custom fields are displayed in the Edit channel entries section.

Showing/Hiding fields: You can show or hide fields by setting the "Show field" column for each field to "Yes" or "No", respectively.

Changing the order of fields: To change the order in which columns will be displayed in the Edit channel entries panel, simply shuffle the field order by dragging the table cells vertically using the left-side handles.

Extra options: For certain fields, you can set additional display options.
Character limit: limit the number of characters displayed in columns corresponding to input, textareas, and common wysiwyg-type fields.
Show matrix in row: instead of displaying a "Show matrix" link, which opens the Matrix data in a modal window, you can display data from Matrix fields directly in custom field column.

Quick access to each channel: The display settings panel can be very long when there are many channels and/or custom fields. You can skip to a specific channel by selecting the channel name from the top of the Display settings panel.

Member access settings

This powerful section lets you enable or disable features for your own or other member groups. You can access this section from the top-right Member access setting link in Zenbu.

After installation, only Super Admins can access this panel, which can then open access to other member groups later.

Can administrate member group access (this page): Member groups with this setting checked will have access to the Member access settings section

Can copy profiles to other member groups: Member groups with this setting check will be able to save display profiles for their own, as well as other member groups.

Can access display settings section: Member groups with this setting checked will have access to their own Display settings section.

Modify Edit link in Content » Edit: Member groups with this setting checked will have the regular Content » Edit link to the standard EE Edit Channel Entries section replaced with a link to Zenbu, as well as have an additional dropdown for filtering entries by channel.

Zoo Flexible Admin users: Enabling this feature will automatically convert Edit links set in your custom top navigation to links to Zenbu.