Dashboard Quick Access

Quickly find and open WordPress content from the dashboard.

Documentation for version 1.5.0 · Author: Daiki Miyamoto

1. Overview

Dashboard Quick Access adds configurable widgets to the WordPress dashboard for posts, pages, WooCommerce products, custom post types, and Contact Form 7 forms. It is designed to reduce repeated navigation through admin menus and long content lists.

Typical workflow:
Dashboard → Search → Edit

2. Requirements

WordPress 6.0 or later
PHP 7.4 or later
WooCommerce is optional
Contact Form 7 is optional

3. Installation

Log in to WordPress.
Go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin.
Select the plugin ZIP file.
Click Install Now, then Activate Plugin.
Go to Settings → Dashboard Quick Access.

4. Initial settings

Choose Quick Access widgets

The settings screen lists supported content types. WordPress posts and pages are available by default. WooCommerce products appear when the product post type is registered. Compatible custom post types with an admin interface are detected automatically. Contact Form 7 appears when Contact Form 7 is active.

Enable only the content types you want to see on the dashboard.

Choose a taxonomy filter

Option	Behavior
Auto	Selects a suitable available taxonomy automatically.
None	Does not show a taxonomy filter.
Specific taxonomy	Uses the selected category or custom taxonomy for filtering.

If a content type has no available taxonomy, the settings screen simply shows None.

Recently edited item count

Choose whether each widget shows 3, 5, or 10 recently edited items.

Plugin language

Choose Auto to follow the WordPress admin/user locale, or select one of the bundled languages: English, Japanese, Spanish, French, German, Simplified Chinese, or Korean.

5. Using a Quick Access widget

Search

Type part of a title or slug. Search is performed with AJAX after a short delay and displays up to 20 matching items. The plugin does not preload every post, page, or product into the dashboard.

Taxonomy filtering

When a taxonomy is configured, use the dropdown next to the search field to narrow results. To keep dashboard startup bounded on sites with very large taxonomies, the dropdown loads at most 100 terms per configured taxonomy.

Favorites

Click the star next to an item to pin or unpin it. Favorites are stored per WordPress user and per content type.

Recently edited

Each widget can show recently updated items. The section can be collapsed, and its collapsed state is remembered in the browser.

Edit and View

Edit opens the WordPress editor. View opens the front-end URL when the content type is publicly viewable. Non-viewable content types do not show a View action.

6. Contact Form 7

When Contact Form 7 is active, its forms can be enabled as a dedicated Quick Access widget.

Search forms by title or slug
Pin favorites
Open recently edited forms
Open the native Contact Form 7 editor directly

Contact Form 7 forms do not have a front-end View action and do not use a taxonomy filter.

7. WooCommerce

When WooCommerce is active, products can be enabled as a Quick Access widget and filtered by an available product taxonomy such as product categories.

8. Custom post types

The plugin detects registered custom post types that expose an admin interface. You can enable them individually and select an available taxonomy filter when applicable.

9. Plugin screen shortcuts

On the WordPress Plugins screen, use the Settings link to open the plugin settings or the Usage link to jump directly to the built-in usage guide.

10. Data storage and privacy

The dashboard search and quick-access features do not require an external account or external service. Search is performed within the WordPress installation.

Data	Storage location
Plugin settings	Stored in the WordPress options table under `ftb_dqa_settings`.
Favorites	Stored per WordPress user and per content type in user meta keys beginning with `_ftb_dqa_favorites_`.
Legacy migration marker	Stored as user meta `_ftb_dqa_legacy_favorites_migrated`.
Recently edited section collapsed state	Stored only in the current browser's local storage under a key beginning with `ftbDqaRecentCollapsed:`.

The legacy-prefixed database keys are retained for data compatibility with earlier development versions; the plugin's public technical slug is dashboard-quick-access.

11. Capabilities and access control

The settings screen requires the WordPress manage_options capability.
A dashboard widget is shown only when the current user has the post type's edit capability (normally its edit_posts capability).
Search results, favorites, and item actions also verify that the current user can edit the individual item with WordPress capability checks.
Contact Form 7 integration uses Contact Form 7's own wpcf7_edit_contact_forms and wpcf7_edit_contact_form capabilities.

12. Updating and uninstalling

Updating

When installing a newer ZIP manually, use WordPress's plugin upload flow and choose to replace the current version when prompted. Deactivation and normal updates do not delete plugin settings or favorites.

Uninstalling

Using WordPress's Delete action for the plugin runs uninstall.php. It removes:

the ftb_dqa_settings option;
all user-meta keys beginning with _ftb_dqa_favorites_;
the _ftb_dqa_legacy_favorites_migrated user-meta marker.

Uninstall does not delete posts, pages, products, Contact Form 7 forms, custom post types, or taxonomy terms. Browser local-storage values cannot be removed by a server-side WordPress uninstall and may remain until the browser storage is cleared.

13. Troubleshooting

Issue	What to check
A content type is not listed	Confirm that the post type is registered with an admin interface and that the related plugin is active.
No taxonomy filter is shown	The content type may not have an available taxonomy, or the filter may be set to None.
Contact Form 7 is missing	Confirm that Contact Form 7 is installed and active, then enable Contact Forms in the plugin settings.
Product Quick Access is missing	Confirm that WooCommerce is active and that the `product` post type is available.
Search returns no result	Try a shorter title or slug fragment and confirm that the current WordPress user has permission to edit the content.

14. Support

If you purchased Dashboard Quick Access through WPBay, use the WPBay Support System associated with your purchase to request support. Include the plugin version, WordPress version, PHP version, the affected content type, and clear steps to reproduce the issue. This helps support requests be diagnosed efficiently.

15. License

Dashboard Quick Access is distributed under GPL-2.0-or-later. See LICENSE.txt.