Function Reference/add submenu page

Description

Add a sub menu page.
NOTE: If you're running into the "You do not have sufficient permissions to access this page."message in a wp_die() screen, then you've hooked too early. The hook you should use is admin_menu.
This function takes a capability which will be used to determine whether or not a page is included in the menu.
The function which is hooked in to handle the output of the page must check that the user has the required capability as well.
This function should normally be hooked in with one of the the admin_menu actions depending on the menu where the sub menu is to appear:

admin_menu
The normal, or site, administration menu
user_admin_menu
The user administration menu
network_admin_menu
The network administration menu

Usage

<?php add_submenu_page( $parent_slug, $page_title, $menu_title, $capability, $menu_slug, $function ); ?>

Parameters

$parent_slug

(string) (required) The slug name for the parent menu (or the file name of a standard WordPress admin page). Use NULL or set to 'options.php' if you want to create a page that doesn't appear in any menu (see example below).

Default:

Examples:

For Dashboard: add_submenu_page( 'index.php', ... ); Also see add_dashboard_page()

For Posts: add_submenu_page( 'edit.php', ... ); Also see Also see add_posts_page()

For Media: add_submenu_page( 'upload.php', ... ); Also see add_media_page()

For Links: add_submenu_page( 'link-manager.php', ... ); Also see add_links_page()

For Pages: add_submenu_page( 'edit.php?post_type=page', ... ); Also see add_pages_page()

For Comments: add_submenu_page( 'edit-comments.php', ... ); Also see add_comments_page()

For Custom Post Types: add_submenu_page( 'edit.php?post_type=your_post_type', ... );

For Appearance: add_submenu_page( 'themes.php', ... ); Also see add_theme_page()

For Plugins: add_submenu_page( 'plugins.php', ... ); Also see add_plugins_page()

For Users: add_submenu_page( 'users.php', ... ); Also see add_users_page()

For Tools: add_submenu_page( 'tools.php', ... ); Also see add_management_page()

For Settings: add_submenu_page( 'options-general.php', ... ); Also see add_options_page()

For Settings in the Network Admin pages: add_submenu_page( 'settings.php', ... );

$page_title

(string) (required) The text to be displayed in the title tags of the page when the menu is selected

Default:

$menu_title

(string) (required) The text to be used for the menu

Default:

$capability

(string) (required) The capability required for this menu to be displayed to the user.

Default:

$menu_slug

(string) (required) The slug name to refer to this menu by (should be unique for this menu). If you want to NOT duplicate the parent menu item, you need to set the name of the $menu_slug exactly the same as the parent slug.

Default:

$function

(callback) (optional) The function to be called to output the content for this page.

Default:

The function must be referenced in one of two ways:

if the function is a member of a class within the plugin it should be referenced as array( $this, 'function_name' ) if the class is instantiated as an object or array( __CLASS__, 'function_name' ) if its called statically

in all other cases, using the function name itself is sufficient

Return values

string

The resulting page's hook_suffix, or false if the user does not have the capability required.

Notes

For $menu_slug please don't use __FILE__ it makes for an ugly URL, and is a minor security nuisance.

Within the rendering function $function you may want to access parameters you used in add_submenu_page() , such as the $page_title. Typically, these will work:

$parent_slug: get_admin_page_parent()

$page_title: get_admin_page_title() , or simply global $title

$menu_slug: global $plugin_page

Example

add_action('admin_menu', 'register_my_custom_submenu_page');

function register_my_custom_submenu_page() {
	add_submenu_page( 'tools.php', 'My Custom Submenu Page', 'My Custom Submenu Page', 'manage_options', 'my-custom-submenu-page', 'my_custom_submenu_page_callback' ); 
}

function my_custom_submenu_page_callback() {
	
	echo '<div class="wrap"><div id="icon-tools" class="icon32"></div>';
		echo '<h2>My Custom Submenu Page</h2>';
	echo '</div>';

}

To hide your submenu link from a top level menu item to which it belongs you would instead do,

add_action('admin_menu', 'register_my_custom_submenu_page');

function register_my_custom_submenu_page() {
   
add_submenu_page( 
          null   //or 'options.php' 
        , 'My Custom Submenu Page' 
        , 'My Custom Submenu Page'
        , 'manage_options'
        , 'my-custom-submenu-page'
        , 'my_custom_submenu_page_callback'
    );

}

If you are attempting to add a sub menu page to a menu page created via add_menu_page() the first sub_menu_page will duplicate your add_menu_page() .
If you want a sub_menu_page in this scenario, you should first create a duplicate of your add_menu_page() and then add your sub_menu_page() second:

add_menu_page('My Custom Page', 'My Custom Page', 'manage_options', 'my-top-level-slug');
add_submenu_page( 'my-top-level-slug', 'My Custom Page', 'My Custom Page', 'manage_options', 'my-top-level-slug');
add_submenu_page( 'my-top-level-slug', 'My Custom Submenu Page', 'My Custom Submenu Page', 'manage_options', 'my-secondary-slug');

Change Log

Since: 1.5.0

Source File

add_submenu_page() is located in wp-admin/includes/plugin.php .