A critical vulnerability was discovered in React Server Components (Next.js). Our systems remain protected but we advise to update packages to newest version. Learn More

Kristoffer Lindén
Dec 8, 2021
  3532
(0 votes)

Create your own menu to handle your custom plugin

So in CMS 11 when you wrote your plugin you easily add settings to your plugin using GuiPlugin attribute and adding properties using the PlugInProperty attribute.
In CMS 12 that is not longer possible so the best is instead to create your own top menu item with a submenu that contains for example Dashboard and Settings.

The menu provider could look like this:

[MenuProvider]
public class MyPluginMenuProvider : IMenuProvider
{
    private readonly LocalizationService _localizationService;

    public MyPluginMenuProvider(LocalizationService localizationService)
    {
        _localizationService = localizationService;
    }

    public IEnumerable<MenuItem> GetMenuItems()
    {
        var mainMenuItem =
            new UrlMenuItem("My plugin", MenuPaths.Global + "/cms/myplugin", null)
            {
                IsAvailable = context => true,
                SortIndex = SortIndex.Last + 100,
                AuthorizationPolicy = CmsPolicyNames.CmsAdmin
            };

        var dashboardMenuItem =
            new UrlMenuItem(_localizationService.GetString("/Plugin/DisplayName"),
                MenuPaths.Global + "/cms/myplugin/dashboard", "/MyPlugin/Dashboard/Index")
            {
                IsAvailable = context => true,
                SortIndex = 100,
                AuthorizationPolicy = CmsPolicyNames.CmsAdmin
            };

        var settingsMenuItem =
            new UrlMenuItem(_localizationService.GetString("/Plugin/Settings"),
                MenuPaths.Global + "/cms/myplugin/settings", "/MyPlugin/Settings/Index")
            {
                IsAvailable = context => true,
                SortIndex = 200,
                AuthorizationPolicy = CmsPolicyNames.CmsAdmin
            };

        return new List<MenuItem>
        {
            mainMenuItem,
            dashboardMenuItem,
            settingsMenuItem
        };
    }
}

That would give you this look:

Your layout view should look something like this to have the Optimizely menu to render:

@using EPiServer.Framework.Web.Resources
@using EPiServer.Shell.Navigation

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
    <head>
        <meta charset="UTF-8">
        <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">
        <meta http-equiv="x-ua-compatible" content="ie=edge">
        <title>My Plugin</title>

        <!-- Shell -->
        @ClientResources.RenderResources("ShellCore")

        <!-- LightTheme -->
        @ClientResources.RenderResources("ShellCoreLightTheme")
    </head>

    <body>
        @Html.CreatePlatformNavigationMenu()
        <div @Html.ApplyPlatformNavigation()>
            @RenderBody()
        </div>
    </body>
</html>

When this is done you can easily work with your dashboard and settings functions.

Thanks Scott Reed for enlighting me in this forum post:
https://world.optimizely.com/forum/developer-forum/CMS/Thread-Container/2021/12/admin-plugin--tool-in-cms-12/

You can read more here:
https://world.optimizely.com/documentation/developer-guides/CMS/user-interface/extending-the-navigation/using-menu-providers/

/Kristoffer

Dec 08, 2021

Comments

Please login to comment.
Latest blogs
A day in the life of an Optimizely OMVP: Learning Optimizely Just Got Easier: Introducing the Optimizely Learning Centre

On the back of my last post about the Opti Graph Learning Centre, I am now happy to announce a revamped interactive learning platform that makes...

Graham Carr | Jan 31, 2026

Scheduled job for deleting content types and all related content

In my previous blog post which was about getting an overview of your sites content https://world.optimizely.com/blogs/Per-Nergard/Dates/2026/1/sche...

Per Nergård (MVP) | Jan 30, 2026

Working With Applications in Optimizely CMS 13

💡 Note:  The following content has been written based on Optimizely CMS 13 Preview 2 and may not accurately reflect the final release version. As...

Mark Stott | Jan 30, 2026

Experimentation at Speed Using Optimizely Opal and Web Experimentation

If you are working in experimentation, you will know that speed matters. The quicker you can go from idea to implementation, the faster you can...

Minesh Shah (Netcel) | Jan 30, 2026

How to run Optimizely CMS on VS Code Dev Containers

VS Code Dev Containers is an extension that allows you to use a Docker container as a full-featured development environment. Instead of installing...

Daniel Halse | Jan 30, 2026

A day in the life of an Optimizely OMVP: Introducing Optimizely Graph Learning Centre Beta: Master GraphQL for Content Delivery

GraphQL is transforming how developers query and deliver content from Optimizely CMS. But let's be honest—there's a learning curve. Between...

Graham Carr | Jan 30, 2026