Everything about plugin_action_links and plugin_row_meta

• plugin_action_links
• plugin_row_meta

Look at this screenshot:

• "Activate", "Deactivate", "Delete" are defaults for any plugin,
• "Settings" link is added with plugin_action_links,
• Author links and "Visit plugin website" are taken from the main plugin file meta information, just to remind you:

  /*
   * Plugin name: Test
   * Author: Misha Rudrastyh
   * Author URI: https://rudrastyh.com
   * Plugin URI: https://rudrastyh.com/plugins
   */

• "FAQ", "Support" and "Check for updates" are added with plugin_row_meta filter.

The key idea is very simple — if you want to add some links under the plugin name, use plugin_action_links filter hook (or network_admin_plugin_action_links for WordPress Multisite), if you would like to add something under a plugin description, plugin_row_meta will help you.

plugin_action_links

Let’s try to add the settings link now. The only thing you should know about plugin_action_links and plugin_row_meta is that these hooks are fired for every installed plugin! 😁

So you have to perform some conditional checks, and there are two ways to do it.

1. Check if it is the plugin you need inside the function

• First of all add the second function parameter, which matches this string plugin-folder/plugin-name.php (line 3),
• If you use the code just inside the main plugin file, you search for basename(__FILE__) which is plugin-name.php inside the $plugin_file_name variable with strpos() function (line 7).
• Add your custom link before the “Deactivate” link with array_unshift() function or after the “Deactivate” link with $links_array[].

add_filter( 'plugin_action_links', 'misha_settings_link', 10, 2 );
 
function misha_settings_link( $links_array, $plugin_file_name ){
	// $plugin_file_name is plugin-folder/plugin-name.php
 
	// if you use this action hook inside main plugin file, use basename(__FILE__) to check
	if( strpos( $plugin_file_name, basename(__FILE__) ) ) {
		// we can add one more array element at the beginning with array_unshift()
		array_unshift( $links_array, '<a href="#">Settings</a>' );
	}
 
	return $links_array;
}

2. plugin_action_links_plugin-name/plugin-name.php

But you can skip the part of the code with condition, just add the plugin file name to the hook.

add_filter( 'plugin_action_links_plugin-name/plugin-name.php', 'misha_settings_link' );
 
function misha_settings_link( $links_array ){
	array_unshift( $links_array, '<a href="#">Settings</a>' );
	return $links_array;
}

The result:

network_admin_plugin_action_links for WordPress Multisite

There is not so much to say. Just if you’re running a WordPress Multisite network and if you want to add plugin action links to the Network Dashboard plugin page, use:

• network_admin_plugin_action_links
• network_admin_plugin_action_links_plugin-name/plugin-name.php

More hook parameters

No matter which of the above hooks you use, all of them have the same parameters, example:

add_filter( 'plugin_action_links', 'misha_settings_link', 10, 4 );
 
function misha_settings_link( $links_array, $plugin_file_name, $plugin_data, $context ){
 
	...

Everything should be clear with $links_array and $plugin_file_name but what about the rest?

$plugin_data

(Array) Contains all the plugin meta information, like Name, Description, Author, AuthorURI etc.

$context

(String) The plugin status. It can include by default: ‘all’, ‘active’, ‘recently_activated’, ‘inactive’, ‘upgrade’, ‘dropins’, ‘mustuse’, and ‘search’.

plugin_row_meta

Well, it is sad, but plugin_row_meta doesn’t have a hook with plugin file name in it. So, you must use a condition. Let’s add FAQ, Support and Check for updates links with its help.

add_filter( 'plugin_row_meta', 'misha_support_and_faq_links', 10, 4 );
 
function misha_support_and_faq_links( $links_array, $plugin_file_name, $plugin_data, $status ){
 
	if( strpos( $plugin_file_name, basename(__FILE__) ) {
		// you can still use array_unshift() to add links at the beginning
		$links_array[] = '<a href="#">FAQ</a>';
		$links_array[] = '<a href="#">Support</a>';
		$links_array[] = '<a href="#">Check for updates</a>';
	}
 
	return $links_array;
}

Result:

More stuff about creating plugins

• Self-Hosted Plugin Updates
• Check License in Plugin Updates