Sidebar plugins don't match the plugin list under all installed plugins

UX
1

I’ve noticed just how confusing the admin sidebar is for plugins. Under plugins /admin/plugins (in conjunction with the sidebar) there are a few different things going on:

There are plugins listed on the sidebar that take you to different places than what the plugins settings button does for that plugin. For example, clicking on ‘Calendar’ on the sidebar takes you here: /admin/plugins/calendar

CleanShot 2025-03-24 at 09.44.47
CleanShot 2025-03-24 at 09.44.471188×312 19.7 KB

But clicking on the settings for Discourse Calendar under /admin/plugins takes you here: /admin/site_settings/category/discourse_calendar?filter=plugin%3Adiscourse-calendar:

CleanShot 2025-03-24 at 09.46.43
CleanShot 2025-03-24 at 09.46.431186×1121 102 KB

Additional oddities:

  • The sidebar would seem to imply that the items in that list, below Installed Plugins are, well, all of my installed plugins. But the items there are actually only the currently enabled plugins. It would be nice if this was made clear.
2 Likes
2

Someone had the same feedback and was confused.

What you see in the first screenshot is to access custom interfaces that you can’t manage only with simple settings (second screenshot). It’s separate at the moment. I understand it isn’t very clear. Even for me, sometimes I forget you have routes in this place.

The team’s answer would be relevant here as well:

1 Like
3

Unfortunately it still really doesn’t address that the inconsistency exists. Clicking on the sidebar link for every plugin takes you to the same page that the ‘Settings’ button does for that plugin.

Except calendar. If there are two different places for calendar information to be accessed, the issue still remains that the link in the sidebar should still take you to the same place that the settings button for that plugin does.

Does that make sense?

1 Like