February 28, 2021

Tabify Edit Screen Plugin

Enable tabs in the edit screen and manage them from the back-end.

When you’ve got lots of post meta-boxes, your post edit screen can become difficult to search. Make your post edit screen easier to navigate and manage by creating a set of tabs, with the Tabify Edit Screen plugin. And manage it all from the WordPress back-end!

There are still lots of things changing in the code base. There are some hooks you can use but they can change from implementation till 1.0. I will always try to maintain backwards-compatible but till 1.0 I can’t be sure for that.

Installation

Upload the folder tabify-edit-screen to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory
Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
Go to the Settings -> Tabify edit screen to enable tabs for a specific post type

Screenshots

How it would look like after enabling this plugin
The settings page where you can manage the tabs for each posttype

FAQ

Can you define metaboxes that will always be visible?

At this moment the title and submit box are always visible. You can change this by using the following filters:
* tabify_default_metaboxes – $defaults, $id, $type
* tabify_default_metaboxes_$type – $defaults, $id

The $id is for example the post type name when $type is posttypes.

Can I place the tabs under the title input field?

Yes, you can use the filter ‘tabify_tab_location’ and passing the value ‘after_title’ to it.
You can also check on the second argument what the location is. Now always ‘posttype’

Does it work with all plugins?

Since version 0.9.0 it should work for almost all plugins. Unless they do extra checks it should work.
Before there was a filter ‘tabify_plugin_support’ which still exists but shouldn’t be used anymore.

What happen with new metaboxes?

At this moment new metaboxes are places on the last tab. You can go to the settings screen to reorder the metabox. You can change which tab it should go like with meta boxes that don’t show up like Types or WordPress SEO. You do this with the filter ‘tabify_unattached_metaboxes_index’.

Changelog

1.0.0 ( 2021-02-28 )

Fixed PHP and WordPress warnings
Arguments for filter tabify_default_metaboxes changed
Deprecated filter tabify_default_metaboxes_$post_type
Improved detection layer a bit. It’s still not perfect and will be addressed in 1.1.0
Action tabify_settings got changed

0.9.7 ( 2016-12-20 )

Fix on/off switch.

0.9.6 ( 2016-11-21 )

Added on/off switch.
Prevent empty tabs from showing.
Make the filter ‘tabify_tab_posttype_tabs’ works. Reported by junander.
Removed unused code.
Started cleanup for version 1.0.0
Compatibility check with WordPress 4.7

0.9.5 ( 2016-03-03 )

Only load features once. Caused when plugins set a new current_screen.

0.9.4 ( 2016-02-28 )

Rewrite of smart meta box detection to use Javascript instead.
Clear Detection cache on needed moments.
Increase caching time for smart detection to a week.
Disabled plugin support which accidentally got enabled in 0.9.3
Ability to enable/disable the post types tabs through the filter ‘tabify_tab_posttype_show’
Fix notices on WooCommerce install screen
Check if metaboxes got removed to prevent notices
Remove action ‘tabify_tabs’ due to same filter.

0.9.3 ( 2016-02-18 )

Fix undefined notice on settings page. Props Juliette Reinders Folmer
Fix typo in detection transient name. Props Juliette Reinders Folmer
Fix vertical tabs on setting page display next to each other in WordPress 4.4
Added back plugin support with filter ‘tabify_plugin_support’

0.9.2 ( 2015-11-14 )

Decrease timeout for smart meta box detection requests
Disable smart meta box detection after 3 failures at the same time
Stop all other requests after 3 failures

0.9.1 ( 2015-11-14 )

Fix issue with older WordPress version
Expire detection transient after 24 hours

0.9.0 ( 2015-11-14 )

Add ability to set permission based on user role per tab. Sponsored by NW Consulting
Added smart meta box detection
Removed the filter ‘tabify_plugin_support’
New filter ‘tabify_tabs_tab_title’ which can be used to translate the tab title
Code clean ups
Updated readme info with new donate link
Tested up to WordPress 4.4

0.8.3 ( 2015-07-27 )

Fix editor after switching tabs
Loading minified files

0.8.2 ( 2014-07-27 )

Make the settings UI responsive and made some other little UI improvements.
Additional plugin support for WordPress SEO

0.8.1 ( 2014-03-26 )

Allow some HTML in the tab title.
Fix border issue on the pos type selection in the settings page

0.8.0 ( 2013-12-25 )

Fix 3.8 styling

0.7.1 ( 2013-09-26 )

Fix possible issues with meta boxes showing on every tab
Add textdomain to the right places
Fix (strict) notices in code

0.7.0 ( 2013-06-14 )

When submit box isn’t always showed then do show a submit button in the tabs
Only hide metaboxes when there is javascript support
Change some styling when MP6 is been used
Add extra span around meta box titles in the settings page to look better in MP6
Add support for WPML

0.6.0 ( 2013-02-24 )

Complete rewrite of settings screen. Most of HTML is now in the base class
All unattached metaboxes will be moved to the last tab
Fix setting current tab when editing a post
Added some extra string escaping
Specify screen icon
Added French translation by Jean-Christophe Brebion
Updated Dutch translation

0.5.3 ( 2013-01-07 )

Fix issue that meta boxes are unchecked in screen options

0.5.2 ( 2012-12-31 )

Default tabs was broken

0.5.1 ( 2012-12-31 )

Move tabs to top again. That is the default state

0.5.0 ( 2012-12-31 )

Improved deleting a tab from the setting screen
Fix bugs caused when deleting a tab and moving metaboxes to different tabs
Make CSS more explicit so that plugins like ACF don’t show up on first load. (Thanks elliotcondon)
Ability to place the tabs under the title input field with the filter ‘tabify_tab_location’ and passing ‘after_title’
Add body class for tab location
Fix update settings and adding slashes to the title
Removing several referenced hooks
Fix some notices on edge cases
Fix javascript error on settings page
Also created a repository for a forked Types that works with this plugin: https://github.com/markoheijnen/types/tree/use-hook-add_meta_boxes

0.4.1 ( 2012-11-9 )

Fix javascript code so you are now able to create new tabs again

0.4.0 ( 2012-11-9 )

Complete fresh new UI for the settings screen
Fix possible bug for not showing author metabox in the settings screen
Fix notice on edit screen when no items where inside a tab
Fix issue that not all post types are showing
Now able to hide a metabox as an user and that the plugin will listen to that. Thank Elles for nagging me about to fix that 😉
Ability to remove plugin support and isn’t on by default anymore. Can be enabled with the filter “tabify_plugin_support”
Added plugin support for Members and WordPress SEO. (Thanks sc0ttkclark for his help )
Added Dutch translation
Ability to modify tabs through the filter tabify_tabs
Ability to add more tab support like post types with the filter ‘tabify-edit-screen-settings-tabs’
Ability to add more options with the action ‘tabify-settings-posttype’ and filter ‘tabify-settings-update’

0.3.0 ( 2012-4-7 )

Add support for the plugin “Types”
Removed the filter tabify_default_metaboxes_$posttype and changed it for the action tabify_add_meta_boxes
Improved the way to delete a tab by showing a remove link ( Javascript only )
Make the tab title translatable with tabify-edit-screen-tab as domain
The text in javascript is now also translatable
Removed duplicated code

0.2.0 ( 2012-4-6 )

Added security checks on the setting screen
Create a new tab now also works on all post types
When you save the changes you go back to the selected tab. This also work for the edit screens
Setting page works when javascript isn’t supported
You can now delete a tab when all the metaboxes are removed and the title is empty. Will be improved in later version
New metaboxes will always be showed in the setting page
The setting page now can be changed from a touch device
Fix issue where you couldn’t move metaboxes in a new created tab

0.1.0 ( 2012-4-2 )

First version to show people the possibilities