Admin Menu API

Register admin sidebar menus and settings pages at runtime from a theme's functions.php or a plugin's plugin.php — the FalconCMS equivalent of WordPress's add_menu_page() and the Settings API.

Registered menus are merged into the DB-driven sidebar, so they survive falcon:update (which re-seeds the core menu table) without any migration.

Functions

falcon_add_menu_page(array $args): void       // top-level sidebar item
falcon_add_submenu_page(string $parent, array $args): void
falcon_add_options_page(array $args): void    // menu item + a rendered settings page

---

Adding a menu page

falcon_add_menu_page([
    'slug'       => 'seo-booster',            // required, unique
    'title'      => 'SEO Booster',            // sidebar label
    'icon'       => 'trending_up',            // Material Symbols icon name
    'route'      => 'seo-booster.dashboard',  // named route to link to
    'permission' => 'manage_settings',        // required capability
    'position'   => 60,                       // sort order
    'group'      => 'Extend',                 // sidebar section heading
]);

Key	Default	Description
slug	—	Unique identifier. Required.
title	slug	Label shown in the sidebar.
icon	—	Material Symbols name.
route	—	Named route the item links to.
params	[]	Route parameters.
permission	manage_settings	Capability required to see/open it.
position	100	Sort order within the group.
group	Extend	Sidebar section. Anything other than Main renders as a labelled section.

WARNING

An item whose route is not registered is hidden automatically — so a menu pointing at a route from a deactivated plugin never 404s.

Adding a submenu

falcon_add_submenu_page('seo-booster', [
    'title' => 'Reports',
    'route' => 'seo-booster.reports',
]);

Registering from a hook

Menus can be registered directly, or deferred to the falcon_admin_menu action, which fires once when the sidebar is first built:

add_falcon_action('falcon_admin_menu', function () {
    falcon_add_menu_page([...]);
});

---

Options pages

falcon_add_options_page() registers a sidebar item and a fully rendered settings page — fields, saving and validation included. You write no controller, route or view.

falcon_add_options_page([
    'slug'        => 'seo-booster',
    'title'       => 'SEO Booster Settings',
    'menu_title'  => 'SEO Booster',
    'icon'        => 'trending_up',
    'description' => 'Configure the SEO Booster plugin.',
    'capability'  => 'manage_settings',
    'fields'      => [
        ['name' => 'sb_api_key', 'label' => 'API Key',  'type' => 'text'],
        ['name' => 'sb_enabled', 'label' => 'Enabled',  'type' => 'checkbox'],
    ],
]);

The page is served at /admin/options/{slug}. Values are stored as CMS options:

$key = get_cms_option('sb_api_key');

See Settings Fields API for every field type and option.

Tabbed options pages

Swap fields for tabs to get a tabbed layout. All tabs live in one form and save together; the active tab is preserved across saves and deep-linkable via ?tab=.

falcon_add_options_page([
    'slug'  => 'seo-booster',
    'title' => 'SEO Booster',
    'tabs'  => [
        [
            'id'     => 'general',
            'label'  => 'General',
            'icon'   => 'tune',
            'fields' => [
                ['name' => 'sb_api_key', 'label' => 'API Key', 'type' => 'text'],
            ],
        ],
        [
            'id'     => 'advanced',
            'label'  => 'Advanced',
            'fields' => [
                ['name' => 'sb_debug', 'label' => 'Debug mode', 'type' => 'checkbox'],
            ],
        ],
    ],
]);

---

Choosing an approach

You want	Use
A link to your own controller/view	falcon_add_menu_page()
A settings screen without writing one	falcon_add_options_page()
Fields on an existing settings screen	falcon_add_settings_field()
A new tab in the Settings area	falcon_add_settings_tab()