8

In the admin backend I would like to add a class to the body tag of all admin pages which prints out the name of the admin users currently logged in.

In app/design/adminhtml/default/default/template/page.phtml

I've found this (on line 46 - CE 1.6.2.0):

<body id="html-body"<?php echo $this->getBodyClass()?'class="'.$this->getBodyClass().'"':'' ?>>

and I think that I need to use this to get the admin username:

Mage::getSingleton('admin/session')->getUser();

However, no matter what I do, I cannot seem to output the username in either the id or class.

Any ideas would be most welcome.

Thanks.

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3 Answers 3

Reset to default
6

The cleanest way is to create an observer that adds the class to the body.
For this you can create a new module (or use an existing one. Just in case, here is how you can create one. Let's call it Easylife_AdminClass).
You will need the following files:
app/etc/modules/Easylife_AdminClass.xml - the declaration file

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config>
    <modules>
        <Easylife_AdminClass>
            <active>true</active>
            <codePool>local</codePool>
            <depends>
                <Mage_Adminhtml />
            </depends>
        </Easylife_AdminClass>
    </modules>
</config>

app/code/local/Easylife/AdminClass/etc/config.xml - the configuration file

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config>
    <modules>
        <Easylife_AdminClass>
            <version>0.0.1</version>
        </Easylife_AdminClass>
    </modules>
    <global>
        <models>
            <adminclass>
                <class>Easylife_AdminClass_Model</class>
            </adminclass>
        </models>
    </global>
    <adminhtml>
        <events><!-- event used for adding a class to the body-->
            <core_block_abstract_to_html_before>
                <observers>
                    <adminclass>
                        <type>singleton</type>
                        <class>adminclass/adminhtml_observer</class>
                        <method>addBodyClass</method>
                    </adminclass>
                </observers>
            </core_block_abstract_to_html_before>
        </events>
    </adminhtml>
</config>

app/code/local/Easylife/AdminClass/Model/Observer.php - the observer.

<?php
class Easylife_AdminClass_Model_Adminhtml_Observer{
    public function addBodyClass($observer){
        $block = $observer->getEvent()->getBlock();
        if ($block instanceof Mage_Adminhtml_Block_Page){ //check if the block is the root block,
            $admin = Mage::getSingleton('admin/session')->getUser();
            if ($admin->getId()){//check if the admin is logged in
                $block->addBodyClass($admin->getUsername());//add the class to the body.
            }
        }
        return $this;
    }
}

I recommend adding a prefix to the class you add to the body.
I mean replace $block->addBodyClass($admin->getUsername()); with $block->addBodyClass('some-prefix-'.$admin->getUsername()); since the username can be almost anything. For example you will have a surprise if you have an admin named 'root'. Here is how the root class looks in the default admin css

.root{
    position: relative;
    height: 260px;
    margin: 0;
    width: 1px;
}
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4
  • 1
    This is indeed an incredibly detailed reply - thanks heaps for that. Regrettably, not being a programmer, I don't really understand all of this and when I implemented it, I got a 'There has been an error processing your request' page in the default Magento theme. Any ideas?
    – njwrigley
    Commented Jun 4, 2013 at 18:21
  • First of all clear the cache (contents of folder var/cache. If the error is still there, check the folder var/report. on one of the files in there you should find more details about the error. I really recommend asking for help from a programmer on this.
    – Marius ♦
    Commented Jun 4, 2013 at 18:29
  • Okay - thanks for your really, really fast reply. I will get some folk that I know to look at your solution.
    – njwrigley
    Commented Jun 4, 2013 at 18:52
  • @Marius Great support :)
    – Gem
    Commented Sep 5, 2019 at 11:23
14

The simplest solution is to create a helper method which returns the currently-logged-in username.

class Ns_Mn_Helper_Data extends Mage_Core_Helper_Abstract
{
    public function getAdminUsername()
    {
        if (Mage::getSingleton('admin/session')->getUser()->getId()) {
            return Mage::getSingleton('admin/session')->getUser()->getUsername();
        }
    }
}

Then in layout XML:

<default>
    <action method="addBodyClass" block="root">
         <css_class_name helper="ns_mn/getAdminUsername" />
    </action>
</default>
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4
  • I like this solution a lot.
    – philwinkle
    Commented Jun 4, 2013 at 19:42
  • Nice solution. +1 mostly because I'm furious this didn't cross my mind (and it should have).
    – Marius ♦
    Commented Jun 5, 2013 at 6:59
  • 1
    @Marius your solution will catch the case always unless some custom main block template is used, so I'd say it's the most thorough. I personally avoid observing block rendering events because they are generic, but your answer does everything it should (test for block type, instantiate as a singleton).
    – benmarks
    Commented Jun 5, 2013 at 13:52
  • I thought of that, but I safely assumed the risk is very low. The way the Magento admin is built kind of requires the top block to be an instance of Mage_Adminhtml_Block_Page. Of course you can replace that with an other block type but I don't see the point. And even if you replace it, either your replace it with a child class of Mage_Adminhtml_Block_Page (which is ok), or you have the risk of not having a method addBodyClass(). Either way the risk of my extension not working exists but I think it's pretty safe to take it.
    – Marius ♦
    Commented Jun 5, 2013 at 14:12
1

In a custom module, you want to observe the preDispatch for the admin controller action that you're trying to add body classes to and use the following code:

if ($block = $this->getLayout()->getBlock('root')) {
        $block->addBodyClass((string)Mage::getSingleton('admin/session')->getUser());
}
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1
  • I like Marius' incredibly detailed answer better than my own (though the premise is the same)
    – philwinkle
    Commented Jun 4, 2013 at 17:09

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