Fix Plugins dropping to native page after activating a plugin (v2.7.2)

Unlike Posts/Pages/Media/Users/Comments, Plugins only ever had its
sidebar link rewritten (MenuSerializer.php) — there was no
redirect_native_pages() case for direct visits to plugins.php itself.
WordPress's own post-activate/post-install redirect
(wp_redirect(self_admin_url('plugins.php?activate=true'))) is exactly
that: a direct visit with no ?page= param, landing on the true native
page until the sidebar link was clicked again.

Added the missing case, gated by modern_plugins like the others,
redirecting to plugins.php?page=aurora-admin-plugins to match the URL
the sidebar link itself already uses.

Verified live by visiting plugins.php?activate=true directly (the
exact URL WP's own redirect produces) — now lands on the Aurora page
correctly, confirmed with FileBird Lite showing Active in the list.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <[email protected]>

PROJECT_STATUS.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # Aurora Admin v2 — Project Status
 
-_Last updated: 2026-07-05 (latest session — fixed white native form fields on classic edit screens, e.g. Edit Media's title field)_
+_Last updated: 2026-07-05 (latest session — fixed Plugins dropping to the native page after activating a plugin)_
 
 ## What this project is
 
@@ -766,6 +766,29 @@ replacement — there's no native WP file browser to redirect from).
 
 ## Key bugs fixed (root causes, in case they resurface)
 
+- **Plugins dropped to the native page after activating a plugin**: user
+  installed FileBird and it "defaulted back to WordPress plugins page
+  until I clicked on plugins from the menu." Root cause: unlike Posts/
+  Pages/Media/Users/Comments, Plugins was originally built with *only* a
+  `MenuSerializer.php` link rewrite (the sidebar's own "Plugins" link
+  pointed at the Aurora page) — it never got a `redirect_native_pages()`
+  case for direct visits to `plugins.php` itself. WordPress's own
+  post-activate/post-install redirect
+  (`wp_redirect(self_admin_url('plugins.php?activate=true'))`) is exactly
+  that: a direct visit with no `?page=` param, bypassing the rewritten
+  sidebar link entirely and landing on the true native page — fixed only
+  once the user next clicked the sidebar link themselves. Added the
+  missing `redirect_native_pages()` case, gated by `modern_plugins` like
+  the others, redirecting to `plugins.php?page=aurora-admin-plugins` (not
+  `admin.php?page=...`, to match the URL the sidebar link itself already
+  uses). Verified live by visiting `plugins.php?activate=true` directly
+  (the exact URL WP's own redirect produces) — now lands on the Aurora
+  page correctly. **If a similarly "sidebar-link-only" page ever gets
+  reported as dropping to native after some WP-core-triggered redirect,
+  check `redirect_native_pages()` for a missing case first** — this is
+  the second time that exact gap has caused a bug (Plugins now fixed;
+  worth double-checking Comments/Posts/Pages/Media/Users don't have
+  similar missed redirect sources, e.g. bulk actions, if this resurfaces).
 - **White native form fields on classic (non-block-editor) screens**: user
   reported "a lot of endpoints still linking back to the original
   WordPress dashboard [look]" — investigation landed on the Edit Media