Aurora Admin v2 — Project Status

Last updated: 2026-07-03

What this project is

A ground-up rebuild of the "uiXpress" WordPress admin-theme plugin, relaunched as Aurora Admin. The original plugin's look/feel and feature set are the target, but no original code is reused — all Vue components, PHP classes, Tailwind config, and build tooling are freshly written. This lives in aurora-admin-v2/ (the earlier in-place rebrand attempt, aurora-admin-working/, is superseded and no longer the active codebase).

Workflow rules established

Always verify live in Chrome before declaring a fix done — the user was burned by blind-iteration guesses costing time/money. Use the Chrome MCP tools (tabs_context_mcp, navigate, computer/screenshot, javascript_exec) to inspect real DOM/computed styles rather than guessing from source.
Zip packaging: Windows Compress-Archive corrupts the WP upload (backslash path separators break PHP's unzip). Always build the zip via PowerShell System.IO.Compression.ZipFile, normalizing every entry path with .Replace('\', '/'). Output goes to aurora-admin-v2-dist\aurora-admin\aurora-admin-v2.zip.
Old build caching gotcha: WordPress serves whatever plugin files were last installed — if the user says "didn't fix it," suspect a stale zip still installed before suspecting the code. Verify the live script hash via document.querySelector('script[src*="dashboard"]') when in doubt.
Site under test: http://admin.local/wp-admin/.

Architecture

PHP (admin/src/..., namespaced AuroraAdmin\...), bootstrapped from aurora-admin.php, instantiated in admin/src/App/AuroraAdmin.php.
Vue 3 app (app/src/...), Vite multi-entry build → manifest.json, read by admin/src/Utility/Assets.php::enqueue() which also walks the manifest's imports chain to pull in shared-chunk CSS.
Single global stylesheet: app/src/shell/shell-frame.css — defines all --aurora-* CSS variables (incl. .aurora-dark overrides) and the only rules that touch WP structural IDs (#wpcontent, #wpbody-content). No element resets/utility classes leak onto native WP pages (this was the root cause of the original rebrand's Tailwind-leakage bug — avoided here by design).
Immersive shell (admin/src/Shell/Shell.php + app/src/shell/SiteShell.vue
- Sidebar.vue + Toolbar.vue): hides native WP chrome, mounts a Vue sidebar/toolbar on every admin page. MenuSerializer.php converts WP's $menu/$submenu globals into JSON for the sidebar.
Dashboard takeover (admin/src/Pages/DashboardTakeover.php + app/src/pages/dashboard/Dashboard.vue): hijacks native index.php via in_admin_header, hides the native .wrap, renders the Aurora dashboard in its place. 12-col grid; cards are single <section class="aurora-card"> elements with inline grid-column: span N (NOT wrapped — component attribute fallthrough for styles was unreliable).
Settings page (admin/src/Pages/SettingsPage.php + app/src/pages/ settings/Settings.vue): owns the top-level "Aurora Admin" admin menu directly (no submenu). Two-box layout: .settings__nav (category list) + .settings__content (fields), both boxed/bordered on a darker backdrop. Field schema is declarative in app/src/pages/settings/settingsConfig.js, rendered by app/src/pages/settings/components/SettingsField.vue (types: text, toggle, color, image, repeater, multiselect, segmented, remote-sites).
Settings persistence: admin/src/Options/Settings.php — partial-payload save via merge_on_save() sanitize callback (merges into existing option, doesn't overwrite). Settings::get_safe() strips license_key and remote site passwords for use on non-admin-gated pages; Settings::get() (full) only used on the manage_options-gated settings page itself.
Global search: app/src/shell/components/SearchModal.vue, Ctrl+K, debounced wp/v2/search REST calls, gated on disable_global_search setting.
Remote site switcher: toolbar dropdown, gated on canSwitchSites (from remote_site_switcher_capability setting) + non-empty remote_sites.
Scheduled content: app/src/pages/dashboard/cards/ScheduledContent.vue calendar cells (squares, date top-left, count centered) are clickable — navigate to edit.php?post_status=future&aurora_day=YYYY-MM-DD if that day has scheduled posts, else show a toast ("no scheduled content"). Server side: admin/src/Posts/ScheduledDayFilter.php filters the edit.php query via pre_get_posts and prints an info notice.
Analytics: admin/src/Analytics/Analytics.php (first-party pageview tracker, own DB table wp_aurora_admin_pageviews, bot detection, gated on enable_analytics/track_admins settings) + admin/src/Rest/AnalyticsData.php (aggregation REST endpoint: totals, series, device/referrer/country breakdowns, bounce rate, active users).
White label: admin/src/WhiteLabel/WhiteLabel.php — custom favicon, rename plugin in Plugins list, rename top-level menu item, gettext find/replace via text_replacements setting.
Native page dark styling: admin/assets/native-dark.css (large static sheet, all rules gated html.aurora-dark.aurora-ready, scoped under #wpbody-content) + admin/assets/native-enhance.js (progressive JS enhancement — currently only enhanceUpdates(), which groups the flat Updates page sections into .aurora-native-card wrapper divs on body.update-core-php).

Key bugs fixed (root causes, in case they resurface)

.card global class collision: original Dashboard cards used class="card", colliding with WP core's .card { max-width: 520px }, capping card width regardless of grid span. Fixed by renaming to .aurora-card* everywhere. Lesson: never use unprefixed class names on Aurora components — always prefix aurora-.
Grid-column not applying on wrapped cards: settled on unwrapped <section class="aurora-card" :style="{gridColumn: ...}"> — component boundaries ate the style binding in earlier attempts.
Two-box settings layout: took two wrong iterations (splitting header/fields instead of nav/content) before matching the user's reference image. If revisiting settings layout, re-confirm against a screenshot before assuming intent.
Redundant outer frame border on settings page: #wpbody-content's frame border/radius doubled up with the new two-box layout; fixed with a body.toplevel_page_aurora-admin override in shell-frame.css that drops the outer frame there only.

Current / in-progress task

User's last request: "now the updates page doesn't match the style as the dashboard page."

Status: diagnosis started but not finished. I navigated to update-core.php and confirmed the page renders with the shell (minify button, View Website/Dashboard icons, search, dark toggle) and that native-enhance.js is already grouping the page into three .aurora-native-card boxes (Current version / Plugins / Themes). I had not yet done a side-by-side computed-style comparison against .aurora-card (used on the Dashboard, e.g. "Recent content" / "Site Health" cards) to find the actual mismatch — could be background shade, border radius, padding, title typography, or hover state. No code changes made yet for this specific request.

Next step (concrete)

Via Chrome javascript_exec, pull getComputedStyle() for a live .aurora-card element on the Dashboard and a live .aurora-native-card element on the Updates page — compare background-color, border-color, border-radius, padding, box-shadow, and heading font-size/weight. Then patch .aurora-native-card rules in admin/assets/native-dark.css (and/or structure in native-enhance.js if the mismatch is structural, e.g. missing a title wrapper element) to match .aurora-card in Dashboard.vue. Verify live, then rebuild/sync to dist, re-zip, and have the user reinstall.

Not-yet-done (deferred, no active request)

Full field sets for settings categories beyond General/Analytics/White Label (original plugin had more).
Extending native-enhance.js boxing to other native screens (Tools, etc.) beyond Updates.
Porting the real license-key activation flow (built previously in the old aurora-admin-working project, not yet ported to v2 — currently just a text field).
Light-mode boxing for native pages (native-dark.css/native-enhance.js currently only styled for dark mode; light mode native pages are untouched WP default).

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