User interfaces living in the Admin "back end" area

Question

We're currently toying with the idea of building a user interface that lives in the Admin area ("back-end"), effectively meaning that those interfaces will be theme independent. The code that actually renders the user interface will live in a plugin (not touching WP core).

To make this less vague, we are roughly looking to do the following:

• Users can belong to one or more Groups (custom post type). For each Group, we render a menu item in the left hand side "Admin menu".
• We render a page for each Group (accessed by clicking on the menu item) that shows Announcements (also a custom post type) for that Group as well as a calendar for that Group (also based on a custom post type).

What does best practice and / or Wordpress development guidelines say about this though? Is it a good idea to have user interfaces in the back end, or a bad idea (and if so, why)? I'm trying to make a strong case either for or against this decision.

Answer 1

I think User interfaces in WordPress Admin is a good idea. It will straight away gives different views for different groups(like editors, subscribers etc..). I also think Custom post types and custom fields are introduced for this purpose.

On the flip side you wouldn't be able to completely change the look of Admin area, so your users have to live with it!