Adding something to the admin menu..

Here is a quick overview of what I did to 2.81 to get it to work:

My example menu item is named authorization so you would replace that with your menu item name
Also please note that all lines numbers ARE JUST GENERAL LOCATORS AND NOT EXACT PLACEMENT LOCATIONS!

Edit framework/class.admin.php

At around line 145 add your menu item like the following:

array(ADMIN_URL.'/authorization/index.php', '', $MENU['AUTHORIZATION'], 'authorization', 1),

Edit admin/start/index.php

At around line 65 add your menu item like the following:

if($admin->get_permission('authorization') != true) {
$template->set_var('DISPLAY_AUTHORIZATI ON', 'none');
}

At around line 115 add your menu item like the following:

'AUTHORIZATION' => $MENU['AUTHORIZATION'],

AND

'AUTHORIZATION_OVERV IEW' => $OVERVIEW['AUTHORIZATION']

Create your menu directory under the admin folder. Suggest copying another menu folder over and rename it.

Make sure the folder name matches the name in the first step. It must have an index.php file as well.

Create your html template file under the templates directory for the template you are using so if
you are using the wb_theme backend template then you would make your template file under

templates/wb_theme/templates

and name it as authorization.htt

The name must be the same as you specify in the index.php file you created under the admin/authorization directory

In order for the new menu item to show up you must add it to the system_permissions value for the Administrator
user in the "groups" table in the database. I used phpMyAdmin but to do this but there are many other ways like
writing a simple php query and update page. That is out of the scope of this quick doc.

IF you want your new menu item to show up on the main start page, you have to edit the start.htt file under your backend theme
templates directory. In our example case it is under templates/wb_theme/templates/ .

You may have to edit things significantly if you add more than one menu item so be aware of this before making this decision. In
this case we would add the following towrards

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0" class="section" style="{DISPLAY_AUTHORIZATION}">
<tr>
<td class="graphic" align="center" valign="middle" rowspan="2">
<a href="{ADMIN_URL}/authorization/index.php">
<img src="{THEME_URL}/icons/authorization.png" alt="{AUTHORIZATION}" />
</a>
</td>
<td class="title">
<a href="{ADMIN_URL}/authorization/index.php">{AUTHORIZATION}</a>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="description">
{AUTHORIZATION_OVERVIEW}
</td>
</tr>
</table>

You will have to create the authorization.png file or whatever icon file you want to use and put it into the icons directory
under your backend theme directory

In order to add the new menu item to the Groups permissions you must edit the following:

Edit the admin/groups/get_permissions.php file at around line 145 add the follwoing:

// Authorization
$system_permissions['authorization_setti ngs'] = $admin->get_post('authorization_setti ngs');
if($system_permissions['authorization_setti ngs'] == 1) {
$system_permissions['authorization'] = 1;
} else {
$system_permissions['authorization'] = '';
}

At around line 80 add

$system_permissions['authorization'] = $admin->get_post('authorization');
$system_permissions['authorization_setti ngs'] = $system_permissions['auhtorization'];

Next you have to edit the file groups_form.htt under your themes templates directory. In this case it is
templates/wb_theme/templates/groups_form.htt

Replace <td> </td> near line 60 with

<td>
<input type="checkbox" name="authorization" id="authorization" value="1" {authorization_checked} />
<label for="authorization">{SECTION_AUTHORIZATION}</label>
</td>

At around line 240 add something like the following for advanced settings

<tr>
<td colspan="4">
<h3>{SECTION_AUTHORIZATION}</h3>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><input name="authorization_setti ngs" id="authorization_setti ngs" type="checkbox" value="1" {authorization_settings_checked} /></td>
<td><label for="authorization_setti ngs">{TEXT_AUTHORIZE_USERS}</label></td>
<td> </td>
<td> </td>
</tr>

You must add the text replacement tags to the admin/groups/index.php file

around line 170 add something like

'SECTION_AUTHORIZATI ON' => $MENU['AUTHORIZATION'],

and around 180 add something like

'TEXT_AUTHORIZE_USER S' => $TEXT['AUTHORIZE_USERS'],

You must add the text replacement tags to the admin/groups/groups.php file

around line 145 add something like

'SECTION_AUTHORIZATI ON' => $MENU['AUTHORIZATION'],

around line 153 add something like

'TEXT_AUTHORIZE_USER S' => $TEXT['AUTHORIZE_USERS'],

Add the cooresponding tags to the MAIN languages/ folder files like EN.php add

$TEXT['AUTHORIZE_USERS'] = 'Authorize Users';

This should get the menu item to show up correctly from my expeirience. Next you will
actually have to finish the development of your menu item functionality.