One of the first things I did after establishing my blog was made myself a super simple, all css admin panel. It works, for everything I want it to do. I noticed a lot of people were wanting one, also, so I decided to post mine. If it works for you, cool. If it doesn't, 'sokay. If there are security threats in this, please someone tell me! XD

First thing that I wanted to point out was that this was created in a protected folder, obviously, since I don't want just anyone to get a hold of it. I'm using .htaccess protection. If you don't know what that is, check out this article (it's really spiffy and to the point).

So now that the folder is protected, There were really only 3 files I needed to create: header, footer and stylesheet.

[HEADER.PHP]

CODE
<html>
<head>
<title>Blog Title Here</title>
<link rel=stylesheet
href="external.php" type="text/css">
</head>

<body>

<div id="admntitl">Blog Title Here</div>
<div id="container">
<div id="nav">
<h1>Posts</h1>
<a href="form.php">New</a><br>
<a href="updatemenu.php">Edit</a><br><br>

<h1>Comments</h1>
<a href="editcomments.php">Edit</a><br><br>

<h1>Categories</h1>
<a href="categories.php">Add/Edit/Delete</a></div>

<div id="content">



[FOOTER.PHP]

CODE
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>



[EXTERNAL.PHP] <-- Yea, it's a php stylesheet. You could use css if you like. =)

CODE
<?php
$background = '#ffffff';
$text = '#000000';
$link = '#36648B';
$hover = '#6CA6CD';
$border = '#c0c0c0';
$name = '#BFAC8F';
?>

body {
   background-color: <?=$background?>;
}

.nav {
   border: 1px solid <?=$border?>;
   font-size: 10px;
   color: <?=$text?>;
   line-height: 15px;
   display: block;
}

* {
  font-family:Verdana;
  font-size: 10px;
  color: <?=$text?>;
  letter-spacing: 0px;
  line-height: 11px;
  letter-spacing: .09em;
}

a {
  font-family: Verdana;
  font-size: 10px;
  color: <?=$link?>;
  text-decoration: none;
  letter-spacing: 1px;
  line-height: 11px;
}

a:visited {
  font-family: Verdana;
  font-size: 10px;
  color: <?=$link?>;
  letter-spacing: 1px;
  line-height: 11px;
}

a:hover {
  font-family: Verdana;
  font-size: 10px;
  color: <?=$hover?>;
  line-height: 11px;
}

h1 {
   color: <?=$text?>;
   font-family: Verdana;
   font-size: 10px;
   font-weight:bold;
   letter-spacing: 1px;
}

#admntitl {
   position:absolute;
   min-width:710px;
   left:50%;
   margin-left:-355px;
   margin-top:78px;
   font-size:16;
   font-weight:600;
   color:<?=$name?>;
   text-align:right;
   letter-spacing:.5em;
}

#container {
   position: absolute;
   top:100px;
   left:50%;
   margin-left:-355px;
   border:1px solid <?=$border?>;
   min-width:710px;
   min-height:500px;
   display:block;
}

#nav {
   max-width: 150px;
   min-height:500px;
   margin: 10px;
   padding:5px;
   border:1px solid <?=$border?>;
}

#content {
   position:absolute;
   left:175px;
   top:0px;
   width:505px;
   height:500px;
   margin:10px;
   padding:5px;
   border:1px solid <?=$border?>;
   overflow:auto;
}

input, textarea, select {
   background-color:<?=$background?>;
   border:1px solid <?=$border?>;
}



The reason I'm not breaking this down line by line is that I really wasn't kidding when I said it was super basic. Reading over it will generally give you a good idea of what's happening where.

One thing I wanted to point out though is that the #admntitl bit is something that was convenient for me. I run several different blogs which follow the codegrrl tutorials, and in order to diffrentiate them from one another, I've set the blog name on the upper right hand corner in a different color for each blog. So I never get confused when writing/editing/deleting things. ^^

I've bookmarked my form.php page. That way, whenever I click it, I type in my username, password, and I'm in my admin panel.

Fiddle around with it until you get it the way you like. Change the colors, add things, remove things, whatever floats your boat. Here's how mine looks (click to enlarge image):

IPB Image

I really hope this was helpful to someone, goodness knows I've been a pain round these parts for a while. XP