Drupal Tip: Dynamic Unapproved Comments Shortcut

One of the most common tasks in Drupal is to review comments awaiting approval. I found a quick trick which allows you to add a link in your admin shortcuts which will dynamically add the count of shortcuts you need to approve. So, no need to go the extra clicks to see whether anything is awaiting approval.First things first, go ahead and click the "Edit shortcuts" link in the top right of your install:

Now add a shortcut with the parameters below:

If you change the name/anchor text, this won't work, so enter the values exactly as above.

Now, your shortcut link auto-updates with the number of comments awaiting approval:

(572 comments? Ouch!) But a pretty nifty link I hope you'll agree. This is one I can see I'll add to most Drupal installs I look after. It reminds me a little of another "trick" whereby you can add two links into a menu, one to user/login and the other to logout. Because Drupal only shows the relevant link, you essentially have a dynamic login/logout link.

Hope this small tip saves you a little time with your own Drupal admininstration. I'm sure there must be more of these hidden time-savers I don't know about.