How do you create a basic Wordpress admin pointer?

Question

I have been looking around for quite awhile now and all I have found are tutorials from 3-4 years ago that explain how to do a pointer tour. All I want to do is add a pointer that pops up when someone activates my plugin so that I can notify them of a new menu option where they will go to view my plugin settings. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

What you are looking for is WordPress Activation / Deactivation Hooks. For example:

register_activation_hook( __FILE__, 'pluginprefix_function_to_run' );

And on pluginprefix_function_to_run, display a nice message to let users know that you've added a menu using admin_notices:

function my_admin_notice() {
    ?>
    <div class="updated">
        <p><?php _e( 'Your message goes here!', 'my-text-domain' ); ?></p>
    </div>
    <?php
}

function pluginprefix_function_to_run() {
    add_action( 'admin_notices', 'my_admin_notice' );
}