# Customizing Strapi Admin Panel: Tailoring the UI/UX for Your Content Team

Strapi has become popular because of the flexibility of its headless CMS. We have seen that one of its unique selling points is the facility to brand its administration panel. From the content teams and developers’ perspective, the good-looking and customizable admin interface leads to more efficient working. From using navigation links, replacing anything, for instance, the WYSIWYG editor, or trying to match the UI/UX design with your brand, Strapi provides you with a strong starting point to perform all these modifications.

In this ultimate guide, you will learn how to tailor Strapi’s admin panel to your needs and make your CMS as unique as your team is. Even at initial stages of development as well as the deployment of the software, every single aspect is handled.

## Setting Up a Strapi Project
However, customization requires a complete working Strapi project before proceeding with the customization process. It gives you a foundation on which you could freely tweak customizations and features for testing purposes.

### Installing Strapi

Start by installing Strapi using the following command:

npx create-strapi-app@latest my-strapi-project --quickstart

This creates a project named `my-strapi-project` with the help of quickstart option, it sets an SQLite database by default. This setup is useful in the prototyping and local development environment.

### Understanding the Project Structure

Once the installation is complete, navigate into the project directory:

cd my-strapi-project

Internally, the structure involves directories such as: src, admin and config among others. This directory is extremely important because it contains all files concerned with admin panel. This is where most of your settings will take place.
### Running the Development Server

To start the development server, use:

npm run develop

This launches Strapi on `http:>//localhost:1337/admin`. The first time users have to input personal details and register as administrators.

### Exploring the Admin Panel

YOU are then immediately able to log in into the admin panel of the site and navigate through features. Knowing what to set up by default will be useful in choosing which features to practice on later on. In a similar manner analyse navigation, themes and such components in order to determine further improvement.

## Customizing the Admin Panel

When you create a new project the next step is configuring admin section. Strapi does provide a highly powerful engines for extending the application of its functions.

### Creating a Custom Plugin

Navigate to the `src/extensions` directory and create a folder for your custom plugin:

mkdir -p src/extensions/custom-admin-panel
touch src/extensions/custom-admin-panel/index.js

This directory will house all customizations related to the admin panel.

### Defining Basic Configuration

Edit the `index.js` file to include basic configuration:

export default {
  config: {
    locales: ['en', 'fr', 'de'], // Support for multiple languages
  },
  bootstrap(app) {
    console.log('Custom admin panel loaded!');
  },
};

When you create a new project the next step is configuring admin section. Strapi does provide a highly powerful engines for extending the application of its functions.
### Leveraging the Plugin Lifecycle

The `bootstrap` function is called when the plugin is being initialized. This should be used for setting global values, for initialising services or for logging messages that you want to appear in all subsystems.

### Validating Your Customizations

Stop the development server and restart it to confirm that it displays a message in the console – “Custom admin panel loaded!” This helps you to know if your plugin is functioning properly.
The figure shows the screenshot of the snipets on customizing admin panel

## Replacing the WYSIWYG Editor

The WYSIWYG editor is therefore an important element of the admin panel particularly for teams that deal with rich text. In the same way, Strapi comes with its own editor, though if you need more rich functions, you can consider TinyMCE.
### Installing TinyMCE

Install the TinyMCE React package using:

npm install @tinymce/tinymce-react

### Creating the Custom Editor Component

Create a new file for your custom editor:

touch src/extensions/custom-admin-panel/wysiwyg.js

Define the editor component:

import { Editor } from '@tinymce/tinymce-react';

export default function CustomEditor({ value, onChange }) {
  return (
    <Editor
      apiKey="your-tinymce-api-key"
      initialValue={value}
      init={{
        height: 400,
        menubar: false,
        plugins: 'link image code',
        toolbar: 'undo redo | bold italic | alignleft aligncenter alignright | code',
      }}
      onEditorChange={onChange}
    />
  );
}

Replace `your-tinymce-api-key` with your TinyMCE API key.

### Integrating the Custom Editor

Update the plugin configuration in `index.js` to include your custom editor:

import CustomEditor from './wysiwyg';

export default {
  config: {
    wysiwyg: {
      component: CustomEditor,
    },
  },
};

### Testing the Custom Editor

Restart the server and navigate to a content type with a rich text field. Verify that TinyMCE has replaced the default WYSIWYG editor.

## Customizing the Theme

Styling of your admin panel enhances the working interface and the layout conforms to your organization’s themes.

### Defining a Custom Theme

Create a theme file:

touch src/extensions/custom-admin-panel/theme.js

Add your custom theme configuration:

export default {
  theme: {
    colors: {
      primary100: '#D3E4CD',
      primary200: '#ADC2A9',
      primary500: '#6B705C',
      neutral100: '#F5F5F5',
      neutral500: '#333333',
    },
    fonts: {
      body: 'Arial, sans-serif',
    },
  },
};

### Applying the Theme

Integrate the theme into your plugin setup:

import theme from './theme';

export default {
  config: {
    ...theme,
  },
};

### Previewing the Theme

Restart the server and log in to see your updated colors and fonts. The figure shows the snippets on Customizing the theme ![Modyfying Admin Theme]

## Adding Custom Navigation Links

Navigation links improve accessibility by directing users to specific features or plugins.

### Creating Navigation Links

Define new navigation items in a file:

touch src/extensions/custom-admin-panel/navigation.js

Add the following configuration:

export default {
  config: {
    navigation: [
      {
        title: 'Reports',
        icon: 'chart-bar',
        link: '/plugins/reports',
      },
    ],
  },
};

### Integrating Navigation Links

Update your plugin configuration to include these links:

import navigation from './navigation';

export default {
  config: {
    ...navigation,
  },
};

The figure shows the screenshot of snippet on Adding Custom Navigation Links![Custom navigation Links]

## Deploying Customizations

After completing your customizations, build the admin panel:

npm run build

Restart the server to apply changes:

npm run develop

Make an addition to the repository so that all the project files are placed in your version control of choice and then undergo a CI/CD process to be used in production. The figure show screenshot of snippets on Deploying Customizations

## Conclusion

You have been endowed with the best information thus preparing you for how you can easily set up and even design Strapi’s admin panel to fit your team’s needs. This means that it is possible to develop an interface that is fully functional as well as being optimally customized. In the case of adjusting the theme, using a new editor or improving navigation, Strapi provides great flexibilities towards the adjustments.

Your content creation teams can work better due to the slim, yet versatile admin panel that provides better UI/UX for your teams. For a working demonstration and the source code, visit the GitHub repository here:https://github.com/joswellahwasike/strapi-5-admin-panel