https://www.concrete5.org/documentation/how-tos/developers/adding-a-menu-item-5.7/

The dashboard has it's own theme. Menuitems that work in normal logged-in mode, won't work in the dashboard.
Have a look at...I think... footer_required.php or a file named like that.
I didn't try to apply a different theme to the dashboard, but maybe this can be done from a package, or from application.
I know RamonLeenders was working on this too.

Would be nice to know if you get this working and how.

Good luck.

I am able to manually edit the footer file you are speaking of, but I would like to do it via a plugin. Ive seen plugins add items into the toolbar, but there is no option for anything very custom, you can only make a button with an built in icon and a link. Would need to extend the user menu controller perphaps to return a string if set currently it only returns an icon and a link.

Did you check the how-to ?

override getMenuItemLinkElement()

I think it would be very possible to return extended menu's there, not only the icon/link.

@ob7

Here is the add-on WillemAnchor mentioned:
http://www.concrete5.org/marketplace/addons/toolbar-designer...

This add-on will show toolbar menu items in the dashboard using an override.

"Wanting to show menu/toolbar items in your backend"
http://www.concrete5.org/marketplace/addons/toolbar-designer/gettin...

My original question wasn't very clear. Thinking back on this, I remember my goal was to actually make an "admin theme" that would brand the backend and everything for clients. So that they see our studio name in there. If theres a way to do this without overwriting the core, I'd be for it.

@ob7dev

It sounds like you are interested in "white labelling". This would allow you to change the concrete5 logo and name in the toolbar.

This can be done using config values:
https://github.com/concrete5/concrete5/blob/develop/web/concrete/con...

For more extensive customizing, you will need to override some files.