Adminer Table Prefix Groups

Adminer plugin that groups sidebar tables by the prefix before a configurable separator. The default separator is _.

For example:

• CRM_users
• CRM_orders
• CRM_contacts

will be shown under a collapsible CRM group in the left sidebar.

Requirements

• Adminer 5.x
• PHP 8.1+

The plugin is namespaced for Adminer 5. It uses Adminer's documented plugin hook behavior: methods can override Adminer behavior by returning a non-null value.

What It Does

The plugin changes only Adminer's left navigation list. It keeps Adminer's native link targets for table data and table structure, including active-link styling. By default, the table-data link is shown as a compact eye icon with an accessible text label.

Tables are grouped by the text before the configured separator. The default separator is _:

Object name	Prefix
crm_contact	crm
crm_note	crm
plm_order	plm

A prefix becomes a collapsible <details> group when:

• at least two objects exist with the same prefix, including tables or views, or
• one prefixed object exists and a base object with the same prefix exists.

Objects that do not match a group are shown under a localized Other label by default.

Example

Given these tables:

crm
crm_contact
crm_note
plm_order
plm_item
users

Adminer will render:

crm        tables: 3
  crm
  crm_contact
  crm_note

plm        tables: 2
  plm_item
  plm_order

Other      tables: 1
  users

Installation

Copy the plugin file next to adminer.php:

table-prefix-groups.php

Optionally copy the CSS file next to adminer.php:

adminer-prefix-groups.css

In this repository the CSS source file lives at assets/adminer-prefix-groups.css. Adminer looks for adminer-prefix-groups.css by default, so copy or mount it under that filename next to adminer.php.

Create adminer-plugins.php next to adminer.php:

<?php

require_once __DIR__ . '/table-prefix-groups.php';

use Adminer\AdminerTablePrefixGroups;

return [
    new AdminerTablePrefixGroups(),
];

Installation With Docker

The official Docker image loads custom plugins from plugins-enabled/, so the Docker examples use small wrapper files that return plugin instances.

Use the canonical Compose examples from the repository root:

• Adminer 5: examples/docker-compose.adminer.yml
• Legacy adminer:4.8.1-standalone: examples/docker-compose.adminer4-legacy.yml

Then recreate the Adminer container.

Configuration

For custom settings, pass constructor arguments in adminer-plugins.php:

<?php

require_once __DIR__ . '/table-prefix-groups.php';

use Adminer\AdminerTablePrefixGroups;

return [
    new AdminerTablePrefixGroups(
        'adminer-prefix-groups.css',
        null,
        null,
        null,
        '_',
        true
    ),
];

Arguments:

Argument	Meaning
$cssFile	CSS file path as seen by Adminer
$otherLabel	label for ungrouped objects, or null for automatic language detection
$tableCountLabel	short label for table counts, or null for automatic language detection
$viewCountLabel	short label for view counts, or null for automatic language detection
$separator	separator used to detect prefixes
$useSelectIcon	render the table-data link as an eye icon

The plugin reads Adminer's active language from Adminer\LANG. A get_lang() fallback is kept for legacy Adminer 4 smoke tests. If the plugin knows the active language, it uses matching labels. Otherwise it falls back to English.

The built-in label map lives in $labelsByLanguage in table-prefix-groups.php. Translations are best-effort and can be overridden through constructor arguments.

To force Polish labels:

<?php

require_once __DIR__ . '/table-prefix-groups.php';

use Adminer\AdminerTablePrefixGroups;

return [
    new AdminerTablePrefixGroups(
        'adminer-prefix-groups.css',
        'Pozostałe',
        'tab.',
        'widoki',
        '_',
        true
    ),
];

For a different separator:

<?php

require_once __DIR__ . '/table-prefix-groups.php';

use Adminer\AdminerTablePrefixGroups;

return [
    new AdminerTablePrefixGroups(
        'adminer-prefix-groups.css',
        null,
        null,
        null,
        '-',
        true
    ),
];

To keep Adminer's text select link instead of the eye icon:

<?php

require_once __DIR__ . '/table-prefix-groups.php';

use Adminer\AdminerTablePrefixGroups;

return [
    new AdminerTablePrefixGroups(
        'adminer-prefix-groups.css',
        null,
        null,
        null,
        '_',
        false
    ),
];

Compatibility Notes

Target:

• Adminer 5.x
• PHP 8.1+
• MySQL/MariaDB/PostgreSQL table lists

A small legacy wrapper is provided for the official adminer:4.8.1-standalone Docker image. Adminer 5.x remains the primary target.

Limitations

• Prefix matching is case-sensitive.
• Only the first separator is used.
• The plugin replaces the sidebar table list, so it may conflict with other plugins that also override tablesPrint().
• Built-in translations are intentionally small and best-effort; override labels through constructor arguments if exact wording matters.

Smoke Test

php -l table-prefix-groups.php
php -l legacy/adminer4-plugin.php
php -l docker/adminer5-plugin.php
php tests/smoke.php

Files

• table-prefix-groups.php - Adminer plugin
• assets/adminer-prefix-groups.css - optional sidebar styling
• docker/adminer5-plugin.php - wrapper for the official Docker image
• examples/ - Docker Compose mount examples
• legacy/adminer4-plugin.php - wrapper for the legacy official Docker image
• tests/smoke.php - lightweight runtime smoke test with Adminer function mocks

License

MIT

Author: KeyffMS / aiteracja.pl