# Admin panel

One of Strapi's main feature is its fully extendable and customizable admin panel. This section explains how the admin panel section is structured and how to customize it.

See the [Contributing Guide](https://github.com/strapi/strapi/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md) for information on how to contribute to Strapi's admin interface.

## Customization

The administration panel can be customized according to your needs, so you can make it reflects your identity.

::: warning
To apply your changes you need to [rebuild](#build) your admin panel
:::

### Change access URL

By default, the administration panel is exposed via [http://localhost:1337/admin](http://localhost:1337/admin). However, for security reasons, you can easily update this path.

**Path —** `./config/environment/**/server.json`.

```json
{
  "host": "localhost",
  "port": 1337,
  "cron": {
    "enabled": false
  },
  "admin": {
    "path": "/dashboard"
  }
}
```

The panel will be available through [http://localhost:1337/dashboard](http://localhost:1337/dashboard) with the configurations above.

---

### Development mode

To enable the front-end development mode you need to start your application using the `--watch-admin` flag.

```bash
cd my-app
strapi develop --watch-admin
```

With this option you can do the following:

#### Customize the `strapi-admin` package

All files added in `my-app/admin/src/` will either be replaced or added

**Example: Changing the available locales of your application**

```bash
# Create both the admin and admin/src/translations folders
cd my-app && mkdir -p admin/src/translations
# Change the available locales of the administration panel
touch admin/src/i18n.js
# Change the import and exports of the translations files
touch admin/src/translations/index.js
```

**Path --** `my-app/admin/src/i18n.js`

```js
import en from './en.json';
import fr from './fr.json';

const trads = {
  en,
  fr,
};

export default trads;
```

**Path --** `my-app/admin/src/i18n.js`

```js
import { addLocaleData } from 'react-intl';
import { reduce } from 'lodash';
import en from 'react-intl/locale-data/en';
import fr from 'react-intl/locale-data/fr';
import trads from './translations';

// We dismiss pt-BR and zh-Hans locales since they are not supported by react-intl
const locales = {
  en,
  fr,
};
const languages = Object.keys(trads);

/**
 * Dynamically generate `translationsMessages object`.
 */
const translationMessages = reduce(
  languages,
  (result, language) => {
    const obj = result;
    obj[language] = trads[language];

    if (locales[language]) {
      addLocaleData(locales[language]);
    }

    return obj;
  },
  {}
);

export { languages, translationMessages };
```

::: note
With this modification only English and French will be available in your admin
:::

#### Customize a plugin

Similarly to the back-end override system any file added in `my-app/extensions/<plugin-name>/admin/` will be copied and used instead of the original one (use with care).

**Example: Changing the current WYSIWYG**

```bash
cd my-app/extensions
# Create the content manager folder
mkdir content-manager && cd content-manager
# Create the admin folder
mkdir -p admin/src
# Create the components folder and the WysiwygWithErrors one
cd admin/src && mkdir -p components/WysiwygWithErrors
# Create the index.js so the original file is overridden
touch components/WysiwygWithErrors/index.js
```

**Path --** `my-app/extensions/content-manager/admin/src/components/WysiwygWithErrors/index.js`

```js
import React from 'react';
import MyNewWYSIWYG from 'my-awesome-lib';

// This is a dummy example
const WysiwygWithErrors = props => <MyNewWYSIWYG {...props} />;

export default WysiwygWithErrors;
```

---

### Styles

The AdminUI package source can be easily found in `./node_modules/strapi-admin/src/`.

For example, to change the top-left displayed admin panel's color, `./node_modules/strapi-admin/admin/src/components/LeftMenuHeader/styles.scss` should be overriden by `./admin/src/components/LeftMenuHeader/styles.scss` with your own styles.

Thus, you are replacing the files that would normally be in `node_modules/strapi-admin/admin/src` and directing them to `admin/src/some/file/path`.

To apply your changes you need to rebuild your admin panel

```
npm run build
```

---

### Logo

To change the top-left displayed admin panel's logo, add your custom image at `./admin/src/assets/images/logo-strapi.png`.

::: note
make sure the size of your image is the same as the existing one (434px x 120px).
:::

### Tutorial videos

To disable the information box containing the tutorial videos, create a file at `./admin/src/config.js`

Add the following configuration:

```js
export const SHOW_TUTORIALS = false;
```

## Build

To build the administration, run the following command from the root directory of your project.

:::: tabs cache-lifetime="10" :options="{ useUrlFragment: false }"

::: tab "yarn" id="yarn-build-dev"

```
yarn build
```

:::

::: tab "npm" id="npm-build-dev"

```
npm run build
```

:::

::: tab "strapi" id="strapi-build-dev"

```
strapi build
```

:::

::::

you can build your admin panel with a specific configuration (located in the `./config/environments/**/server.json`) config by specifying a NODE_ENV as follows:

:::: tabs cache-lifetime="10" :options="{ useUrlFragment: false }"

::: tab "yarn" id="yarn-build-prod"

```
NODE_ENV=production yarn build
```

:::

::: tab "npm" id="npm-build-prod"

```
NODE_ENV=production npm run build
```

:::

::: tab "strapi" id="strapi-build-prod"

```
NODE_ENV=production strapi build
```

:::

::::

This will replace the folder's content located at `./build`. Visit [http://localhost:1337/admin](http://localhost:1337/admin) to make sure your updates have been taken into account.

---

## Deployment

The administration is nothing more than a React front-end application calling an API. The front-end and the back-end are independent and can be deployed on different servers which brings us to different scenarios:

1. Deploy the entire project on the same server.
2. Deploy the administration panel on another server (AWS S3, Azure, etc) than the API.

Let's dive into the build configurations for each case.

#### Deploy the entire project on the same server.

You don't need to touch anything in your configuration file. This is the default behavior and the build configurations will be automatically set. The server will start on the defined port and the administration panel will be accessible through `http://yourdomain.com:1337/dashboard`.

You might want to change the path to access to the administration panel. Here the required configurations to change the path:

**Path —** `./config/environment/**/server.json`.

```js
{
  "host": "localhost",
  "port": 1337,
  "cron": {
    "enabled": false
  },
  "admin": {
    "path": "/dashboard" // We change the path to access to the admin (highly recommended for security reasons).
  }
}
```

**You have to rebuild the administration panel to make this work.** [Build instructions](#build).

#### Deploy the administration panel on another server (AWS S3, Azure, etc) than the API.

It's very common to deploy the front-end and the back-end on different servers. Here the required configurations to handle this case:

**Path —** `./config/environment/**/server.json`.

```js
{
  "host": "localhost",
  "port": 1337,
  "cron": {
    "enabled": false
  },
  "admin": {
    "path": "/", // Note: The administration will be accessible from the root of the domain (ex: http//yourfrontend.com/)
    "build": {
      "backend": "http://yourbackend.com"
    }
  }
}
```

The administration URL will be `http://yourfrontend.com` and every request from the panel will hit the backend at `http://yourbackend.com`.

#### Deploy the administration panel and the plugins on another server than the API

In this case, we suppose that you decided to put your administration panel on a different server than the API.

**Path —** `./config/environment/**/server.json`.

```js
{
  "host": "localhost",
  "port": 1337,
  "cron": {
    "enabled": false
  },
  "admin": {
    "path": "/dashboard",
    "build": {
      "backend": "http://yourbackend.com"
    }
  }
}
```

The administration URL will be `http://yourfrontend.com/dashboard` and every request from the panel will hit the backend at `http://yourbackend.com`.

The generated `index.html` will look like this:

**Path —** `./build/index.html`.

```html
<html lang="en">
  <head></head>
  <body>
    <div id="app"></div>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="/dashboard/runtime~main.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="/dashboard/main.chunk.js"></script>
  </body>
</html>
```