Flex Explorer
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A lightweight, read-only file browser for WordPress. Browse folders and view files inside wp-content from the admin.
Flex Explorer adds a simple, read-only file browser to the WordPress admin. It
lets administrators look through the contents of the wp-content directory and
preview text files and images without leaving wp-admin or opening an FTP client.
It never modifies your site: it cannot create, edit, upload, rename, move or
delete files. You can download an individual file, or a whole folder as a ZIP,
for offline viewing, and the originals are always left untouched. Every request is
restricted to the wp-content directory, is limited to administrators, and is
verified with a nonce.
Features
- Browse folders inside
wp-contentwith a breadcrumb path. - List files and folders with size and last-modified date.
- Search filenames in the current folder and everything below it.
- Preview text and code files inline (up to 2 MB).
- Preview common images (JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP, BMP, ICO) inline (up to 5 MB).
- Download any single file, or the current folder packaged as a ZIP.
- Uses the jQuery bundled with WordPress and plain CSS — no build step, no external libraries.
Security
- Access is limited to users with the
manage_optionscapability. - On multisite, access is further restricted to network super admins, since a
per-site administrator should not be able to read the shared
wp-contenttree. - If the site defines
DISALLOW_FILE_EDITas true, Flex Explorer disables itself (including its admin menu) to respect that lockdown. - All AJAX requests are nonce-verified.
- Every path is resolved with
realpath()and confined to thewp-contentdirectory; path traversal and symlink escapes are rejected. wp-config.php,.htaccessand.htpasswdcan never be viewed or downloaded, and are skipped when building a ZIP.- Downloads are always sent as attachments (
application/octet-stream) so the browser never renders file contents inline. - ZIP archives are bounded (file count and total size) and skip symlinks so a large or looping tree cannot exhaust server resources.