WordPress is a powerful and flexible platform that allows you to create and run different types of websites. However, not every user on your website needs the same level of access and control. That’s why WordPress has a built-in system of user roles and permissions that lets you define what each user can and cannot do on your website.

User roles are predefined sets of capabilities or permissions that determine what actions a user can perform on your website. For example, an administrator can do anything on the website, while a subscriber can only manage their own profile. WordPress comes with six default user roles: super admin, administrator, editor, author, contributor, and subscriber. Each role has a different set of capabilities that you can see in the infographic below.

However, sometimes you may need to create custom user roles or modify the existing ones to suit your specific needs. For instance, you may want to create a new role for guest bloggers who can only write and edit their own posts, but not publish them. Or you may want to limit the access of editors to certain features or plugins on your website.

In this guide, we will show you how to create and manage WordPress user roles and permissions using two methods: using a plugin or using code. We will also share some best practices and tips for managing user roles and permissions on your WordPress website.

Method 1: Using a Plugin

One of the easiest ways to create and manage WordPress user roles and permissions is by using a plugin. There are many plugins available that can help you with this task, but one of the most popular and powerful ones is User Role Editor2. This plugin allows you to create custom user roles, edit existing ones, add or remove capabilities, assign multiple roles to users, and more.

To use this method, follow these steps:

  • Install and activate the User Role Editor plugin from your WordPress dashboard.
  • Go to Users > User Role Editor in your WordPress dashboard. You will see a screen where you can select a user role from the drop-down menu and view its capabilities.
  • To create a new user role, click on the Add Role button at the top. You will need to enter a role name, display name, and copy capabilities from an existing role (optional).
  • To edit an existing user role, select it from the drop-down menu and check or uncheck the capabilities that you want to add or remove. You can also use the Select All or Unselect All buttons to quickly select or deselect all capabilities.
  • To delete an existing user role, select it from the drop-down menu and click on the Delete button at the top. You will need to confirm your action and assign another role to the users who have the deleted role.
  • To assign multiple roles to a user, go to Users > All Users in your WordPress dashboard. Hover over the user’s name and click on Edit. Scroll down to the User Role Editor section and check the roles that you want to assign to the user.
  • To apply changes, click on the Update button at the bottom.

Method 2: Using Code

Another way to create and manage WordPress user roles and permissions is by using code. This method requires some basic knowledge of PHP and WordPress functions. You can use code snippets to add custom user roles, modify existing ones, or remove unwanted ones.

To use this method, follow these steps:

  • Create a child theme for your WordPress website if you don’t have one already. This will prevent your changes from being overwritten by theme updates.
  • Open the functions.php file of your child theme in a code editor.
  • To add a new user role, use the add_role() function3. For example, the following code snippet will create a new user role called guest_blogger with the capabilities of writing and editing their own posts:

// Add guest blogger role function fsg_add_guest_blogger_role() { add_role( ‘guest_blogger’, ‘Guest Blogger’, array( ‘read’ => true, ‘edit_posts’ => true, ‘delete_posts’ => true, ) ); } add_action( ‘init’, ‘fsg_add_guest_blogger_role’ );

// Remove publish posts capability from editors function fsg_remove_publish_posts_from_editors() { $editor = get_role( ‘editor’ ); $editor->remove_cap( ‘publish_posts’ ); } add_action( ‘init’, ‘fsg_remove_publish_posts_from_editors’ );

  • To delete an existing user role, use the remove_role() function. For example, the following code snippet will delete the contributor role:

// Delete contributor role function fsg_delete_contributor_role() { remove_role( ‘contributor’ ); } add_action( ‘init’, ‘fsg_delete_contributor_role’ );

  • To assign multiple roles to a user, use the wp_update_user() function along with the get_user_by() function. For example, the following code snippet will assign the editor and author roles to a user with the email address example@example.com:

// Assign multiple roles to a user function fsg_assign_multiple_roles_to_user() { $user = get_user_by( ‘email’, ‘example@example.com’ ); wp_update_user( array( ‘ID’ => $user->ID, ‘role’ => ‘editor’, ) ); $user->add_role( ‘author’ ); } add_action( ‘init’, ‘fsg_assign_multiple_roles_to_user’ );

  • Save and upload your functions.php file to your website.

Conclusion:

WordPress user roles and permissions are an important aspect of managing your website. They allow you to control what each user can and cannot do on your website. WordPress comes with six default user roles, but you can also create custom user roles or modify the existing ones to suit your specific needs.

In this guide, we showed you how to create and manage WordPress user roles and permissions using two methods: using a plugin or using code. We also shared some best practices and tips for managing user roles and permissions on your WordPress website.

We hope this guide has helped you learn how to create and manage WordPress user roles and permissions. If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to leave a comment below.

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