WordPress Roles
WordPress Roles and Capabilities
WordPress uses the Role concept, which provides site owners to control what users can and cannot do. A site owner manages user tasks such as writing and editing tasks, managing content, creating pages, managing plugins, creating categories, moderating comments, and managing other users.
It has six predefined roles, which are given below:
- Super Admin
- Administrator
- Editor
- Author
- Contributor
- Subscriber
Each role can conduct a set of tasks that’s called Capabilities. There are various capabilities available, such as “moderate_comments”, “edit_users”, and “publish_posts”. Each role is pre-assigned to the default capability set, but additional capabilities could be added or removed using the added cap() function and remove cap() function.
What is WordPress Roles?
A Role is defined as a collection of tasks that can be performed by the user. By default, there are several predefined positions with predefined permissions in a WordPress installationM.a<. For example, a super admin role includes any possible task that may be performed in a virtual WordPress site. The administrator’s role limits the permitted tasks to those who can affect a single site. Now, we are going to discuss the six pre-defined roles that are used in WordPress.
1. Super Admin
By default, Super Admins have all Multisite capabilities. It can access the features of site network management and all other features. The following are the Multisite capabilities that are available only for Super Admins:
- Create sites
- Delete sites
- Manage networks and Sites
- Manage network users
- Manage network plugins
- Manage network themes
- Manage network options
- Setup network
- Upgrade network
In the case of a single WordPress site, installation is effective in Super Admins. They are the only ones who have access to additional capabilities of admin.
2. Administration
In WordPress, Administration is a user role. A user with an administration role may add and remove the other users with the same role. When an Administration role is assigned to a user, it is important to note that the Administration can delete content. The first user is assigned an administrator user role. On a WordPress platform, users can perform all the actions, and they have full capabilities.
The Administration is a user role that can upgrade a blog of WordPress. Using the built-in theme editor, the user may update themes and edit WordPress files. Users also can add, remove, and modify any plugin on the site in the same method.
There is only a single administrator in most cases. In the case of multisite installations, some admin role capabilities are assigned to the super admin role. The super admin role can install and remove plugins, add new users, modify the theme, and manage the website network, while the admin role is only about single website management.
3. Editor
The term Editor in WordPress may refer to a predefined user role in WordPress’s user management system. Users with the editor feature can edit, publish, write, and delete posts. Users may also edit, moderate, and remove comments. Users may handle categories, tags, custom taxonomies and upload files as well. A user with Editor rights also can read private pages and posts.
Since editors may delete posts, including those already published, it is strongly recommended that the user may only assign that role to the user on which we can trust. Also, remember in mind that the user roles in WordPress can add or remove capabilities. So, if we are not sure of giving this much control on our website to a user, we can change the user’s role to meet our needs. The editor has the ability to anyone can publish and manage the posts, including the other user’s posts.
4. Author
The term author in WordPress refers to the user’s predefined role. Users with author roles can write, edit, upload, delete and post their articles. We may also update our profile and change our passwords. Since users with the author’s role may remove their published posts and edit their own published documents. So, sites with multiple authors usually assign authors a contributor position or use a feature to build a user role with customized capabilities.
Many websites often provide author pages to writers with biographical information about themselves. Typically, it is achieved by the author’s built-in archive pages that provide a list of all posts.
We may also show custom information about them by configuring the pages to show such information. That may include items like name, birth date, place, social media, and more.
5. Contributor
Contributor is one of the most user roles in WordPress’s predefined capabilities. On a WordPress website, a user with a contributor function can edit and remove their own posts, but they can’t remove posts. It makes the contributor role an ideal choice for WordPress website owners who wish to permit other users to come and write to their websites. Plugins are available that give website administrators more control over each user role’s capabilities.
6. Subscriber
The subscriber provides the ability to manage the profile only. In WordPress, a subscriber may refer to a user role. Usually, the user role of the subscriber has minimal capabilities. In all WordPress user roles, the subscriber’s user role is very limited until the default capabilities are updated. Users can build and manage their profile on a WordPress website, but not write or publish posts. It ensures that users have the minimal right to edit the WordPress database since users can log in and make profile adjustments to the WordPress dashboard. As with the other user roles, this role’s default capabilities can be changed.
The subscriber role permits the users to sign in to a WordPress website with default settings and leave comments without entering their information at any time. This role is useful to people who read a blog regularly and actively comments on it. It may leave comments on a blog very simpler and faster.