How to Create User Roles in WordPress Blogs

In this tutorial we are going to cover how to add users and give them their roles in WordPress. WordPress began as a blogging platform. As such, the default user roles present in WordPress are blog centric roles.

In order to begin creating users and give them roles, you need to first understand the different roles that are present in WordPress and the privileges that come with each role. Here is a simple list of all the roles and the privileges that come with them.

  1. Administrator:

The user who has the admin role can do just about anything on the website. They can install plugins, themes, add and delete all content and even create or delete other users. The role of administrator is of the highest priority, so we would urge you to give this role to people who you can completely trust your website with.

  1. Editor:

The position of editor is just below that of the admin. They can edit all content and add or delete media. They can even edit, publish or delete posts of other users. However they cannot change the themes, install plugins or add or delete other users on the website.

  1. Author:

The author role gives the users the power to add their own posts, edit them and delete them and publish them as well. They have no power over other user’s posts.

  1. Contributor:

Users with the contributor role can add their own posts and edit them as well. But they do not have the power to publish their posts. They also have no power over the posts of other users.

  1. Subscribers:

The role of the subscriber comes with the least power. They get updates about the latest posts and they can only comment on posts, download content and maintain their own profile. But that is just about it.

 

Steps to add users and give them roles

Step 1: Click on the “Users” tab on the left hand side options on the dashboard page.

users menu options

 

Step 2: Click on “Add New”

You will be lead to a page that looks like this:

 add new users

Simply fill in the form with the details about the user. The Username, email, password and role entries are all required. It is up to your discretion if you wish to fill in the other options.

You need to ensure that the email address is correct as the users will receive their password information as well as other notification from this email address.

If you wish to not create a password for every user, then you can install a password generator plugin that will automatically generate a password for each user that you create.

The last option in this form is to assign a role. Simply click on the dropdown menu and you can easily select the role that you want to assign to the new user.

Click on “Add New User” and you have successfully created a new user for your website.

Profile View:

Users who wish to update their profile can simply log in to their WordPress account click on Users>> View Profile. They will be led to a page that looks like this:

admin profile details

 

You or users on your website can edit these details whenever you want.

 Users’ Dashboard View:

The admin of the WordPress can view all the users for his website through this dashboard view:

users dashboard

With this dashboard view the admin can change user roles, or delete users in bulk. He can even search for specific users and have a separate view of users based on their roles.

For more adventurous users there are the options to create custom users roles that gel well with the needs of their websites. These tricks are well suited for advanced WordPress users. We will cover the steps to create custom roles in the next tutorial.

If you need assistance in creating complex WordPress websites that require technical expertise then you can get in touch with us at www.phoeniixx.com and we can assist you with our web development services.