Roles - Plugixa Advanced User Role Editor

A role is a named set of permissions. Everyone with the role gets exactly these. The Roles screen lists every role on the site, the ones WordPress ships with and the ones added by you or by plugins, each described in words rather than as a count of capabilities.

A line above the table is a reminder of how the editor works: every change is reviewed before it is saved, and a restore point is taken first, so anything you do here can be undone.

The columns

Column	What it shows
Role	The role’s name, with a WordPress role badge on the five roles WordPress ships with, and an Unsaved badge when you have edits to it waiting
What they can do	A short summary of the role, and a risk badge where one applies
People	How many people have the role, as a link to those people

Click anywhere on a row to open the role’s page.

The summary sentence

The summary is built the same way for every role, so two roles can be compared by reading them. It never lists everything. It answers, in order:

1. Whether the role can take over the site, and through which permission.
2. What content it can publish or edit, for example Can publish and edit everyone’s posts and pages or Can write posts for review, but not publish them.
3. Up to three notable things it can do, such as installing plugins, changing the theme or moderating comments.
4. Up to two things people often assume a role can do and this one cannot.

Three cases have a sentence of their own:

Sentence	When
Can do anything on this site.	The role has full control
Can sign in and manage their own profile.	The role’s only permission is signing in
Cannot do anything on this site yet.	The role has no permissions at all

The badges

Badge	Meaning
WordPress role	One of Administrator, Editor, Author, Contributor or Subscriber
Full control	The role can change site settings, change people’s roles, turn plugins on and off and edit other people’s accounts. It can do anything on the site, including changing who else can
Can take over the site	The role holds at least one permission marked Hands over the site, so one of its permissions leads to administrator access
Unsaved	You have edits to this role in the Unsaved changes bar

A role without a risk badge holds no permission that leads to administrator access.

People counts

The People column shows Nobody for a role no one holds. Otherwise it shows the number of people as a link that opens People filtered to that role.

Counts are refreshed after every change made in the editor, and otherwise cached for a few minutes. On a site where counting has been switched off for speed, the column shows Not counted.

Buttons at the top

Button	What it does
Compare roles	Opens Compare roles
New role	Opens the New role wizard

Duplicate, rename and delete

These are done from the role’s own page. Open the role, then use Duplicate or the More actions menu at the top.

Duplicate

Duplicate opens the New role wizard on the Name step with the role’s permissions loaded and the name set to <Role> copy. Nothing is created until you finish the wizard.

Rename

Rename changes only the name people see. People keep the role, and its permanent name, shown small beside the badges on the role page, does not change. The rename is saved as soon as you confirm it.

Delete

Delete role asks for confirmation.

• If nobody has the role, nothing else changes.
• If people have it, you choose the role they get instead, so nobody is left unable to sign in. Administrator is not offered as the replacement.

A restore point is taken first, and you can bring the role back from History.

Reset to WordPress defaults

For the five WordPress roles, Reset to WordPress defaults puts every WordPress permission back to what a fresh site gives the role. Permissions added by plugins are left alone. The reset is added to your unsaved changes, so nothing is saved until you review it.

What the editor allows and refuses

Action	Rule
Deleting Administrator	Refused. WordPress needs the role, and a site without one cannot be recovered from this screen.
Deleting Editor, Author, Contributor or Subscriber	Allowed
Editing Administrator	Locked by default. The page says Administrator always keeps every permission and Rename, Reset, Add a permission by name and Delete are disabled. Turn on Allow editing the Administrator role in Settings to change it. Duplicate still works.
Deleting a role people hold, without a replacement	Refused
Moving people to a replacement role containing permissions you do not hold	Refused
Resetting a role that is not a WordPress role	Not offered. The menu item reads Reset (WordPress roles only).
Two roles with the same name	Refused when creating a role

What to do next

• Change what a role can do in Editing a role.
• Make a new one in Creating a role.
• Bring a deleted role back in History and restore.