About this plugin
BBA User Role Manager is a focused WordPress user role manager for administrators who need to create custom roles without editing code.
New roles begin with the current Subscriber capabilities, providing a safe baseline that can be expanded through the plugin’s grouped capability editor.
The role directory displays every role registered on the site. Roles created by BBA User Role Manager can be managed or deleted, while WordPress core roles and roles created by other plugins remain protected and read-only.
Key Features
- Create Custom Roles: Add WordPress user roles with unique role keys and readable display names.
- Safe Starting Permissions: Initialize new roles with the site’s current Subscriber capabilities.
- Focused Capability Editor: Manage selected post, page, media, category, and site capabilities.
- Complete Role Directory: Review WordPress core, plugin-managed, and third-party roles together.
- Protected Core Roles: Keep Administrator, Editor, Author, Contributor, and Subscriber read-only.
- Protected Third-Party Roles: View roles created by other plugins without taking ownership of them.
- Safe Role Deletion: Reassign affected users to Subscriber before deleting a managed role.
- WordPress-Native Security: Restrict administrative actions using capabilities, nonces, validation, sanitization, and escaping.
- Privacy-Friendly: No telemetry, external services, tracking, or frontend output.
- Translation-Ready: Includes a POT translation template for the published WordPress.org text domain.
Available Capability Groups
- Posts: Create or edit own posts, publish posts, edit others’ posts, delete own or others’ posts, and read private posts.
- Pages: Create or edit own pages, publish pages, edit others’ pages, and delete own or others’ pages.
- Media: Upload files to the WordPress Media Library.
- Categories and Tags: Manage categories and tags.
- Site Management: Edit theme options and manage site settings.
Important: The manage_options capability provides access to sensitive WordPress settings and should only be granted to highly trusted users.
Designed for Safe Ownership Boundaries
BBA User Role Manager only edits and deletes roles created through this plugin.
WordPress core roles and roles registered by WooCommerce, membership plugins, themes, or custom code remain read-only. Source labels for third-party roles are informational and never establish ownership.
Privacy
BBA User Role Manager does not collect analytics, send telemetry, contact external services, or transmit personal information.
How to Use
Creating a custom role
- Open BBA User Role Manager.
- Find Add Custom User Role.
- Enter a display name, such as Event Organizer.
- Enter a unique lowercase role key, such as event_organizer.
- Select Add Role.
- Confirm that the role appears under Managed by this plugin.
Use permanent, descriptive role keys containing lowercase letters, numbers, and underscores. Avoid WordPress core role keys and keys already registered by another plugin.
Managing capabilities
- Locate the role under Managed by this plugin.
- Select Manage Capabilities.
- Enable only the capabilities required by the role.
- Select Save Capabilities.
- Test the result with a separate non-administrator account.
The basic read capability is always preserved so assigned users can sign in.
Assigning a role to a user
- Open Users > All Users.
- Edit the intended user.
- Select the custom role in the Role setting.
- Save the user profile.
Deleting a custom role
- Open BBA User Role Manager.
- Locate the plugin-managed role.
- Select Delete and confirm the action.
Users assigned to the deleted role are automatically moved to Subscriber before the role is removed.
Understanding the role directory
- Role Display Name: The user-facing role name.
- Role Key: The permanent technical identifier used by WordPress.
- Source: WordPress Core, BBA User Role Manager, or a likely third-party source.
- Access: Whether the role is manageable or read-only.
- Actions: Capability-management and deletion controls for plugin-owned roles.
Support
org support forum.
Additional plugin information is available on the BBA User Role Manager project page.