Say Hello to Version 2.0 of the Permissions Add-on

Version 2.0 of the Permissions add-on is now available.

This is a major update, so I'll give you a detailed overview of what the add-on does and what has changed.

What is the Permissions add-on?

The Permissions add-on allows you to edit WordPress permissions related to publishing. Permissions gives you a single screen where you can control all aspects of what users can publish on your WordPress site.

This is a lightweight plugin that's easy-to-use and focuses exclusively on permissions related to publishing.

It's not designed to be a comprehensive plugin for all the permissions in WordPress. There are some really great plugins that do that already.

What changed in version 2.0 of Permissions?

There are three big changes in this release:

  1. Improved layout.
  2. The ability to edit core WordPress publishing permissions.
  3. Increased compatibility with other permissions plugins.

Change #1. Improved Layout

Permissions 2.0 has moved to a 2-column layout. Groups of Permissions are in the left column, and the Permissions are in the right column. We made this move so that it's visually easier to read and understand the options. The image below shows the new layout:

In the image above, you can see the new layout, plus the capabilities you can give to different user roles:

Change #2. Core WordPress permisisons

The Permissions add-on now makes it easy to see the default WordPress capabilities that are related to publishing. We made this change to give you full control over what your users can and cannot publish on your WordPress site.

PublishPress will now expose the publishing permissions for Posts, Pages and other post types. This image below shows the core capabilities for Posts, as you'll see them in the Permissions add-on.

Change #3. Increased compatibility

PublishPress is based on another WordPress plugin called Edit Flow.

Edit Flow was a wonderful plugin, but many of the key features were implemented in 2009 / 2010. For example, Edit Flow/PublishPress had its own approach to user roles, and that caused compatibility problems with other plugins. Two weeks ago, we updated PublishPress to fix that.

This new update fixes a similar problem with permissions. Edit Flow/PublishPress has its own approach to permissions and was causing compatiblity problems too.

The Permissions add-on is now 100% compatible with most other WordPress user management plugins.

Permissions now relies on the default WordPress option for user roles, which is the wp_user_roles in the wp_options database table. The screenshot below shows how the permissions are stored in the database.

This change means that you can save settings in the Permissions plugin and they will be automatically recognized by any other plugin that uses wp_user_roles. For example, you can safely use the Permissions add-on alongside Members, Restrict Content Pro, MemberPress and others.

What comes next?

The changes over the last two weeks have opened the door for much bigger changes to come.

PublishPress customers have asked for much more detailed and granular permissions. For example:

  • “Can I control who edits content in each post status?”
  • “Can I control who can publish revisions?”

The good news is that these changes allow us to solve these requests.

Please let us know if you have any questions about these changes: [email protected]. We love to hear from you!

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