User Upgrade Capability Now with Roles

User Upgrade Capability has been with us for a few years now and I often pull it out of the bag whenever I’m extending an existing WordPress site by adding a new functionality or area for users.

The steps are simple, copy of the primary site using Blog Copier and then point back to the primary site. There’s no need to concern the site Adminitrator with controlling another site user group.  Admins simply control access from the primary site by granting roles and capabilities there.

I’ve liked the way User Upgrade Capability has just worked.  However, its never really had the full flexibility I’ve wanted till now.   The next update will now include Roles from the primary site to be “Key Roles” allowing users registered on the primary site with any “Key Role” to gain access to the new site.

The decision in adding Roles has come from experience, Roles are just more commonly used, understandable and hide the individual capabilities from the Administrator of the site.  With the update any Key Role gets its own set of local roles added to the user on entry to the subsite.

Not wanting to stop there in adding new functionality this new flexibility has been added to Capabilities too, we are no longer tide to one “Key Capability” you can define whatever you need.  Also the helpful Join My Multisite  plugin is now no longer required as it doesn’t match the new flexibility of User Upgrade Capability.

So in summary its just got a whole lot more helpful! If you want a peak at the new settings head over to the WordPress Repository, we plan to release the update in November.