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Custom user roles

Sometimes the default roles and capabilities aren’t exactly what you need for your site. If you need to create new roles or modify existing ones, we have helper functions to assist you in doing this. Please use these functions rather than the traditional methods as this will ensure that your code works on WordPress.com and in your development environments.

As an example, here’s how you can register a “Reviewer” role:

add_action( 'init', function() {
    $ver = 42; // bump each time this code is changed
    // check if this has been run already
    if ( $ver <= get_option( 'custom_roles_version' ) {
        return;
    }

    // add a Reviewer role
    wpcom_vip_add_role( 'reviewer', 'Reviewer', array(
        'read' => true,
        'edit_posts' => true,
        'edit_others_posts' => true,
        'edit_private_posts' => true,
        'edit_published_posts' => true,
        'read_private_posts' => true,
        'edit_pages' => true,
        'edit_others_pages' => true,
        'edit_private_pages' => true,
        'edit_published_pages' => true,
        'read_private_pages' => true,
        )
    );

    // update the version to prevent this running again
    update_option( 'custom_roles_version', $ver );
} );

Note: you’ll want to use these helper functions on the ‘init’ hook, and ensure you only run them when the role definitions need to change. An example technique is shown.

You can find all available capabilities in WordPress Codex.

Here are some more examples:

add_action( 'init', function() {
    $ver = 43; // bump each time this code is changed
    // check if this has been run already
    if ( $ver <= get_option( 'custom_roles_version' ) {
        return;
    }
    
    // Add new role
    wpcom_vip_add_role( 'super-editor', 'Super Editor', array( 'level_0' => true ) );

    // Remove publish_posts cap from authors
    wpcom_vip_merge_role_caps( 'author', array( 'publish_posts' => false ) );

    // Remove all caps from contributors
    wpcom_vip_override_role_caps( 'contributor', array( 'level_0' => false ) );

    // Duplicate an existing role and modify some caps
    wpcom_vip_duplicate_role( 'administrator', 'station-administrator', 'Station Administrator',
        array( 'manage_categories' => false ) );

    // Add custom cap to a role
    wpcom_vip_add_role_caps( 'administrator', array( 'my-custom-cap' ) );

    // Remove cap from a role
    wpcom_vip_remove_role_caps( 'author', array( 'publish_posts' ) );

    // update the version to prevent this running again
    update_option( 'custom_roles_version', $ver );
} );

Setting up the ads.txt file

What is ads.txt?

It’s an IAB-approved text file to prevent unauthorized sales of inventory.  You can read more about it on their website: https://iabtechlab.com/ads-txt/

Setting It Up

Since requirements specify that the /ads.txt file must be located in the root domain, we highly recommend to place the ads.txt file in your theme and then, create a rewrite rule for the URL. Here is an example:

// TODO: change `my_theme` prefix to my theme's prefix!
/**
 * Register the rewrite rule for /ads.txt request.
 */
function my_theme_adstxt_rewrite() {
	add_rewrite_rule( '^ads\.txt$', 'index.php?my_theme_adstxt=true', 'top' );
}
add_action( 'init', 'my_theme_adstxt_rewrite', 10 );

/**
 * Filter the list of public query vars in order to allow the WP::parse_request
 * to register the query variable.
 *
 * @param array $public_query_vars The array of whitelisted query variables.
 *
 * @return array
 */
function my_theme_adstxt_query_var( $public_query_vars ) {
	$public_query_vars[] = 'my_theme_adstxt';
	return $public_query_vars;
}
add_filter( 'query_vars', 'my_theme_adstxt_query_var', 10, 1 );

/**
 * Hook the parse_request action and serve the ads.txt when custom query variable is set to 'true'.
 *
 * @param WP $wp Current WordPress environment instance
 */
function my_theme_adstxt_request( $wp ) {
	if ( isset( $wp->query_vars['my_theme_adstxt'] ) && 'true' === $wp->query_vars['my_theme_adstxt'] ) {
		/*
		 * Set proper content-type per specification in
		 * https://iabtechlab.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/IABOpenRTB_Ads.txt_Public_Spec_V1-0-1.pdf :
		 *
		 * The HTTP Content-type should be ‘text/plain’, and all other Content-types should be treated
		 * as an error and the content ignored.
		 */
		header( 'Content-Type: text/plain' );

		// The code expects an existing ads.txt file in the root of your active theme.
		echo file_get_contents( get_stylesheet_directory() . '/ads.txt' );
		exit;
	}
}
add_action( 'parse_request', 'my_theme_adstxt_request', 10, 1 );

On WordPress.com, there should be no need to flush your rewrite rules, as it happens automatically upon deploy. For VIP Go, and in cases where the redirect does not working as expected, please head to VIP > Rewrite Rules and hit the “Flush Rewrite Rules” button.

Note: this is just one way to go about doing so; if there is another way that works better for your theme, feel free to employ it!

If you’d like to be able to modify and validate your ads.txt file from the admin interface, the Ads.txt Manager plugin from VIP Featured Partner 10up allows you to do so, and is approved for use on both WordPress.com VIP and VIP Go.

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