Configuring Roles and Permissions in the Hub

The Hub uses the PublishPress Capabilities plugin to control what each user role can see and do. Each permission is called a capability and has a technical name such as edit_others_posts or bulk_publish_content. These names are hard to read, so this guide explains what the capabilities that matter in the Hub do and how to combine them for common editorial setups.

Who can do this? Only administrators can change roles and capabilities.

You never give capabilities to individual users. You configure a role and then assign that role to users under Users → All Users → (user) → Role.

In the Hub admin menu, open Capabilities:

Tip: Make a backup under Capabilities → Backup before you make large changes.

On the Editing, Deletion and Reading tabs, capabilities are shown as a grid: one column per content type (Posts, Pages, Issues, Dossiers, custom content types) and one row per action (Edit, Edit Others, Publish, …). Each checkbox controls that action for that content type only.

Use capabilities to restrict access. Use the hiding features to declutter the interface.

Three roles come with every Hub:

For anything in between, for example writers who may not publish, create your own role based on one of these (see Recipes). Roles you create appear alongside the three built-in roles and can be assigned to users.

What about Editor, Author, Contributor and Subscriber? These standard WordPress roles, and the SEO Editor / SEO Manager roles added by Yoast SEO, are not available in the Hub. They can't be assigned to users and are not listed under Capabilities → Roles. Users who already have one of these roles keep it and their permissions. You can move them to a Hub role at any time.

Important: The Hub automatically gives the Administrator role all Purple capabilities (app_themes, edit_issues, edit_dossiers, edit_collections, bulk_publish_content, bulk_publish_taxonomies, unfiltered_html, purple_wires, purple_rss) every time an administrator opens the backend. It also always gives Purple Managing Editor edit_theme_options. Removing these does not stick.

Do not delete or rename the Purple Editor or Purple Managing Editor roles. If one of them is missing, the Hub recreates both with their default settings, and your changes to them are lost.

Plugin sections (3.8 onwards) only appear if that plugin is active on your Hub.

The rows below exist once per content type. The name in parentheses is the capability for Posts (articles); other content types use the same pattern with their own name, for example edit_pages or publish_pages.

Custom content types (for example those created under CPT UI) usually share the permissions of Posts. If a content type has no column of its own in the grid, the Posts column applies to it.

Issues and Dossiers do not have a grid of their own. A single capability controls each of them:

One column per taxonomy (Categories, Tags, and any custom taxonomy).

Hub behaviour: A role with Assign but without Edit can pick existing terms in the editor but cannot create new ones, not even by typing a new tag. Use this to keep your taxonomy clean (see Recipes).

The Authors taxonomy (PublishPress Authors) is controlled by its own capabilities instead; see 3.10.

Editing or deleting media that someone else uploaded also requires Edit Others / Delete Others (see 3.1).

activate_plugins, install_plugins, update_plugins, delete_plugins and edit_plugins are reserved for administrators. Do not grant them to editorial roles.

These are the Hub's own features.

Note: Bulk publishing can put a heavy load on the apps and trigger many updates. Give bulk_publish_content and bulk_publish_taxonomies only to a few trusted users.

Only relevant if your Hub uses editorial workflows.

Nelio Content provides the editorial calendar, editorial tasks and social media scheduling.

Connecting or disconnecting the Nelio account and managing the subscription requires manage_options (administrators).

Ninja Tables does not use a capability you can set here. Who may create and edit tables is configured in Ninja Tables' own settings.

This table shows the defaults. Your Hub may have been configured differently.

The following describes a few scenarios that commonly occur in everyday life. It describes how the desired outcome can be reached.

Start from a copy of an existing role rather than from an empty role. An empty role usually lacks basics like read, edit_posts and upload_files, and the user ends up with an empty admin interface.

Copy Purple Editor and, on the Editing and Deletion tabs, uncheck Edit Others and Delete Others for every content type. Also uncheck edit_issues, edit_dossiers and edit_collections in Purple Capabilities if writers shouldn't touch them.

Start from the writer role above and also uncheck Publish, Edit Published and Delete Published. Writers can then only submit their articles for review.

In the Taxonomies tab of the role, keep Assign checked for Tags and uncheck Edit and Delete. Writers can select existing tags, but new ones can only be created by roles that have Edit.

Keep Edit and Edit Others, but uncheck Publish and Edit Published for Posts. These editors prepare content, and a senior editor publishes it.

Copy Purple Editor to a new role and uncheck edit_issues and edit_dossiers in Purple Capabilities. Keep edit_collections.

Assign Purple Managing Editor, or add purple_wires (and/or purple_rss) to their role.

Tick manage_nelio_plugin_settings on the role that should manage Nelio. On every other role with Edit Others, click the X next to manage_nelio_plugin_settings to deny it explicitly. Just unticking is not enough: Nelio only restricts its settings for roles where the capability is explicitly denied.

Use Capabilities → Editor Features to hide sidebar panels the role never needs (for example Discussion or Excerpt). This changes only the interface, not permissions.

If a problem persists, contact Purple support and include the role name and the exact action the user was trying to perform.