Adding a ‘Client’ User Role to WordPress

In an effort to make a better boilerplate my co-worker Jim Floss and I set out to create a new User Role inside our WordPress client sites. This role closely resembles the Editor role and Admin role but allows us to turn different functionality on a per-client basis if need be, but by default locks them out of many things such as updates and plugins. I didn’t see much information on cloning a role and removing functionality online so I figured I would put it up here! Enjoy.

/**
* Adds a 'Client' user role
* https://codex.wordpress.org/Roles_and_Capabilities
*/
 
add_action('init', 'add_client_role');

function add_client_role() {
global $wp_roles;
if ( ! isset( $wp_roles ) )
$wp_roles = new WP_Roles();

//Adding a 'new_role' with all admin caps
$wp_roles->add_role('client', 'Client', $adm->capabilities);
}

add_action('init', 'revoke_client_capabilities', 10);

function revoke_client_capabilities() {
	$caps_to_remove = array(
	'update_core',
	'activate_plugins',
	'install_plugins',
	'update_plugin',
	'edit_plugins',
	'edit_themes',
	'export',
	'import',
	'create_users',
	'manage_options',
	'switch_themes' // etc
	);
	$custom_role = get_role('client'); // Edit according to your role as it was declared when added
	foreach($caps_to_remove as $cap) {
	$custom_role->remove_cap($cap);
	}
}