WordPress admin menu items access is restricted by special permissions or so-called capabilities. When you build new WordPress user role, it’s useful to know what menu item is restricted by what capability. It is necessary knowledge to add/remove admin submenus from user role via adding/removing correspondent capability.

If you have some PHP knowledge and you are curious enough, you will find the most part of WordPress admin menu definition, including its capabilities, at WordPress core source code. But what to do, if you are not PHP developer? Even me caught myself that it is too tedious open wp-admin/menu.php file and find right piece of code every time in order to get needed capability name for the admin menu item to use it in own plugin or answer on plugin’s user or site visitor questions. Why do not document this? That’s the reason of this post was written. I hope it will be useful not for me only.

Look at the table below for the list of WordPress 3.3 admin menu items capabilities. Use “Index” and “Script” columns for more advance technique in order hide/block not needed menu items.

Submenu	Menu Item	Capability	Index	Script
Dashboard		read	2	index.php
	Home	read	[‘index.php’][0]	index.php
	My Sites	read	[‘index.php’][5]	my-sites.php
	Updates	update_core	[‘index.php’][10]	update-core.php
Posts		edit_posts	5	edit.php
	All Posts	edit_posts	[‘edit.php’][5]	edit.php
	Add New	edit_posts	[‘edit.php’][10]	post-new.php
	Categories	manage_categories	[‘edit.php’][15]	edit-tags.php?taxonomy=category
	Tags	manage_categories	[‘edit.php’][16]	edit-tags.php?taxonomy=post_tag
Media		upload_files	10	upload.php
	Library	upload_files	[‘upload.php’][5]	upload.php
	Add New	upload_files	[‘upload.php’][10]	upload.php
Links		manage_links	15	link-manager.php
	All Links	manage_links	[‘link-manager.php’][5]	link-manager.php
	Add New	manage_links	[‘link-manager.php’][10]	link-add.php
	Link Categories	manage_categories	[‘link-manager.php’][15]	edit-tags.php?taxonomy=link_category
Pages		edit_pages	20	edit.php?post_type=page
	All Pages	edit_pages	[‘edit.php?post_type=page’][5]	edit.php?post_type=page
	Add New	edit_pages	[‘edit.php?post_type=page’][10]	post-new.php?post_type=page
Comments		edit_posts	25	edit-comments.php
Appearance		switch_themes edit_theme_options	60	themes.php
	Themes	switch_themes edit_theme_options	[‘themes.php’][5]	themes.php
	Customize	edit_theme_options	[‘themes.php’][6]	customize.php
	Widgets	edit_theme_options	[‘themes.php’][7]	widgets.php
	Menus	edit_theme_options	[‘themes.php’][10]	nav-menus.php
	Header	edit_theme_options	[‘themes.php’][11]	custom-header
	Background	edit_theme_options	[‘themes.php’][12]	custom-background
	Editor	edit_themes	last	theme-editor.php
Plugins		activate_plugins	65	plugins.php
	Installed Plugins	activate_plugins	[‘plugins.php’][5]	plugins.php
	Add New	install_plugins	[‘plugins.php’][10]	plugin-install.php
	Editor	edit_plugins	[‘plugins.php’][15]	plugin-editor.php
Users		list_users	70	users.php
	All Users	list_users	[‘users.php’][5]	users.php
	Add New	create_users or promote_users	[‘users.php’][10]	user-new.php
	Your Profile	read	[‘users.php’][15]	profile.php
Profile		read	70	profile.php
	Your Profile	read	[‘profile.php’][5]	profile.php
	Add New	create_users or promote_users	[‘profile.php’][10]	user-new.php
Tools		edit_posts	75	tools.php
	Available Tools	edit_posts	[‘tools.php’][5]	tools.php
	Import	import	[‘tools.php’][10]	import.php
	Export	export	[‘tools.php’][15]	export.php
	Delete Site	manage_options	[‘tools.php’][25]	ms-delete-site.php
Settings		manage_options	80	options-general.php
	General	manage_options	[‘options-general.php’][10]	options-general.php
	Writing	manage_options	[‘options-general.php’][15]	options-writing.php
	Reading	manage_options	[‘options-general.php’][20]	options-reading.php
	Discussion	manage_options	[‘options-general.php’][25]	options-discussion.php
	Media	manage_options	[‘options-general.php’][30]	options-media.php
	Privacy	manage_options	[‘options-general.php’][35]	options-privacy.php
	Permalinks	manage_options	[‘options-general.php’][40]	options-permalinks.php

Top level menu items data are stored in the $menu array. Use $menu[index_value] to access it from PHP code.
Submenus data are stored in the $submenu array. Use $submenu[script_name][index_value] to access it from PHP code.
Do not forget to declare global $menu, $submenu; before that.

Tags: WordPress

This entry was posted on Monday, November 14th, 2011 at 12:29 and is filed under WordPress, WordPress Capabilities. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.