Remember whatever code is shown below, you must add it to the functions.php which is present in your theme.

1. Removing WordPress update notifications

It is very unprofessional to show your users,  “New wordpress versions are available. Please update it”. As a site owner, you may want to hide this notice to users.

//disable wordpress version update
function hide_update_notice() {
remove_action( 'admin_notices', 'update_nag', 3 );
}
add_action( 'admin_notices', 'hide_update_notice', 1 );

2. Custom WordPress Notifications for Users

You may want to put up custom notification or warnings to your users, when they login to the wordpress user area.  This code will show custom message, within a yellow box on top.

//my custom admin notice
add_action('admin_notices', 'admin_notice');

function admin_notice(){
if(current_user_can('contributor')) {
echo '<div>
<p>We only approve unique high quality news content. No spamming please.. </p>
</div>';
}

}

3. Remove Powered by WordPress in Footer

You dont want to show, powered by wordpress in the footer of your user interface. Make changes to it, using the following code

// Remove Powered by WordPress.org
function modify_footer_admin () {
echo 'Example.com - My Account Section';
}

add_filter('admin_footer_text', 'modify_footer_admin');

4. Show only User Specific Posts

The biggest problem i faced is wordpress by default, shows ALL posts to user, in the admin area.  ALL posts means even posts submitted by other users/authors, of course in read only mode.  Further wordpress shows total counts of all posts (pending, published, all, drafts) present in the entire blog. This is totally unacceptable and it may present a security risk. You dont want to reveal entire list of blog posts to your users. The solution is to show posts, submitted by the user who is currently logged in and remove all post counts etc.. This is the key to design a best user interface.

Note: I have designated the default user role as “contributor” when they register. You may want to change this, depending on what user role you set, for example author.

This code will only show posts submitted by author/user, who is currently logged in:

//user specific posts in admin area
function posts_for_current_author($query) {

if(current_user_can('contributor') && is_admin()) {

global $user_ID;
$query->set('author',  $user_ID);
}
return $query;
}
add_filter('pre_get_posts', 'posts_for_current_author');

This post will hide the number counts in brackets:

// remove pending published above table.
function jquery_remove_counts()
{

if(current_user_can('contributor')) {

?>
<script type="text/javascript">
jQuery(function(){
jQuery("li.all").remove();
jQuery("li.publish").find("span.count").remove();
jQuery("li.trash").find("span.count").remove();
jQuery("li.pending").find("span.count").remove();

});
</script>
<?php }
}
add_action('admin_footer', 'jquery_remove_counts');

5. Cleanup the Dashboard

Remove the dashboard widgets like incoming links, drafts, plugins, recent comments etc in the user dashboard area.

function remove_dashboard_widgets(){
global$wp_meta_boxes;
unset($wp_meta_boxes['dashboard']['normal']['core']['dashboard_plugins']);
unset($wp_meta_boxes['dashboard']['normal']['core']['dashboard_recent_comments']);
unset($wp_meta_boxes['dashboard']['side']['core']['dashboard_primary']);
unset($wp_meta_boxes['dashboard']['normal']['core']['dashboard_incoming_links']);
unset($wp_meta_boxes['dashboard']['normal']['core']['dashboard_right_now']);
unset($wp_meta_boxes['dashboard']['side']['core']['dashboard_recent_drafts']);
unset($wp_meta_boxes['dashboard']['side']['core']['dashboard_secondary']);
}

add_action('wp_dashboard_setup', 'remove_dashboard_widgets');
remove_action('init', 'wp_version_check');

6. Custom Logo for Login Area

Why not remove the default wordpress logo and replace it with your own website logo for the login area for your users. Use this code for the custom logo. Be sure to put admin_logo.png in the theme folder inside the images directory.

// add admin logo
function my_custom_login_logo()
{
echo '<style  type="text/css"> h1 a {  background-image:url('.get_bloginfo('template_directory').'/images/admin_logo.png)  !important; } </style>';
}
add_action('login_head',  'my_custom_login_logo');

7.  Replacing Dashboard title with custom text

When ever the user logs in to the dashboard, they will see “Dashboard”  in the landing page, which wordpress shows as default. You may want to change this to My Blog – My Account” or something like that…using the following code…

function change_wp_login_title()
{
echo get_option('blogname') . "- Account Section";
}

add_filter('login_headertitle', 'change_wp_login_title');

8. Assigning Specific Permissions

This is the most important part in the user interface on how and what permissions you give to your users. For example, if you select contributor as the default user role, you can give permission to them only to edit, delete their posts and NOT publish posts. You as admin, may want to review posts and publish them.  Amazingly you can accomplish them with few lines of magic code..

Note: I have assigned the default user role as “contributor”.  You may want to change this role accordingly on what you set when users register.

function add_permissions_contributor() {

$role = get_role('contributor'); // first get the role of user.
//$role->add_cap('edit_published_posts'); //allow editing published posts
//$role->add_cap('delete_posts'); // allow deleting published posts
$role->remove_cap('publish_posts');  // prevent publishing posts
$role->remove_cap('edit_others_posts');  // prevent editing others posts
}

add_action('admin_init','add_permissions_contributor');

9. Using Plugins to Tweak Further

You can use plugins like adminimize to further clean up dashboard items like quickpress, without touching the code. You can also add custom menus in your user interface using plugins like Admin menu editor. Dashboard landing page can also be customized to include products/services in the user area.

• Adminimize – wordpress.org/extend/plugins/adminimize/
• Admin menu Editor – wordpress.org/extend/plugins/admin-menu-editor/
• White label CMS – http://www.videousermanuals.com/white-label-cms/
• Dashboard post-it – http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/dashboard-post-it/

1. Create a php file named “login-protect.php” in your current theme folder.

2. Place the following code in this file

<?php /*   Template Name:  Login Protect Template */ ?>
<?php get_header() ; ?>
<?php auth_redirect(); // checks to see if logged in else redirect ?>
<!-- HERE GOES HTML AND CSS DEPENDING ON YOUR THEME -->

<?php get_footer(); ?>

3. Go create a post, set the template to “Login Protected Template”  (will show up)

4. Directly write the content and publish it.

There is one more alternative to check logins is use

if (!is_user_logged_in()) {
wp_redirect("/wp-login.php");
}

Thats it! Your login protected page is ready.

Having spent whole day banging my head on the wall, i found this simple code, does the job. Put this code in your theme function.php file or create your own plugin.

My users are set on “contributor” role by default.

keep in mind the hook edit_posts, runs, when a user submits a post for review (pending). This is for contributor role. For author role, the hook publish_posts runs when authors submit posts for review.

I created a separate payment page, which i had links for paypal and 2checkout. The code checks to make sure only those users under “contributor” role (not admins) will get redirected to payment page, upon submitting a post for review.

add_action('edit_post','payment_redirect');

function payment_redirect($post_id) {
global $wpdb;
if ( current_user_can('contributor') ) {
wp_redirect("http://example.com/paypal/");
exit;
}
return $post_id;
}

Hope this helps!

Permissions, are otherwise called “capabilities” in wordpress, depending on user role. For example “subscribers” can only read in your website and cannot submit posts. Similarly “contributors” cannot delete/edit posts once published by admin.

The best plugin i have seen to customize user panel permission is adminimize. Be sure to play around with this plugin.

Be sure to read this: http://codex.wordpress.org/Roles_and_Capabilities

The good news is you alter the user permissions, which wordpress assigns by default. You may allow contributors permission to delete and edit posts even after they are published. It is so easy and can be done with just 2 lines of code.

Go to your theme folders function.php,  and place the below code and this will alter permission to all your users in the admin area. You could even use this code in your plugin.

This code runs, when admin_init hook is called during load of admin section.

function change_user_permissions() {

$role = get_role( 'contributor' ); // gets the author role

$role->add_cap( 'edit_others_posts' ); //edit others' posts for current theme only
$role->add_cap( 'edit_posts' ); // edit own posts
$role->add_cap('delete_posts'); // delete own posts
$role->add_cap('publish_posts'); // publish own posts

$role->remove_cap('edit_posts'); //removes the permission set before
$role->remove_cap('delete_posts'); // delete own posts
}

add_action( 'admin_init', 'change_user_permissions');
 

For complete list of user capability functions, see: http://codex.wordpress.org/Roles_and_Capabilities