Behavior of "Update" vs. "Update Network", managing 'local' roles

[mynym]

(WP 4.3 Multisite, URE 4.19 Pro)
This is actually two questions…

Question 1:
Hovering over the button “Update Network” shows that pressing this button will
“Update roleS for all network”
(note that the plural of ‘roles’ is being used).

If I press the ‘Update Network’ button while editing a custom role,
a.) will this custom role then automatically be available on all blogs of the network?
b.) what will happen to the setting of all other roles (‘subscribers’ etc., other custom roles), that were ‘locally’ modified on an individual blog? Will these local modifications be overwritten by the settings defined in the main blog, even if I was not editing those roles when pressing ‘Update Network’?

Question 2
I want to define a custom role (“student”) on only one of the blogs in my network. This ‘local’ role shall be able to use a Support System for tickets that I use.
(https://premium.wpmudev.org/project/support-system/)

The support system has a settings page (only as super admin on the main blog) where I can assign the right to use the Support System to different roles.

My problem: If I define the “student” role within the single blog where it is needed, this role will not appear in the list of available roles in the Support System settings page. Therefore I cannot asign the right to use the Support System to this ‘local’ role.

How would I best proceed in this situation to grant access to the Support System to the ‘student’ role?

Thanks for your support
Wolfgang

[Vladimir]

Answer to question 1:
If You press the ‘Update Network’ button while editing a custom role,
1) You save changes of the custom role to the main blog;
2) You overwrite all roles at all other sub-sites of your network with roles from your main blog. Of course after that you will lose all changes made to the roles at subsites.

If you wish to apply to all sites a changes made to the custom role only, go to the main blog “Users”-“User Role Editor”, modify custom role there, click “Apply to All Sites” and then click “Update” button.

P.S. I will try to answer on the question 2 tomorrow.

[mynym]

Hi Vladimir

Thanks for your answer. The procedure you describe would solve my problem, though I would need to add the “student” role to all blogs, even if they are not needed there.

Anyhow, I still have a problem with this procedure: I do not see the “Apply to All Sites” option, when I edit the custom role in the main blog (see screenshot of what I see: https://www.dropbox.com/s/757g8yga9q6dekk/userroleeditor%20options.jpg?dl=0)

Am I missing something…?

Best
Wolfgang

[Vladimir]

Hi Wolfgang,

“Apply to All Sites” checkbox is available for the network activated User Role Editor, opened under Users menu of the main blog dashboard, not via Network admin. And user should be a super admin to see this option. Look on this screenshot:
https://storage.googleapis.com/role-editor/downloads/support/ure-multisite-apply-to-all.png

As I see “Network Update” button at your screenshot above – it was made under Network Admin, where this option is unavailable by design.

Regards,
Vladimir.

[Vladimir]

About your 2nd question
I need this plugin copy to check its code, make tests and try to help you. Send its installation package to the [email protected]
I will use it at my localhost for the testing purpose only.

[mynym]

Hi Vladimir

I used a workaround to solve the issue:
– I added a user with role “student” to the main site of the network, where the plugin settings are managed.
– As a consequence, the role “student” also showed up in the list of roles that the Support System plugin allowed me to assign permissions to use the features.
– Once the “student” role had permission to use the plugin, it also worked on the child blog of the network.

Problem solved, no need for you to dig into the code of the other plugin 🙂 But thanks for offering!

Best
Wolfgang

[Author]

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