Readministrator (Read Only Administrator)

Contributors: dhanendran Tags: read only, admin, administrator, options, settings Requires at least: 4.7 Tested up to: 7.0 Requires PHP: 7.0 Stable tag: 1.0.1 License: GPLv3 or later License URI: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html

A read-only administrator role — users can view the entire wp-admin like an admin but cannot change anything.

== Description == Readministrator adds a "Read Only Administrator" role. Assign it to a user and they can browse the entire wp-admin like an administrator — Settings, Users, Plugins, Themes, content, comments and more — but they cannot change anything. Every write is blocked at the capability layer.

What read-only administrators can do:

• View every admin screen an administrator can see.
• Browse Settings, Tools, Users, Plugins, Themes and content lists.
• Run a read-only export.

What they cannot do:

• Save any Settings page (core or plugin Settings API).
• Create, edit, publish, trash or delete posts, pages or media.
• Add, edit, delete or promote users (including editing their own profile).
• Activate, deactivate, install, update, delete or edit plugins.
• Switch, install, update, delete or edit themes.
• Edit menus, widgets or the Customizer.
• Moderate or edit comments.
• Make changes through the REST API (the block editor included).

= Known limitations =

Enforcement covers core write paths plus the REST API. A small residual surface remains: some third-party plugins that perform writes through their own custom admin-ajax/admin-post handlers, and Network Admin (multisite) screens, are not yet covered. These are on the roadmap.

== Installation ==

= From your WordPress dashboard =

1. Visit 'Plugins > Add New'
2. Search for Readministrator (Read Only Administrator)
3. Activate Readministrator (Read Only Administrator) from your Plugins page.

= From WordPress.org =

1. Download Readministrator (Read Only Administrator).
2. Upload the 'readministrator-read-only-administrator' directory to your '/wp-content/plugins/' directory, using your favorite method (ftp, sftp, scp, etc...)
3. Activate Readministrator (Read Only Administrator) from your Plugins page.

== Changelog ==

= 1.0.1 =

• [Fix] Fixed a fatal error ("Call to undefined function is_user_logged_in()") that could lock you out of wp-admin. The option-save guard could run before WordPress loaded its pluggable functions — for example when another plugin saved an option early during load. The check now bails safely until those functions are available.

= 1.0.0 =

• [Feature] Read Only Administrators are now genuinely read-only across the whole admin, not just nine core settings pages. Writes are blocked at the capability layer (user_has_cap / map_meta_cap), with additional guards for option saves, the REST API, and classic write actions (plugins, themes, menus, widgets, comments).
• [Improvement] The role now stores only a safe Editor baseline; the elevated "view everything" capabilities are granted at runtime, so deactivating the plugin downgrades the role to a plain Editor instead of leaving stranded permissions.
• [Improvement] Role capabilities re-sync automatically on update (no reactivation needed).
• [Improvement] A persistent read-only notice now appears on every admin screen.

= 0.0.2 =

• [Fix] The readministrator role is now removed on uninstall instead of on deactivation, so temporarily deactivating the plugin no longer destroys the role or strips assigned users.
• [Fix] Plugin stylesheet now loads only in the admin and only for Read Only Administrator users (previously enqueued on every front-end and admin request).

= 0.0.1 =

• Initial release.