<?php

/*
* Appearance permissions: edit Appearance menu for selected roles
*
*/

class AppearancePermissions {

// roles to which allow the Appearance menu
private $allowed_roles = array(‘editor’);
// allowed items from Appearance menu
private $allowed_items = array(
‘widgets.php’,
‘nav-menus.php’
);
// capabilities required by WordPress to access to the menu items above
private $required_capabilities = array(
‘edit_theme_options’
);

private $prohibited_items = array();

public function __construct() {

add_filter(‘user_has_cap’, array($this, ‘add_required_caps’), 10, 4);
add_action(‘admin_head’, array($this, ‘remove_appearance_menu_items’), 10);
add_action(‘admin_head’, array($this, ‘appearance_redirect’), 10);
add_action(‘wp_head’, array($this, ‘hide_admin_bar’));
}

protected function user_has_allowed_role($user) {
foreach($user->roles as $role) {
if (in_array($role, $this->allowed_roles)) {
return true;
}
}

return false;
}
// end of user_has_allowed_role()

public function add_required_caps($allcaps, $caps, $args, $user) {
if (!$this->user_has_allowed_role($user)) {
return $allcaps;
}

remove_filter(‘user_has_cap’, array($this, ‘add_required_caps’), 10, 4);
foreach($this->required_capabilities as $cap) {
if (!$user->has_cap($cap)) {
$allcaps[$cap] = true;
}
}
add_filter(‘user_has_cap’, array($this, ‘add_required_caps’), 10, 4);

return $allcaps;
}
// end of add_required_capabilities()

/**
* Hide admin front-end menu
*/
public function hide_admin_bar() {
global $current_user;
if ($this->user_has_allowed_role($current_user)) {
// block front end admin menu bar
show_admin_bar(false);
}
}
// end of hide_admin_bar()

public function remove_appearance_menu_items() {
global $current_user, $submenu;

if (!$this->user_has_allowed_role($current_user)) {
return;
}

if (!isset($submenu[‘themes.php’])) {
return;
}
// remove not allowed menu items
foreach($submenu[‘themes.php’] as $key=>$item) {
if (!in_array($item[2], $this->allowed_items)) {
$this->prohibited_items[] = $item[2];
unset($submenu[‘themes.php’][$key]);
}
}
}
// end of remove_appearance_menu_items()

public function appearance_redirect() {
global $current_user;

if (!$this->user_has_allowed_role($current_user)) {
return;
}

foreach ($this->prohibited_items as $item) {
$result = stripos($_SERVER[‘REQUEST_URI’], $item);
if ($result !== false) {
wp_redirect(get_option(‘siteurl’) . ‘/wp-admin/index.php’);
}
break;
}
}
// end of appearance_redirect()

}
// end of class AppearancePermissions()

new AppearancePermissions();

Thanks for writing in! Regretfully this isn’t a feature offered by X. It could be possible with custom development, but this would be outside the scope of support we can offer. You may wish to consult a developer, or a service like WerkPress or Elto to assist you with this. X is quite extensible with child themes, so there are plenty of possibilities. Thanks for understanding. Take care!

User Role Editor

I haven’t tried that particular plugin or any of the others like it so I can’t speak to how well they work. However I am considering using one on a couple of sites for just that reason…to stop well-meaning folks from getting themselves into trouble. 😉

If you decide to use one, please let us know how it goes.

Cheers!

Thanks again for the help all!

I did a little experimenting with User Role Editor on one of my dev sites. I created a new user role, “Admin” by duplicating the existing WP Administrator role. Then I unchecked various options until I had what I think would be a good compromise.

As you can see in this image, the settings I used eliminated the Appearance/Customizer…

So I think if you tweak things a bit (particularly editing/deleting themes options) you should be able to get the desired results.

Hope that helps!

You might ask the developer about it on their support page.

If you get it sorted out, let us know..that would indeed be helpful.

Cheers!

This code works on my end, you can incorporate this code at your code.

add_action('admin_init', 'remove_customizer');
function remove_customizer () {
remove_submenu_page( 'themes.php', 'customize.php?return=%2Fx%2Fwp-admin%2F' );
remove_menu_page( 'customize.php?return=%2Fx%2Fwp-admin%2F' );
}

Instead of intercepting submenu global variable, will just use wordpress builtin functions. customize.php?return=%2Fx%2Fwp-admin%2F is the exact url slug you will see on your browser address bar.

Cheers!