Role Based Help Notes

Description

Do you want to give users a private area to share information based on a role they have been assigned?

…this plugin allows you to quickly create a custom post type for user roles. This allows users, with a specific role, the ability to create and edit their own ‘help notes’ providing a private set of notes for use. It can be used for anything else that fits with that role ( e.g. creating and sharing ideas within teams, minutes-of-meetings, formal notes… etc.).

To add new roles to the basic WordPress roles (Administrator, Editor, Subscriber ..etc ) you will need to use another plugin refer to Roles_and_Capabilities and Resources.. Plugins. You can then use one of these plugins ( e.g. User Role Editor ) to allocate users to multiple roles.

So if you want to quickly give a group a private area to share and post ideas/notes ..
1. Create a new role.
2. Add users to the role.
3. Enable the Help Notes from the settings.

A global ‘General Help Notes’ type is also available which is not tided to a specific role, this has the same access/capabilities as the standard WordPress ‘post’ type for write access. Unlike the other Help Notes the General Type is public to read, you can see an example over at an example content page.

There is a widget available to list all users with access to the current Help Note type on display. The user display_name is shown and can be selected by each user within their own profile.

Extensions:

If you select the options for extending functionality through other plugins the following are available for ease of installing..

Admin side Plugins..

• Role Includer simple interface to handle multiple roles with users. If you wish to hide/mask-out a particular role from “staff” ( such as “Administrator” ) so that staff cannot allocate the higher access level then you can exclude higher roles by using the “Role Excluder” plugin.
• Email Users allows users within a Help Note group/role to email others.
• User Switching great tool for admins to switch to test any users access/capability.
• Simple Page Ordering for easing re-ordering of Help Notes.
• Post Type Switcher allows users with two or more roles to change the role assigned to a help note, useful if you created a Help Note under the wrong role.
• Pixabay Images provides a quick method for all enabled roles within Help Notes to upload Public Domain images.

Front End Plugins..

• Simple FootNotes by Andrew Nacin to add a footnote shortcode [ref][/ref].
• Tabby Response Tabs by cubecolour to add a tabbed effect to you contents page.
• disable_comments by solarissmoke allows you to easily remove comments from ‘Help Note’ use.
• Menu Item Visibility Control plugin by shazdeh to add/hide ‘Help Notes’ to your menus.

Plugin site

https://justinandco.com/plugins/role-based-help-notes/

GitHub – Development

https://github.com/justinticktock/role-based-help-notes

Screenshots

Installation

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1. Upload plugin-name.php to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory
2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
3. Goto the “Settings” Menu and “Help Notes” sub menu, select which roles are to have Help Notes.
4. Allocate roles to users for the Help Notes to appear in their Admin menu.
5. NOTE ! if you want to edit Help Notes yourself you need to have the role(s) assigned to your user profile!
(Just being an Administrator does not give you access).

FAQ

I have a new role how can I add it?

You will need to use another plugin to manage roles and capabilities such as the User Role Editor plugin.

Is there a theme template I can modify in my child theme?

Yes … Answer

I just can’t seem to find a way to get SMTP working with this plugin, what can I do?

This has been seen a few times in the forum, one proven solution is:
* use plugin wp-mail-smtp
* Do NOT network activate SMTP and you don’t need to add anything extra to the wp-config file

Reviews

Works great with WooCommerce

ryanshoover April 22, 2017

Using this on a WooCommerce site. Works like a charm. Great plugin.

Excellent Plug In

PhilipBarrington September 3, 2016

As a Web Developer, leaving notes for the Admin users who manage the go forward is a huge time saver. Thankyou for the time and effort put into this plugin.

Complicated

manni65929 September 3, 2016 2 replies

No a simple way to add role based help noted, no manual on the WP Dashboard or the installed plugin settigs screen. Requires knowledge of code / WP Codex and so not suitable to beginner. Simpler plugins are available.

Extremely helpful for client handover notes

naptash September 3, 2016

Works just like a post! I use it for handover instructions for my clients – and because it allows you to separate notes by users, you can customize the instructions for each person. I’ve tried a ton of dashboard-specific notes but this is by far the best one. Super easy to use. Thank you!

A Very Worthy Plugin And Author

Ed G September 3, 2016

I am using the Role Based Help Notes plugin on several sites. When combined with a support forum and a ticket system, Help Notes supplies the finishing touch to a complete system for addressing user’s needs for assistance and support. Justin has been very responsive to questions on the support forum and quickly gives answers, and when needed, updates to the plugin. One could not ask for a better plugin author.

Contributors & Developers

Changelog

Change log is maintained on the plugin website