[sadhaka]

Dear Vladimir,

Thank you for responding quickly to my request and refunding my client their money. Let me share some information from a user’s perspective that might help you improve your plugin.

I noticed you paid great attention to the details of how the plugin is put together and what it can do. Your technical command as a software engineer and developer is outstanding. As a user though, I found the plugin frustrating and time consuming to setup.

What would have helped in the plugin documentation was a reference to the WordPress Codex on ‘User Roles and Capabilities’. I later figured out that all the ‘core’ and ‘custom’ capabilities you built into the User Settings admin panel were functions described in the Codex documentation.

I’m aware that English is not your first language, and so you’re explanations from your blog were a little difficult for me to follow. Save yourself and your users the problem of trying to understand your writing, and refer them where appropriate to the Codex documentation. Say something explicit like ‘Read the Codex documentation on ‘User Roles and Capabilities’ first to understand the function settings used in this plugin before you start your configuration.’

Justin Tadlock, who co-wrote the book ‘Professional WordPress Plugin Development recently updated his ‘Members’ plugin to improve the user interface (UI). I would have loved it if you had simplified your plugin UI to break out the difference sets of functions as Justin recently did in his plugin. We have a saying in English: ‘Impersonation (acting like someone else) is the sincerest form of flattery’. You might find some inspiration for restructuring the UI on your plugin on the lines of what Justin recently did.

When I first wrote to you, you saw that I was using an older version of the URE plugin. You suggested I download and install a newer, beta version, which I did. One annoying feature I ran into was that when I deleted the old PI and installed the newer version, the settings for the older version of the PI were deleted from the database.

I’m glad that you provided a means to save and export the PI settings. However, what was not included in that export file were the administrative settings that appear on the Settings tab. I took screenshots of all the Settings and Tools>User Role Editor admin screens before I deleted the older version of the PI so I could refer back to those settings if necessary. That saved time. However, not all PI users will have that capability.

What would be helpful to other users is if you enabled file attachments (e.g. PDF and PNG files) on your forum. I took about 10 screenshots of all the admin settings panels as I was setting up your PI. Given that you and I are 11 time zones apart, having the ability to send you screen shots of what I setup would have improved our communication.

Best to you in your development work.

Sincerely,

Robert Gadon
St. Louis, Missouri USA

[sadhaka]

Hello Vladimir,

I took a break for about a week from trying to setup the plugin (PI) on a client site. Last Friday, September 25, I sat down again to finish the configuration. Per your instructions, I removed the version I had on my development site (current as of Sept. 4) and installed whatever the latest beta version was you were offering (as of Sept. 25). I did resolve items 1, 3, and 4 from my initial post. Since I did not grant permission for an Editor on the site to activate or install plugins, I concluded that the WP SEO by Yoast plugin admin menu was not going to appear on the backend (resolution of item #2). [The Yoast SEO custom fields appear just fine on posts and pages.]

I had one major problem that came up last Friday: Gravity Forms (GF) kept appearing in the WP Admin menu when logged in as an Editor. Under ‘URE User Settings | Editor Role – Custom Capabilities’ I did not select any Gravity Forms settings. And I said earlier, the Editor role was not granted any permission to install or activate plugins. Yet, the GF settings kept showing up in the Editor’s admin menu.

After putting 2-1/2 hours into fixing the problem without getting the desired result, I went looking for a different role editor plugin. I found one in the WordPress.org plugin repository that will do the job. It took about an hour to configure and gave me about 90% of what I wanted.

At this point, I do not plan to use the User Role Editor Pro plugin. I would like a full refund, and to close my account.

Sincerely,

Robert Gadon
developer for ‘yogastlouis.us’
representing client: Bruce Roger (in who’s name the license was originally purchased).

.

[sadhaka]

Here’s additional information:

1) Deactivated all plugins.

2) Reactivated 4 plugins: a) User Role Editor Pro; b) TablePress; c) EnviraGallery; and d) Yoast SEO.

3) Logged into local development site as Editor. Results:

Problems described in first post remain unchanged.

Conclusion: Issues described in first post a result of plugin configuration and operation.

Still need help in resolving issues.

[Author]

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