When to use this hack: If, like me, you need to add some private forums in your BBPress setup but you don’t want to make those users moderators or administrators then here is how to add a custom role.

Difficulty: Easy Estimated time: 10~15 min Files to edit: 2

1. Start by downloading and installing BBPress private forums plugin
2. Decide on the new role name e.g. in my case Translator
3. In your BBPress directory open the “bb-includes” directory and backup capabilities.php
4. Open capabilities.php and go to line 135 (BBPress 0.8.3) you should have something like

'member' => array(
'name' => __('Member'),
'capabilities' => array(
'participate' => true,

'edit_favorites' => true,
'edit_tags' => true,
'edit_topics' => true,
'edit_posts' => true,
'edit_profile' => true,
'write_topics' => true,
'write_posts' => true,
'change_password' => true,
'read' => true
)),

This is the definition of a member for BBPress.

5. Copy these lines and paste them directly after this section then replace the word ‘member’ in the first 2 lines by the desired new role name i.e. Translator in my case. Your code should now look like

'translator' => array(
'name' => __('Translator'),
'capabilities' => array(
'participate' => true,

'edit_favorites' => true,
'edit_tags' => true,
'edit_topics' => true,
'edit_posts' => true,
'edit_profile' => true,
'write_topics' => true,
'write_posts' => true,
'change_password' => true,
'read' => true
)),

'member' => array(
'name' => __('Member'),
'capabilities' => array(
'participate' => true,

'edit_favorites' => true,
'edit_tags' => true,
'edit_topics' => true,
'edit_posts' => true,
'edit_profile' => true,
'write_topics' => true,
'write_posts' => true,
'change_password' => true,
'read' => true
)),

Wonderful ! what we did so far is crating a new role “translator” that is exactly the same as “member”. Let’s now define a new privilege, the new privilege I need for this role is to be able to read the “Translator’s forum” so I defined it as

'read_translators_forums' => true

6. Add this new created privileged to EVERY role already defined in capabilities.php that should read that forum. I added this privilege to all roles but members. For instance my ‘translators’ role now looks like that

'translator' => array(
'name' => __('Translator'),
'capabilities' => array(
'participate' => true,

'edit_favorites' => true,
'edit_tags' => true,
'edit_topics' => true,
'edit_posts' => true,
'edit_profile' => true,
'write_topics' => true,
'write_posts' => true,
'change_password' => true,
'read_translators_forums' => true,
'read' => true
)),

Notice the coma “,” after the priviledge don’t forget to add it.

7. Good now save your capabilities.php
8. Browse to BBpress\my-plugins\private-forums and backup private-forums.php
9. Open private-forums.php
10. Locate

function private_forums_display_role_dropdown($name, $index, $role)

and add to the select list your new created role, in my case

<option value="TRANSLATOR" <?php echo ($role == 'TRANSLATOR') ? 'selected' : '' ; ?>>Translators</option>

My Select list looks like

<select name="<?php echo $name . '[' . $index . ']'; ?>" id="<?php echo $name . '_' . $index ; ?>">   <option ($role="=" value="OPEN">>Open to all</option>   <option ($role="=" value="MEMBER">>Registered Members</option> <option ($role="=" value="TRANSLATOR">>Translators</option>   <option ($role="=" value="MODERATOR">>Moderators</option>   <option ($role="=" value="ADMINISTRATOR">>Administrators</option>  </select>

Ok we’re almost there

11. Now locate

function private_forums_check_user_access_to_forum($access) {

and add a case for your newly created role with the newly created privilege something like

case 'TRANSLATOR':
return bb_current_user_can('read_translators_forums');
break;

My function is

function private_forums_check_user_access_to_forum($access) {
switch($access) {
case 'MODERATOR':
return bb_current_user_can('moderate');
break;
case 'ADMINISTRATOR':
return bb_current_user_can('administrate');
break;
case 'MEMBER':
return bb_current_user_can('participate');
break;
case 'TRANSLATOR':
return bb_current_user_can('read_translators_forums');
break;
case 'OPEN':
return true;
break;
default:
return true;
}

All you still have to do now is activate the plugin and enjoy it.

N.B.: If you feel uneasy about editing capabilities.php there is another (better?) way to add a role using a bbpress plugin.