Understand exactly who on your team can manage diamonds, gemstones, and settings today, and what to do if you want to delegate that work to other staff.
Overview
Not every WordPress user role can manage your diamond shop. This chapter explains the current access rules so you can plan who on your team should be an Administrator, and what their limitations are otherwise.
How It Works
Right now, the Diamonds and Gemstones management screens (adding/editing stock, Attributes, Import/Export) are only reachable by users with the Administrator role – this is built directly into the plugin and is not something you can change from a settings screen. Roles like Editor, Author, or even WooCommerce’s own Shop Manager role cannot open these screens. The main Rapnet Settings page (API keys, shop design, markup) uses a separate custom permission that is likewise only granted to Administrators automatically.
Step-by-Step Guide
1. Review your team's roles
Go to Users → All Users in your WordPress admin and check the Role column for everyone on your team.
2. Identify who needs to manage diamonds
Decide which staff members genuinely need to add/edit stock, run imports, or change settings.
3. Assign Administrator carefully
For each person who needs full access, open their profile and set their Role to Administrator, then click Update User. Only do this for staff you fully trust, since Administrator also grants control over your entire website, not just this plugin.
4. Know the current limitation for other roles
Be aware there is currently no built-in way to give a Shop Manager or Editor partial access (for example, “can add diamonds but can’t change settings”) – access is all-or-nothing via the Administrator role. If you need more fine-grained control, a separate role-management plugin would be required.
5. Use submenu links, not top-level icons
When navigating, click a specific submenu item (like “Natural Diamonds” or “Rapnet Settings”) rather than the top-level “Diamonds”, “Gemstones”, or “WT Plugins” group icon itself – clicking the group icon directly can show a technical error on some setups.
Fields Table
| Field Name | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
Administrator |
The only WordPress role currently able to manage diamonds, gemstones, attributes, import/export, and settings. |
Store owner, trusted manager |
Shop Manager / Editor / Author |
Standard WordPress/WooCommerce roles that cannot currently open the plugin’s management screens. |
Support staff, content writers |
Front-end shopper actions |
Browsing, searching, wishlist, compare, and add-to-cart are open to any visitor and require no special role. |
Any customer, logged in or guest |
Field Explanations
Administrator is a powerful, full-control role in WordPress – it can do anything on your entire site, not just within this plugin. Only assign it to people you would trust with complete control of your website.
Shop Manager, Editor, and similar roles are intentionally more limited in WordPress generally, and this plugin does not currently extend any special permission to them – so even your WooCommerce Shop Manager will not see the Diamonds or Gemstones menus.
Front-end shopper actions (searching, wishlist, compare, checkout) need no special role at all – these are open to every visitor to your site, logged in or not, since they’re customer-facing features rather than store-management ones.
Tips
- Keep your list of Administrators as small as possible – only people who truly need full site control.
- If several staff need to manage stock day-to-day, consider a dedicated custom-roles plugin to grant more limited access, since this plugin doesn’t offer that on its own yet.
- Always navigate using specific submenu links (“Natural Diamonds”, “Rapnet Settings”, etc.) rather than clicking a top-level menu group icon directly.
Common Mistakes
- Assuming your WooCommerce Shop Manager can manage diamonds – they cannot, under the plugin’s current permissions.
- Granting Administrator access too broadly just so a staff member can manage stock, when they may not need full site control.
- Clicking directly on the top-level “Diamonds”/”Gemstones”/”WT Plugins” menu icon and assuming an error page means something is broken – use a submenu link instead.