How to get the current logged in user’s role?

You can retrieve the role object for the current user by calling get_role(), but that’s an object rather than a string with the role name. You’d probably be better off using current_user_can() which can check whether the current user is allowed to do something. current_user_can( 'manage_options' ) tends to be a good way of determining an admin.

ok… so instead of the standard “Edit” link appearing next to a post or comment when a user is logged in. I want conditional links to appear: “Admin: Edit”, “Editor: Edit”, “Author: Edit”, “Contributor: Edit”… How to do?

I have a function to do what you want. It get the data from database, without using functions like get_currentuserinfo or get_userdata:

function get_user_role($uid) {
global $wpdb;
$role = $wpdb->get_var("SELECT meta_value FROM {$wpdb->usermeta} WHERE meta_key = 'wp_capabilities' AND user_id = {$uid}");
  if(!$role) return 'non-user';
$rarr = unserialize($role);
$roles = is_array($rarr) ? array_keys($rarr) : array('non-user');
return $roles[0];
}

<?php
if ( is_user_logged_in() ) {
	$userRole = ($current_user->data->wp_capabilities);
	$role = key($userRole);
	unset($userRole);
	$edit_anchr = '';
	switch($role) {
		case ('administrator'||'editor'||'contributor'||'author'):
			$edit_anchr = ucfirst($role).': <a href="'.get_edit_post_link( $post->ID ).'">Edit</a>';
		break;
		default:
		break;
	}
	echo $edit_anchr;
}
?>

Like that perhaps….. ??

$current_user is a WordPress global.

This seems to work, but didn’t quite get me there. Maybe it will help someone else though.

if ( is_user_logged_in() ) {
	$user = new WP_User( $user_ID );
	if ( !empty( $user->roles ) && is_array( $user->roles ) ) {
		foreach ( $user->roles as $role )
			echo $role;
	}
}

thanks to
https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/275681?replies=7
and
https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Function_Reference/get_currentuserinfo

Shouldn’t this be easier?

Is there a way to get a user’s role within a plugin so you can define who can access the plugin’s options menu?

You should just check against a capability instead..

For example, if you wanted to ensure a particular portion of code only runs or is shown for admins.

if( current_user_can( 'manage_options' ) ) {

// Do something, for admins only

}

Menus in the admin section have a capability parameter when you register them (third parameter).
https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Adding_Administration_Menus

hey guys,

did a quick function that simply echo’s the current users role to the screen. It was mainly to display a message saying “welcome administrator”. Put the code below in your theme functions.php, or set up a plugin and you’re sorted.

function get_user_role() {
	global $current_user;

	$user_roles = $current_user->roles;
	$user_role = array_shift($user_roles);

	return $user_role;
}

then in your html theme you simply put <?php echo get_user_role(); ?>.

As t31os_ mentioned though, you shouldnt really use this to compare roles… but there’s no harm in displaying it.

Here’s a version which will translate the role name too:

/**
 * Returns the translated role of the current user. If that user has
 * no role for the current blog, it returns false.
 *
 * @return string The name of the current role
 **/
function get_current_user_role() {
	global $wp_roles;
	$current_user = wp_get_current_user();
	$roles = $current_user->roles;
	$role = array_shift($roles);
	return isset($wp_roles->role_names[$role]) ? translate_user_role($wp_roles->role_names[$role] ) : false;
}

I’ll second Grimbog and t31os_ in suggesting you only use this to show the user role on screen.