Admins and moderators can see the admin bar…  but they have to choose to view it… each admin or moderator can go to forum – admins – your admin options and turn on the admin bar…

the admins post bag is the collection of posts waiting on admin/moderator action…  could be:

1)  posts in moderation

2)  posts marked as spam

3)  new posts on the site that have not been responded to by an admin or moderator

sorry, first button on left?  not sure what you mean?  the one that says ‘view new posts’?  it opens the admin postbag so the posts can be acted on…

thank you Mr. Papa

As I will not allow moderators to visit wp-admin, is it possibile to turn on by default to every admin and moderators the “show admin bar” option?

No, they need to do it themselves…  we do have an open ticket to consider allowing admins to set other admins/moderators options but no ETA…

ok, thanks 🙂

Remember that if you have not granted them the capability to use other or all the Sp admin sections then the ‘Your Admin Options panel will be the only one they can access.

Thanks for the details Swordfish.

but the problem is that in that site I’m heavily using Theme My Login Plugin, and I do not allow any users but Admins and Editors to see the backend. They are just redirected on front end if they go for any wp-admin url.

BUt actually I’ll have some forum moderators that will not be Admins or Editors… so I was looking for a way to turn it on in a centralized way… even if means adding manually the option in the db. about that… do you know where that option is stored in db?

I found it and I’ve been able to edit the options in the db.

let me paste it here so it may be useful to someone in the same situation.

the field to modify in the database is admin_options in the wp_sfmembers table

this was the original data of an admin that has never set the “My admin options”

a:3:{s:8:”sfnotify”;b:0;s:15:”sfstatusmsgtext”;s:0:””;s:6:”colors”;a:18:{s:8:”submitbg”;s:6:”27537A”;s:9:”submitbgt”;s:6:”FFFFFF”;s:6:”bbarbg”;s:6:”0066CC”;s:7:”bbarbgt”;s:6:”FFFFFF”;s:6:”formbg”;s:6:”0066CC”;s:7:”formbgt”;s:6:”FFFFFF”;s:7:”panelbg”;s:6:”78A1FF”;s:8:”panelbgt”;s:6:”000000″;s:10:”panelsubbg”;s:6:”A7C1FF”;s:11:”panelsubbgt”;s:6:”000000″;s:11:”formtabhead”;s:6:”464646″;s:12:”formtabheadt”;s:6:”D7D7D7″;s:7:”tabhead”;s:6:”0066CC”;s:8:”tabheadt”;s:6:”D7D7D7″;s:10:”tabrowmain”;s:6:”EAF3FA”;s:11:”tabrowmaint”;s:6:”000000″;s:9:”tabrowsub”;s:6:”78A1FF”;s:10:”tabrowsubt”;s:6:”000000″;}}

and this is how I’ve change it enabling the admin bar for this user (edits in bold red):

a:4:{s:8:”sfnotify”;b:0;s:15:”sfstatusmsgtext”;s:0:””;s:6:”colors”;a:18:{s:8:”submitbg”;s:6:”27537A”;s:9:”submitbgt”;s:6:”FFFFFF”;s:6:”bbarbg”;s:6:”0066CC”;s:7:”bbarbgt”;s:6:”FFFFFF”;s:6:”formbg”;s:6:”0066CC”;s:7:”formbgt”;s:6:”FFFFFF”;s:7:”panelbg”;s:6:”78A1FF”;s:8:”panelbgt”;s:6:”000000″;s:10:”panelsubbg”;s:6:”A7C1FF”;s:11:”panelsubbgt”;s:6:”000000″;s:11:”formtabhead”;s:6:”464646″;s:12:”formtabheadt”;s:6:”D7D7D7″;s:7:”tabhead”;s:6:”0066CC”;s:8:”tabheadt”;s:6:”D7D7D7″;s:10:”tabrowmain”;s:6:”EAF3FA”;s:11:”tabrowmaint”;s:6:”000000″;s:9:”tabrowsub”;s:6:”78A1FF”;s:10:”tabrowsubt”;s:6:”000000″;}s:10:”sfadminbar”;b:1;}

is it ok?

yes, that is indeed where and how…  most users run and hide when it comes to serialized arrays so good for you!

couple questions though…

why trust admins and mods with your forums, but not in the wp admin area when they would only be able to get at the forum stuff anyways?

and what is the point of making new admins (vs moderators) if they cant get to the stuff to admin? 

You are actually right, speaking like that it seems that I have some inconsistency on wp and sp roles.

Actually my problems are based on the very fundamental of that website. As it has been built upon wp roles improperly. 

It’s a sort of directory where users has been classified using Wp roles instead of something other (like a category)

So even if I have a user that I trust deeply, I cannot make him admin, because his user must have another role (such as “honorable member”) to be in the directory and be represented for who he really is.

At the same time I cannot give wp capabilities to that role, because I will have other members that must have the same role (because they are as well “honorable members”).

So actually I will not have any public admin for the forum, but just moderators. All admins will be “grey” accounts.

And speaking more generally, sometimes I do not want users to go backend for a simple “style” reason:

I think it’s totally unelegant to have some option in a totally different interface with a totally different look and feel.
If going in the backend is normal for an administrator or an editor (that actually spend more time in backend than in frontend) someone that wants just manage forum posts or moderate them should not see the backend at all.

hey, its all up to you and how to run it… so dont mean anything by my comments… but….

then the users should just be sp moderators…  no real sense in being an sp admin and not having access to the back end…

and I think you are still confusing wp roles and sp admin capabilities…  you can be ANY wp role and have sp admin capabilities…  in fact, it is set up exactly the way it is so that wp users with a wp role of subscriber can be an sp admin…  then they can go to the wp admin and see the sp admin panels… but they will ONLY see the sp stuff… since they are still a wp role of subscriber, they wont see anything more than what they can as a subscriber except for the sp stuff…

so you do NOT have to change the wp role of a user to make them an sp admin…  they just get the sp admin capabilities added to their user with NO modifications to any wp roles…

just for grins, you should create a dummy user, make it whatever wp role you want and then make it an sp admin…  and try out accessing the wp admin…

but as I said, your site – your call!

In general you are right, but in my specific case I just cannot have standard thinking as I’m working on a website where everything is already built all on top of a unproper use of wp roles. And for the workflow and a lot of other reasons, there’s no way to allow users (except admins and editors) go in the backend.

no real sense in being an sp admin and not having access to the back end…

Infact I will not have any forum admins, just moderators. But as I need some admins, I will use “grey accounts” (anonymous accounts, users that will not be shown in members list)

wp users with a wp role of subscriber can be an sp admin…  then they can go to the wp admin and see the sp admin panels… but they will ONLY see the sp stuff

In the website I’m working on it is already done that just wp roles of Admin and Editor can go in the backend. Every other user will be redirected in front page, so it’s useless to have any sp admin that is not a wp admin or editor (i know I’m not forced to map wp roles and sp groups).

so you do NOT have to change the wp role of a user to make them an sp admin…  they just get the sp admin capabilities added to their user with NO modifications to any wp roles…

I know, but as sp admin can manage their admin stuff just in backend for me it’s pointless to have sp admins, as I cannot allow forum users to go in backend.

 you should create a dummy user…

Believe me, I have tons of dummy users, and I’m actually using then on a dummy website (a mirror copy for development). It’s not my first time I deal with users, capabilities, etc… actually I think to know this stuff pretty well, but as I said, in this project I have to follow a forced path.

Anyway, many thanks for your advices, support in this forum is awesome!
you are not satisfied in just giving solutions, you want users to actually improve their WP skills, it’s amazing!
I strongly support your choice to go with membership site model. If you need a testimonial, I’m here!