{"id":2094,"date":"2012-05-07T11:11:52","date_gmt":"2012-05-07T16:11:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/?p=2094"},"modified":"2013-10-18T13:55:42","modified_gmt":"2013-10-18T17:55:42","slug":"wordpress-adding-users","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/2012\/05\/07\/wordpress-adding-users\/","title":{"rendered":"WordPress Inception, or: Adding a user to WordPress the hard way"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"2012\/05\/xzwp.png\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright  wp-image-2095\" title=\"xzwp\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/media.highedwebtech.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/xzwp-300x199.png\" \/><\/a>I recently was helping a friend with their friend&#8217;s WordPress installation that they were having problems logging into. No problem, I thought, this should be easy. Unfortunately, all I had been given was the FTP login for the account. I lacked was a login to the actual WordPress system.<\/p>\n<p>The challenge: un-hack their WordPress then login and make sure everything is cool. The FTP part was easy &#8211; I just re-installed WordPress&#8217; core files. I could go on here about why its important to keep your WordPress up to date, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/2009\/09\/07\/make-sure-your-wordpress-is-up-to-date\/\">I&#8217;ve done that before<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Since the person whose blog this is was out of the country, I couldn&#8217;t contact them to get a login, and since they were having login troubles anyway due to the hack, we were kind of stuck.<\/p>\n<p>One of the things I like about WordPress is that it&#8217;s user-friendly for end-users, but underneath the hood is a pretty serious framework. I&#8217;m constantly finding new features, functions and calls to do things I want WordPress to do that it might not ordinarily by default.<\/p>\n<p>In my case, I needed to get a user into WordPress. After some poking around and reading documentation, I found a WordPress function, <code>wp_insert_user<\/code>, which will put a user into the system. I found you couldn&#8217;t just call this from a post or a page, but I found wrapping it in a function, putting it in the functions.php file of the theme and calling it on page_init worked pretty well. Here&#8217;s the code:<\/p>\n<pre class=\"brush: php; title: ; notranslate\" title=\"\">\r\nfunction ft_insert_user(){\r\n\t$newUserData = array (\r\n\t   'ID' =&gt; '',\r\n\t   'user_pass' =&gt; wp_generate_password(),\r\n\t   'user_login' =&gt; 'mike',\r\n\t   'user_nicename' =&gt; 'mike',\r\n\t   'user_url' =&gt; '',\r\n\t   'user_email' =&gt; 'mike@highedwebtech.com',\r\n\t   'display_name' =&gt; 'Mike',\r\n\t   'nickname' =&gt; 'Mike',\r\n\t   'first_name' =&gt; 'Mike',\r\n\t   'user_registered' =&gt; '2011-10-16 08:54:47',\r\n\t   'role' =&gt; 'Administrator'\r\n\t);\r\n\r\n\t$newUserId = wp_insert_user( $newUserData );\r\n}\r\nadd_action( 'wp_head', 'ft_insert_user' );\r\n<\/pre>\n<p>The trick with this is I let WordPress generate me a password. I didn&#8217;t get a password in my email, but it was easily reset and I was able to login. However, I wasn&#8217;t an admin (I&#8217;m sure my code about could be better.) After some Googling, I found this PHP script which can be run outside of WordPress (but in your web root) that will assign a specific role to a specific user. This script assumes you know your user ID.<\/p>\n<pre class=\"brush: php; title: ; notranslate\" title=\"\">\r\n&lt;?php\r\n\/*\r\n * Updates user role using WordPress function wp_update_user.\r\n *\r\n * Simple script to be run at webroot. Update user_id and new_role to taste\r\n * and run as regular PHP file on command line.\r\n *\r\n * @package WordPress\r\n *\/\r\n\r\nrequire( '.\/wp-load.php' );\r\n\r\n\/\/ id of user to update\r\n$user_id = 2;\r\n\r\n\/*\r\n * Basic list of user roles\r\n *\r\n * administrator\r\n * editor\r\n * author\r\n * contributor\r\n * subscriber\r\n *\r\n *\/\r\n\r\n\/\/ user role to update to\r\n$new_role = 'administrator';\r\n\r\n\/\/ update user role using wordpress function\r\nwp_update_user( array ('ID' =&gt; $user_id, 'role' =&gt; $new_role ) ) ;\r\n\r\n?&gt;\r\n<\/pre>\n<p>Now, I was an admin user and could check the theme and all other settings that are available to administrators, including installing plugins, starting with <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/extend\/plugins\/better-wp-security\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Better WP Security<\/a>, developed by higher ed&#8217;s own <a href=\"http:\/\/bit51.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Chris Wiegman<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The thing to remember is that with method, you need to have FTP or shell access to the area that contains the theme or web root. You can&#8217;t just use these functions on any WordPress site.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I recently was helping a friend with their friend&#8217;s WordPress installation that they were having problems logging into. No problem, I thought, this should be easy. Unfortunately, all I had been given was the FTP login for the account. I lacked was a login to the actual WordPress system. The challenge: un-hack their WordPress then [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[79],"tags":[100,701,986,822,823],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Adding a user to WordPress Programmaticly || HighEdWebTech<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"You can add a user to your WordPress installation via the functions.php file in your theme.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/2012\/05\/07\/wordpress-adding-users\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Adding a user to WordPress Programmaticly || HighEdWebTech\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You can add a user to your WordPress installation via the functions.php file in your theme.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/2012\/05\/07\/wordpress-adding-users\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"HighEdWebTech\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-05-07T16:11:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-10-18T17:55:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/media.highedwebtech.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/xzwp-300x199.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mike\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@mrichwalsky\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@mrichwalsky\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mike\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/2012\/05\/07\/wordpress-adding-users\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/2012\/05\/07\/wordpress-adding-users\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Mike\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/#\/schema\/person\/c923dc4801e5e0b88fa4def573701980\"},\"headline\":\"WordPress Inception, or: Adding a user to WordPress the hard way\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-05-07T16:11:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-10-18T17:55:42+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/2012\/05\/07\/wordpress-adding-users\/\"},\"wordCount\":571,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/#\/schema\/person\/c923dc4801e5e0b88fa4def573701980\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/2012\/05\/07\/wordpress-adding-users\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/media.highedwebtech.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/xzwp-300x199.png\",\"keywords\":[\"add user\",\"theme\",\"wordpress\",\"wp_generate_password\",\"wp_insert_user\"],\"articleSection\":[\"wordpress\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/2012\/05\/07\/wordpress-adding-users\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/2012\/05\/07\/wordpress-adding-users\/\",\"name\":\"Adding a user to WordPress Programmaticly || HighEdWebTech\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/2012\/05\/07\/wordpress-adding-users\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/2012\/05\/07\/wordpress-adding-users\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/media.highedwebtech.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/xzwp-300x199.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-05-07T16:11:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-10-18T17:55:42+00:00\",\"description\":\"You can add a user to your WordPress installation via the functions.php file in your theme.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/2012\/05\/07\/wordpress-adding-users\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/2012\/05\/07\/wordpress-adding-users\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/2012\/05\/07\/wordpress-adding-users\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/media.highedwebtech.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/xzwp-300x199.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/media.highedwebtech.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/xzwp-300x199.png\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/2012\/05\/07\/wordpress-adding-users\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"WordPress Inception, or: Adding a user to WordPress the hard way\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/\",\"name\":\"HighEdWebTech\",\"description\":\"Web &amp; Marketing for Education &amp; Nonprofits\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/#\/schema\/person\/c923dc4801e5e0b88fa4def573701980\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/#\/schema\/person\/c923dc4801e5e0b88fa4def573701980\",\"name\":\"Mike\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/HEWT-2020-Logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/HEWT-2020-Logo.png\",\"width\":595,\"height\":128,\"caption\":\"Mike\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/mikerichwalsky\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mrichwalsky\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Adding a user to WordPress Programmaticly || HighEdWebTech","description":"You can add a user to your WordPress installation via the functions.php file in your theme.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/2012\/05\/07\/wordpress-adding-users\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Adding a user to WordPress Programmaticly || HighEdWebTech","og_description":"You can add a user to your WordPress installation via the functions.php file in your theme.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/2012\/05\/07\/wordpress-adding-users\/","og_site_name":"HighEdWebTech","article_published_time":"2012-05-07T16:11:52+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-10-18T17:55:42+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/media.highedwebtech.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/xzwp-300x199.png"}],"author":"Mike","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@mrichwalsky","twitter_site":"@mrichwalsky","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Mike","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/2012\/05\/07\/wordpress-adding-users\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/2012\/05\/07\/wordpress-adding-users\/"},"author":{"name":"Mike","@id":"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/#\/schema\/person\/c923dc4801e5e0b88fa4def573701980"},"headline":"WordPress Inception, or: Adding a user to WordPress the hard way","datePublished":"2012-05-07T16:11:52+00:00","dateModified":"2013-10-18T17:55:42+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/2012\/05\/07\/wordpress-adding-users\/"},"wordCount":571,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/#\/schema\/person\/c923dc4801e5e0b88fa4def573701980"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/2012\/05\/07\/wordpress-adding-users\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/media.highedwebtech.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/xzwp-300x199.png","keywords":["add user","theme","wordpress","wp_generate_password","wp_insert_user"],"articleSection":["wordpress"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/2012\/05\/07\/wordpress-adding-users\/","url":"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/2012\/05\/07\/wordpress-adding-users\/","name":"Adding a user to WordPress Programmaticly || HighEdWebTech","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/2012\/05\/07\/wordpress-adding-users\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/2012\/05\/07\/wordpress-adding-users\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/media.highedwebtech.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/xzwp-300x199.png","datePublished":"2012-05-07T16:11:52+00:00","dateModified":"2013-10-18T17:55:42+00:00","description":"You can add a user to your WordPress installation via the functions.php file in your theme.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/2012\/05\/07\/wordpress-adding-users\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/2012\/05\/07\/wordpress-adding-users\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/2012\/05\/07\/wordpress-adding-users\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/media.highedwebtech.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/xzwp-300x199.png","contentUrl":"http:\/\/media.highedwebtech.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/xzwp-300x199.png"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/2012\/05\/07\/wordpress-adding-users\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"WordPress Inception, or: Adding a user to WordPress the hard way"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/","name":"HighEdWebTech","description":"Web &amp; Marketing for Education &amp; Nonprofits","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/#\/schema\/person\/c923dc4801e5e0b88fa4def573701980"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/#\/schema\/person\/c923dc4801e5e0b88fa4def573701980","name":"Mike","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/HEWT-2020-Logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/HEWT-2020-Logo.png","width":595,"height":128,"caption":"Mike"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/mikerichwalsky\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/mrichwalsky"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2094"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2094\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.highedwebtech.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}