How to set custom capabilities for custom taxonomies?

Question

I am trying to set some custom capabilities for a custom taxonomy. I am trying the following:

'capabilities' => array(
    'manage_terms' => 'manage_'.$types,
    'edit_terms' => 'edit_'.$types,
    'delete_terms' => 'delete_'.$types,
    'assign_terms' => 'assign_'.$types
)

where $types is the plural form of the taxonomy slug. This is part of a larger function to programmatically create custom taxonomies.

---

I am viewing the capabilities using User Role Editor (and have looked in the options table of the DB) and these capabilities are not all created. I can see the caps for edit_terms and delete_terms but none for manage_terms and assign_terms which are the ones I actually need.

I am struggling to see what I am doing wrong so any help would be appreciated, thanks!

Answer 1

The array that you pass on taxonomy creation should consist of existing capabilities, it doesn't create them. You'd have to do that manually with add_cap() before registering your taxonomy. Unless you need specific capabilities to vary with each of your new taxonomies it's best to pass existing capabilities like manage_categories or create one set of capabilities, eg manage_custom_taxonomies to cover all of them.