blocking the admin section (but still using admin-ajax.php)

Question

I am building a community based WP site at the mo and have blocked anyone bar admins from using the admin section on the site with:

add_action( 'init', 'sw_block_users' );

function sw_block_users() {
    if ( is_admin() && ! current_user_can( 'administrator' ) ) {
        wp_redirect( home_url() );
        exit;
    }
}

However, I'm also using the awesome power of admin-ajax.php to do a few ajaxy things (as outlined here : http://reallywebdesign.com/2011/09/send-dynamic-data-to-javascript-in-wordpress/), which get blocked by the above function.

Is there a different way I can prevent non-admins from getting to wp-admin directory, while maintaining the use of the admin-ajax file? Thanks!

Answer 1

The following action hook should help:

add_action('admin_init', 'wpse28702_restrictAdminAccess', 1);
function wpse28702_restrictAdminAccess() {
    $isAjax = (defined('DOING_AJAX') && true === DOING_AJAX) ? true : false;

    if(!$isAjax) {
        if(!current_user_can('administrator')) {
            wp_die(__('You are not allowed to access this part of the site'));
        }
    }
}