Yes, “cannot log in” was incorrect. They just can’t access the admin at all, but are redirected to front, as you say. That was exactly what I experienced. So “User Swiching” even lets you test that.

Closed enhancement request, invalid.

A user with no role can still log in (both on Multisite and on single site installs) but they can’t access the admin area. I’ve previously tested the behaviour of User Switching on Multisite for users with no role and it works as expected (you get redirected to the home page after switching).

I just tested this on a single site install and the behaviour is the same. When you switch you get redirected to the home page (because the user does not have the read capability).

Are you seeing different behaviour? If so it might be due to another plugin on your site. Can you confirm for me?

John

This is very different form the role “Subscriber”, since they can log in. Without any role the switch link should not be shown for this user. On multisite this is very relevant.


if(!session_id()){
add_action( 'init', 'session_start');
}


It uses the default priority, as does user switching, but the plugins name comes earlier in the alphabet… Since user switching is a rather low level thing, it would seem to make sense for it to have a higher priority (smaller number). This could save others from having to tweak arbitrary plugins they might be using.

What’s giving you the impression you can only switch once per two ticks? A nonce in WordPress is valid for two ticks (24 hours) and can be used repeatedly, just as you say in your article. You can switch to a given user as many times as you like within that period using the same nonce.

Do you have a custom nonce system on your site that’s doing something different?

John

Thanks for all your help John! Much appreciated.

I don’t get any errors now, but it isn’t showing the “Switch to” link for the regular admins :(

I’ve updated the Gist at https://gist.github.com/johnbillion/4604330 so it overrides the hooks on the plugins_loaded hook. Give it a try.

When used with this plugin, which is just copy and paste of your Gist into a plugin.
http://stuff.ryanhellyer.net/user-switching-admins-only.zip

Any ideas on how I should implement it?

In order to switch into another user’s account, you need the ability to edit that user. The reason for this of course is that switching into a user account gives you the ability to edit that user’s account. Therefore, the ability to switch to a user needs to mirror the ability to edit that user.

Regular Admins on multisite don’t have the ability to edit other users. This is why they can’t switch.

I’ve written some code that allows regular admins to switch users (but not switch into super admin accounts) but you should be aware that using it effectively allows regular admins to edit other users’ accounts by way of switching in to them.

Hope this helps.

John