Roles, Permissions & Data

Veridis News Desk works with standard WordPress roles and permissions. It does not introduce separate user databases or proprietary account systems.

Who can access News Desk

Editors and Administrators normally have access to the News Desk workspace.

In standard WordPress installations:

• Administrators: Access to newsroom views, stories, follow-ups, and plugin settings.
• Editors: Access to newsroom views, editorial planning, story assignments, Article Health, and follow-ups.

Users without editorial management permissions (such as Authors, Contributors, and Subscribers) cannot view the primary News Desk workspace. If an unauthorized user attempts to open the screen directly, WordPress displays a standard permission notice.

Assignable users

Users who can edit WordPress posts can normally be assigned stories, even if they do not have access to the full News Desk workspace:

• Eligibility: Any user with permission to edit WordPress posts is recognized by News Desk as an eligible Assignee.
• Role flexibility: Writers with the Author role can be assigned stories, work on drafts in the block editor, and appear in assignment selectors.
• Restricted access: Being assignable does not automatically grant access to the full News Desk workspace or desk settings.

Publishing permissions remain authoritative

News Desk never grants or bypasses WordPress publishing permissions:

• Editorial status vs. WordPress status: Setting an article to Ready to publish marks it as having reached the final editorial stage. Publishing still happens through WordPress.
• Native publish button: The actual publication of an article is handled through the standard WordPress Publish (or Schedule) button.
• Controlled publishing: News Desk does not grant extra publishing authority. If a user cannot normally publish posts in WordPress, News Desk will not allow them to make an article live.

News Desk Settings

The Settings view in News Desk allows administrators to manage operational preferences and data retention policies.

• Access: While Editors can view settings details, modifying data retention policies requires Administrator access.
• Workspace defaults: Configure desk preferences and verify current plugin version details.

Data preservation and uninstall behavior

News Desk is designed to keep your publication’s workflow data intact during maintenance or plugin updates.

What happens on deactivation?

Deactivating Veridis News Desk in the WordPress Plugins screen preserves your data:

• All WordPress posts, revisions, categories, tags, and media attachments remain completely intact.
• Editorial metadata (statuses, assignees, deadlines, priorities, internal notes, sources, photo credits) remains in your database.
• Follow-ups remain preserved.
• News Desk data is preserved when the plugin is deactivated.

What remains untouched upon deletion?

If you delete the plugin through WordPress admin, standard WordPress content is not deleted:

• WordPress posts and pages remain in place.
• Public author attribution and post bylines remain unchanged.
• Featured images and media library files remain intact.
• Taxonomy categories and tags are preserved.

Optional data purge on uninstall

By default, News Desk keeps its workflow data when the plugin is deleted.

However, if an administrator wishes to perform a complete cleanup:

1. Navigate to Veridis News → Settings.
2. Locate the Preserve data on uninstall option.
3. Toggle this setting to Disabled.
4. Save settings.

When this option is disabled, deleting the plugin via Plugins → Delete removes custom News Desk workflow data, including follow-up tasks, internal notes, sources, and plugin settings.

Advanced capability reference

For sites using custom role management plugins:

• Workspace access requires the standard WordPress capability edit_others_posts.
• Eligible assignees require the standard WordPress capability edit_posts.
• Publishing posts continues to require publish_posts.

For step-by-step guidance on initial activation, consult Installation & Setup.