Pages by User Role for WordPress

Are you a WordPress developer or a Web Designer who uses WordPress to develop websites for your clients? Or are you a novice WordPress user?

Have you ever wanted not to show Pages, Posts, or Categories in the menu? Or wanted to restrict access to certain content on your website? With Pages by User Role, you can add Access Control to the following things in WordPress based on which Role the user has.

Pages
Posts
Categories
Custom Post Types added by third-party plugins
Custom Taxonomies (added by third-party plugins
WooCommerce (Products and Shop)

We have made this very easy with Pages by User Roles for WordPress.

The plugin also removes the Page, Post, Custom Post Type, Categories or Custom Taxonomies from search results and blog roll. You can hide Page and Categories from the menu when users are not logged in. You can also set a specific redirect URL for users that don’t have the required User Role.

It also works if you are using the custom menu feature built into WordPress. It will hide the menu items that has assigned a user Role when the user is not logged in.

List of features

You will find the Pages by User Role Options Panel in the WordPress Settings menu

Options

Set default redirect URL for users that does not have access to a Page, Post or Custom Post Type.
Enable comment filtering
Redirect to login
Support for WordPress User Roles
Support for Custom User Roles
Panic option if you restrict yourself from viewing a Custom Post Type
Enable Access Control to Custom Post Types
Restrict access to Custom Post Types in the Frontend by User Role
Restrict access to Access Control Metabox by User Role on Pages, Posts and Custom Post Types.
Restrict access to WooCommerce (Products)
Revert the Pages by User Role behavior to the backend instead of the original frontend.

Pages, Posts and Custom Post Types

Quick overview of User Role Access on Page, Post and Custom Post Types
Set Access Control for Subscriber, Contributor, Author, Editor and Administrator
Set Access Control for custom User Roles (you need White Label Branding to create the Custom User Roles)
Set Access Control for Categories
Set individual redirect URL for each Pages, Posts and Custom Post types when a User Role doesn’t have access.
Hide individual Pages form the menu
Hide Categories from the menu
Hide individual Pages, Posts, Custom Posts Types and Categories from search results and blog roll
Restrict access to content by using Shortcodes. Access controlled by User Role pur_restricted pur_restricted_alt pur_not_logged_in

Changelog

Version 1.7.2.101119 – April 16, 2024

New Feature: Add always Allow Usernames and always Disallow Usernames access control. Access by username has higher priority than access by user role.

Version 1.7.1.10456 – July 4, 2022

New Feature: Added support for allowing specific usernames to login. Is useful if you need to perform maintenance on your website and only want specific users to access your website (wp-admin).

Version 1.7.0.10317 – May 6, 2022

New Feature: Added an option to hide a post (custom post type) from the frontend, but continue to show in wp-admin, Ajax, and REST API. Use case: Hiding a course from the front end of the website, but still showing the course inside the BuddyBoss App.
New Feature: Added Integrations tab to Settings. Allows the Administrator to toggle ON/OFF the hide-in frontend setting in the Access Control meta box.
New Feature: Added status message in post list (Access Control column)

Version: 1.6.5.100179 – October 29, 2021

Bug Fixed: When a role is blocked from the front page, WooCommerce checkout Ajax crashes.

Version 1.6.4.99097 – May 6, 2021

New Feature: Restrict an entire Post Type by User Role. This will ignore the option to allow non-logged-in users access to restricted content. If the user role has access to the post type, other restrictions may still apply. Like when individual settings are set for an individual Post Type.

Version 1.6.3.99091 – May 4, 2021

New Feature: Access to wp-admin by User Role.

Version 1.6.2.98892 – March 23, 2021

Update: Use properly escaping in PHP
New Feature: Set homepage by User Role

Version 1.6.0.98592 – February 26, 2021

New Feature: Added new React based Options Panel to the plugin.
Update: Converted all old features from Options Panel to new React based Options Panel
Update: Used “strict mode” for all Javascript.
Update: Removed empty folders
New: Added new updated .pot file for translation (English)
New: Added support for custom redirect Url when using Forced Login.
New: Added support for using wildcard /* in Forced Login white list.

Version 1.5.1.98183 – November 27, 2020

Bug Fixed: Forced Login was causing the user to enter password twice.

Version 1.5.0.97742 – August 20, 2020

<storng>New Feature: Forced Login. Make your website completely private
New Feature: White-list Pages, Posts, and Custom Post Types (Always Visible) even though you have enabled the Forced Login feature
New Feature: White-list URLs. This is useful if you want to white-list e.g. archives and categories when the Forced Login feature is enabled.
New Feature: Added support for settings a specific front-page for users not logged in and a front-page for users logged in. This feature can be used with or independently of the Forced Login feature.
Bug Fixed: Block access to a Taxonomy term archive page

Version 1.4.6.96327 – February 6, 2020

Update: Added support for restricting access to Pages added to WooCommerce > My Account when using the WooCommerce Account Pages plugin (https://iconicwp.com/products/woocommerce-account-pages/)

Version 1.4.5.86663 – December 14, 2018

Update: Styling improvements in Options Panel

Version 1.4.4.83225 – April 20, 2018

Bug Fixed: PHP warning in the frontend
Bug Fixed: PHP warning on IIS server

Version 1.4.3.82846 – February 7, 2018

Compatibility Fix: Pages by User Role caused the content of blog posts on some websites to be hidden when using WordPress Notification plugin and Pages by User Role.

Version 1.4.2.82096 – November 11, 2017

Bug Fixed: When blocking access to a Page for one specific User Role and allowing users that are not logged in to access the page, the remaining user roles were blocked. This was related to the new feature we just introduced.

Version 1.4.1.82080 – November 10, 2017

New Feature: Added feature for handling users that are not logged in (General Settings)

Version 1.4.0.81397 – September 13, 2017

Update: Added language folder and US English .po file

Version 1.3.9.80977 – August 3, 2017

Version 1.3.8.80492 – June 21, 2017

Bug Fixed: The Post Type Archive option is not blocking access to post type archive pages in the frontend

Version 1.3.7.79512 – May 12, 2017

Bug Fixed: Ajax adding terms (missed control for column’s content)

Version 1.3.6.78455 – April 12, 2017

Bug Fixed: Term restrictions wasn’t working properly
Bug Fixed: Issue with text when content restricted

Version 1.3.5.77856 – March 25, 2017

Compatibility Fix: In some sites, a higher user roles got unchecked in the Access Control Box if lower user role edits the Post, Page or Custom Post Type

Version 1.3.4.76510 – January 30, 2017

Bug Fixed: Default Redirect URL not working
New Feature: Added support for Allowing or Blocking access to Posts assigned to specific Terms based on User Role

Version: 1.3.3.76125 – January 13, 2017

Bug Fixed: Restrict content shortcodes broken after recent update

Version 1.3.2.75839 – December 29, 2016

Bug Fixed: Restricting access to WooCommerce Shop page didn’t work properly
Update: Added link to Help Center in Help tab

Version 1.3.1.75264 – November 17, 2016

Bug Fixed: Restrictions for users not logged in
Bug Fixed: Access Control column overwrites Taxonomy Images column
Bug Fixed: Access Control not working properly for Topic in BBPress

Version 1.3.0.75207 – November 15, 2016

New Feature: Added support for Custom Taxonomies

Version 1.2.9.69262 – April 9, 2016

New Feature: Added support for BuddyPress
New Feature: Added support for BBPress

VERSION 1.2.8.69096 – MARCH 31, 2016

Update: Changed order of Option Panel tabs
Bug Fixed: post_type_enabled fixed getting post_type name
Compatibility Fix: Added check for WooCommerce Shop, Cart, My Account and Checkout) to avoid PHP warning.

VERSION 1.2.7.68965 – MARCH 26, 2016

Compatibility Fix: Change classes where the constructor has the same name as the class to __construct (PHP 7 compatibility).
New Feature: Allow restricting access to WooCommerce pages Shop, Cart, My Account and Checkout (restrictions for WooCommerce Custom Post Type archive page)

VERSION 1.2.6.67786 – FEBRUARY 11, 2016

Compatibility Fix: An undetermined third party plugin is causing a PHP warning
New Feature: Added option to include filtering in the Ajax (Usage: Javascript loaded posts that use wp-admin/admin-ajax.php in the front end).

VERSION 1.2.5.58443 – APRIL 24, 2015

Improvement: Replaced add_query_arg() due to an XSS vulnerability issue that affects many WordPress plugins and themes. Please observe that before the function could be accessed the user had to be an Administrator, meaning that the potential issue was not available to the public.

VERSION 1.2.4.55151 – JANUARY 6, 2015

Bug Fixed: When blocked post id?s make the query result empty, the blocked posts are not blocked at all.

VERSION 1.2.3.54781 – NOVEMBER 19, 2014

Compatibility Fix: BBpress topic not shown, replies show when put is active

VERSION 1.2.2.54690 – NOVEMBER 8, 2014

New Feature: Advanced option to out a custom HTML/Javascript when a page is restricted to the user
New Feature: Restrict Post Type Archive by User Role, which allows you to restrict access to Post Type Archives by User Role and set an independent redirect URL for it
Bug Fixed: Disappearing Options Tab
Bug Fixed: When using inverted PUR the edit post link in the toolbar was still visible, and the user can actually bypass the restriction and edit the post.
Bug Fixed: Undesired redirect on Calendarize it! Events
Compatibility Update: WooCommerce product pages

VERSION 1.2.1 REV47835 – MARCH 17, 2014

Bug Fixed: Handle a situation where under some buggy conditions, output have been already sent by the site, before it should, and thus breaking redirection.
Bug Fixed: Removed php warnings
New Feature: Added a setting to restrict what user roles will be able to view the ?Access Control? Metabox.
New Feature: Experimental Inverted PUR functionality

VERSION 1.2.0 REV22604 – MARCH 6, 2012

New Feature: pur_not_logged_in shortcode for showing content only
to visitors NOT logged in.
New Feature: Enable Administrator to allow or block access to
user roles (previously was only allow)
New Feature: Show in menu when restricted post type
New Feature: In the list of posts, in the Access Control column
show if PUR is Allowing or Denying access to listed roles
New Feature: Show Allow as Green and Deny as Red.
Bug Fixed: Avoid a crash with Options Panel version 2

VERSION 1.1.8 REV14552 – DECEMBER 19, 2011

Update: Enabled WordPress 3.3 functionality

VERSION 1.1.7 REV11497 – DECEMBER 10, 2011

Bug Fixed: pur_restricted Shortcode was not rendering Shortcodes in the content
New Feature: pur_restricted Shortcode now allow alternative text with HTML.

VERSION 1.1.6 REV9091 – SEPTEMBER 26, 2011

New Feature: No Access behavior customization. Admin can specify if a restricted
page should redirect to login or to redirect URL.
Bug Fixed: Adjust the redirect URL field in the metabox
Bug Fixed: Added missing registration service library

VERSION 1.1.5 REV7652 – AUGUST 8, 2011

New Feature: Built-in Shortcode pur_restricted to restrict access to certain sections
of the content by capability; defaults to view_restricted-content but any capability
Update: Options Panel updated
New Feature: No access behavior customization. Admin can specify if a restricted page should
redirect to login or to redirect URL.
New Feature: Custom Post Types by User Role. This only shows if there are custom post types. This is a mini-plugin itself that adds the following functionality:
- In the tab option it shows a list of custom post types and checkboxes of all the existing
- user roles for each custom post type. By checking a user role for a custom post type you are
- restricting admin access to that post type only to the checked user role.
VERY IMPORTANT: Always check the Administrator. Note we do not do it by default, thus maybe the Administrator changed the administrator user role, so we don’t really know what the administrator role is. In the case of incorrectly setting the administrator user role, there is an option on the same tab to disable this feature and recover access to the custom post types.

VERSION 1.1.4 REV4375 – MAY 7, 2011

Bug Fixed: After setting user roles in Category and removing all, all roles where denied access afterwards.

VERSION 1.1.3 REV 2526 – MARCH 24, 2011

New feature: added comment filtering to comments fetch with the wp method get_comments (recent comments widget)

VERSION 1.1.2 REV 1863 – MARCH 1, 2011

Update: Changed the procedure for redirect; 1) the custom url 2) the default url 3) the login page 4) if you are logged in and do not have access, an error message is shown.

VERSION 1.1.1 – FEBRUARY 8, 2011

Bug Fixed: Fixed broken default redirect URL
Bug Fixed: Fixed Pages and Post redirect URL

VERSION 1.1.0 – FEBRUARY 2, 2011

New Feature: Added support for non standard WordPress table pre-fix
New Feature: Added support for access control to Categories
New Feature: Categories with access control are not searchable (unless you have access)
New Feature: Restrict access to Post by using the Posts ID.
New Feature: Category will not show in the menu if restricted access