CarlSites: My Private Site Plugin

Overview

My Private Site is a WordPress plugin that aims to keep your site more "private" by preventing non-registered users from viewing the content on your WordPress site.

My Private Sites is not ideal for hiding content that needs to be safe locked, but is ideal for applications such as

• Private Blog Posts or Pages
• Restricted Access to Resources
• Course Materials
• Internal Communication

Once you install and activate my private sites you will be able to click into the "My Private Site" settings. These settings are divided into separate tabs which include:

My Private Site tab

Here you’ll find general information alongside some helpful resources in the 'Getting Started' section. Additionally, there’s a subscription that can be filled out to subscribe to the updates list. Subscribing can be beneficial to stay informed about upcoming updates for testing and compatibility purposes.

Site Privacy: Important: Enable/Disable your "Site Privacy" status .

Landing Page tab

Landing Page After Login - Select the route you'd like to take when logging in (where you would like the login button to redirect you). Options Include:

• Return to Same URL
• Redirect to Site Home
• Redirect to WordPress Admin Dashboard
• Omit ?redirect_to= from URL
• Redirect to Specified URL

Manage wp-login.php - Sets a specific place to land when you click or type a wp-login.php URL without including &redirect_to= in the URL.

Home Page tab

Manage whether or not the Home Page remains accessible without requiring a login. Manage specific pages that will remain public (accessible to those without login credentials).

Shortcodes tab

This tab provides you with “shortcodes” that give you the opportunity to manage the content users see based on the user’s access levels, such as “logged in / logged out.”

[privacy hide-if ="logged-in"]This will be hidden if the user is logged in.[/privacy]

[privacy hide-if="logged-out"]This will be hidden if the user is logged out.[/privacy]

These shortcodes can be handy if you want to display a content block guiding unregistered users on obtaining their login credentials to access the homepage. Once a user logs in, the content block will no longer be visible. 

For more information on the general concept of shortcodes and how they’re used check out this brief WordPress article on Shortcodes.

Membership tab

Manage whether or not users are allowed to self-register on this private site. To enable open registration, both the “Anyone can Register” and the “Do not block standard User Registration page” checkboxes must be marked.

• My Private Sites Documentation
• Carlsites WordPress: New Site Guide

If you have any questions or run into issues, submit a ticket and an Academic Technologist can help you.

Created by Mauricio I. Reyes Villanueva  '25, 10/11/23. Last modified by Em Palencia 3/12/24