SN Extend Authentication plugin intends to provide a simple and flexible solution for content access. It helps in managing access for premium content and public content. It is important to note that this is not an extension or replacement of wordpress authorization system. In order to use the plugin effectively there are few terms you need to be comfortable with.
1. Premium content:- By Premium content we mean those post/pages which you would like to make available to registered/paid users only.
2. Public content:- Contents that can be viewed by anonymous users (users who have not logged in yet)
3. Registered users:-Users who have registered with your site. We rely on wordpress authentication framework for user verification. irrespective of your authentication mechanism plugin will work fine as long as wordpress is able to discern authenticated and non authenticated users.
4. Anonymous users/browsing:-Public browsing of the site and the user session is not authenticated.
Now that you are comfortable with the terms let us deep dive…
Permissions can be configured either globally or at individual post level (locally). Global level settings are applied to all posts types whereas local settings are applicable to individual post/pages. An example would drive home the point: you will enable the setting globally if you want to restrict access to complete site for anonymous browsing. Whereas if there are few contents which would like to restrict to registered users then local setting is your answer. off course you have the option of overriding global setting at the local level (individual posts)
Global setting
Authentication setting screen is available under wordpress Settings tab and controls the global settings. There are two options on the screen
1. Disable Anonymous Site Browsing: Enabling this feature will lock down your site for anonymous users. i.e. only wordpress authenticated users will be able to view the content.
2. Disable Anonymous Feeds Reading: This setting is very interesting. While you can lock down entire site for anonymous users, at times you may to keep feeds open to anonymous users for marketing purpose. off course if you turn on this setting, it will disable the feed consumption for non authenticated users. As a side note, authenticated feeds are not well supported by all feed readers and by turning on the setting, reader might not be able to read the contents.
Local setting
You can control the access at the post level by turning on and off the following settings. By default it inherits the global settings
This option is available on post creation and edit screen (not available on quick edit).
You are all set now :).
SN Ideas 