Well I’ve been sitting on this one for a long time, mostly due to things being crazy around here (like having a baby, school, yadda yadda). I’m releasing an update to my popular WordPress plugin: Absolute Privacy 2.0 beta 1 is ready for public testing. You can read the change notes below, or just download the .zip file.
What’s Changed?
A lot has changed, but here’s a quick rundown:
- 3.0.x+ required
- Complete code rewrite. I rewrote the entire plugin from object oriented to procedural as this made more sense to me for this plugin. It should be much easier for others to modify and read through the code. No need for overkill here.
- Two different privacy methods: complete lockdown and members area. Complete lockdown functions like the plugin did previously, the entire site will be password protected. Members area allows you protect a specific page (and all subpages).
- Ability to allow access to homepage even with complete lockdown enabled.
- Added two new (currently undocumented) shortcodes.
[loginform]will display a login form on a page or post and[profilepage]will display a page for logged in members to change their password, email, etc. Documentation coming before the final release - Rewrote the authentication functions to use the authenticate filter rather then overwrite the entire function found in pluggable.php. Much better! See this post for more info.
- Added a notice when a user doesn’t have registration enabled (by far my biggest support request)
My To Do List
Unfortunately I didn’t get to everything on my to do list that I wanted. The two major things that are still in the works are multisite support and translations. The plugin now gracefully notifies the user of the lack of multisite support (rather then just flat out not working and leaving the user to wonder why). I’ve got a good start, but multi-site adds a bit of complexity that I haven’t had time to tackle fully. These are the big two that I’m working on.
Also on my to do list is to add some actions and filters to allow for additional registration fields and make the plugin all around more extendable to developers.
Download
Absolute Privacy 2.0 beta 1 – .zip (20kb)
Download and unzip the .zip file and place the folder in your /wp-content/plugins/ folder.
Note: Since this plugin release is a beta, I recommend using this on development sites only. Use this plugin at your own risk. Although I believe it to be fairly stable, every server is different, so your mileage may vary.
Report Your Bugs
Beta releases are pointless unless I get bug reports back. Either leave your bugs, comments, or praises in the comments below, or email them to me at j[at]johnkolbert[dot]com.
mike
November 8, 20106:02 amHi John, firstly congratulations on the new addition to the family…..& I trust you dental studies are going well.
I have been testing your latest version of AP and it is great. I was having problems getting the previous version to work with simplemodal login plugin, however the new version appears to work seemlessly.
In testing the Beta I have found the following issues:
i) Upon approving an “unapproved user” their role is set to “none” in the WP wordpress users dashboard area instead of “subscriber”, thus resulting in the approved user being unable to log on. The user can be set manually in the dashboard however approving via the moderate users panel does not work at present…. User Approved message appears & approval email is sent however users role is not set!!.
ii) Variable %name% in notification email is still picking up the User_Name from the database instead of the users first name (user_firstname(?)).
I hope the above helps. I will continue testing & let you know if I find anything else.
In the mean time, really looking forward to the final release of what is a great plug in.
Cheers, Mike.
John Kolbert
November 8, 20102:11 pmHi Mike,
Thanks for the great feedback! Regarding issue “i”, could you tell me what your default user role is set to? To check, go to “Settings -> General”, and then look at the setting for “New User Default Role” (its a drop-down box). The plugin should be setting the users role to whatever you have set here when you approve them.
Regarding issue “ii”, I think the plugin currently is changing %name% out for display_name. I will change that to user_firstname and user_lastname. That should be more consistent.
Thanks for the feedback!
mike
November 9, 20104:43 amHi John,
My mistake, I had the default user set to “administrator”, which is obviously something which I do not want & which absolute privacy also protected me against!!! Another big thumbs up.
I set the default user to “subscriber” & retested.
Everthing appears to be working just fine now. New user registers, both administrator & pending emails get sent, administrator approves user, approval email gets sent and the user is now set to default i.e. Subscriber as desired in the WP dashboard.
With regards to %name% having two variables, %firstname% & %lastname% would be great, as not only would it be more consistent as you mentioned but it would enable both a formal or an informal response mail set-up depending on user preference.
Many thanks again for a great plugin. Do you have a timeline on release for non beta version?
Cheers, Mike.
Mike
November 11, 201012:39 pmHi John
In testing your plugin with the Headway theme I found a small issue with IE both 6 & 7 (I haven’t tested it with any higher IE than 7).
The issue is that when I am using an image rotator on the redirect / non-signed in user allowed page, the images just display in one long collumn rather than one on top of the other for sequencing as a slide show. For reference the displayed image has a z-index of 6 & the hidden images have a z-index of 5.
The image rotator on the redirect / non logged in user allowed page works fine in Firefox it also works fine in IE once the user is logged in and also when the AP plugin is deactivated (so unfortunately the issue is AP driven).
It is not a big issue, however if there is an easy fix it would be useful to be able to have rotating images on the landing page, rather than just a static image before users login.
Saying that if I have to decide between being able to lockdown my side with AP or having revolving images on my landing page, I’d take Absolute Privacy anyday!!
Would be interested in your thoughts.
Cheers, Mike.
Remkus
November 13, 20102:08 pmHi John,
Been a long time fan of this plugin and I think it’s only missing one thing, especially when considering the fact you’re going to have using 3.0 as a minimum. When you have a multisite environment setup and network activate the plugin it actually freezes up any new sites you add to the network.
Is there a way you can have certain options turned on by default? Like for instance, on one MS I am using the complete lockdown plus the disable RSS by default.
Thanks for condisering.
Remkus
John Kolbert
January 7, 20116:16 amApologies for not replying to this MUCH sooner. Multisite is currently not supported. The registration procedure and (especially) notification emails are handled much differently and I haven’t had time to sort everything out. I’d like to include this at some point but no timeline yet
tim
January 11, 20115:37 amIt’s totally my fault, but i upgraded and migrated my public and private site into a single multisite network. Then (and only then) did I realize that your plugin doesn’t work with multisite yet. So now my private blog is out in the open *sigh* for a bit… I was curious if you had a timeline for a release which works with the multisite network features?
John Kolbert
January 11, 20115:41 amUnfortunately I do not have a timeline at this point. The main issue holding me up is user registration notifications and moderation. This is the main difference between single-site and multisite installations and I just don’t have time at the moment to put into it. You can remove the multisite checks in v2.0.4 by deleting the following lines in absolute_privacy.php: 59 & 80; and the following lines in functions.php: 95-99; but this is VERY untested. Use at your own risk.
Remkus
November 13, 20102:30 pmOh, and subscribe to comments would come in handy here
MrGroove
November 17, 20106:32 amLong time fan – http://gpo.st/nd – so I’m a little upset I’m only JUST NOW seeing that you’ve upgraded your plugin!
Will need to get out a new review once you think 2.0 is stable!
Gunther
December 18, 20109:12 pmHi,
As I wrote it on the WordPress plugin page for Absolute Privacy (AP) a few months ago (at that time was it was with AP v1.3) I found out that with WP 3.0.x the .flv videos I enclose in the posts are attached to the RSS feeds when I use the setting: “RSS: Title only”. So not really “title only” anymore. The images, however, are not attached.
It used to work fine with WP 2.9.x and AP 1.3.
I have now installed AP 2.0 beta1 and the problem is the same (using WP 3.0.x).
Looks like a WP 3.0.x issue and I have resorted to use the “RSS: off” setting for now.
Could you have a look at the issue?
Cheers and thanks for the work you put on this plugin.
David
December 26, 20104:27 pmHi John, I thought I had found what I needed in the previous version of your plugin. I was able to specify a range of pages that were allowed by general public and therefore set a private page for members. Unfortunately the public were not able to see any of the POSTS on the pages, just the intro to each on the allowed page.
Then I got excited to read (somehwere) that the next version was to include posts. Unfortunately, activating Members area in the Beta version has the same results as locking the entire site.
WP 3.0.3
What Im looking for is a generally open site, no password required, with a members only section that I can make posts that really only apply to members.
Sami Parker
December 30, 20102:55 amYour post is really mind blowing and amazing, thanks for such a lovely blog
Carrington Wells
January 3, 201111:51 pmHi John,
The problem I’m having with the Absolute Privacy 2.0 beta 1 is the emails. I had someone do a test register to see if the plugin worked correctly, and they got the first emailing saying they are waiting to be approved, but i did not receive an email saying their was a new user waiting approval… And after i went to the settings page and approved them as a subscriber they did not receive an email saying they were approved to my site..
So i was just seeing if this is fixable or not?
Thank you, Carrington Wells
John Kolbert
January 7, 20116:18 amHmm, interesting. Let me look into this and see if I can replicate it.
John Kolbert
January 8, 20115:13 amDid you approve users through the moderate users page that the plugin added?
Alain WOLL
January 21, 20116:15 pmHello John
First of all, congratulations for your plugin which makes the happiness
many people. I’m French and not an expert. I created a family website with complete blockage and I have a simple question for you. I shall desire to redirect the connected members (authors) on the homepage and not on the administration page.
Can we do this simply?
Thank you very much for your reply.
Louisa
March 16, 20111:16 pmHi John,
Something we have just noticed -
We are using your plugin with simplepress forum. Working really well, asides from this: members are already listed as members of the forum (with viewable profiles) before they have been approved by admin. Any ideas?
julia
October 18, 20118:23 pmCan I customize the logo on the login/register page? (I’d like to change the wordpress logo to a customized logo)
If so – how would I go about doing it?
Would love your thoughts on this
J.
domy
January 21, 201210:53 amthis plugin has a very big bug. when this is actived, the members can make the login with only username and no password. try
Anja
January 30, 20122:59 pmHi there!
I have experienced the same bug as domy! After I activate the plugin, all users can login without entering a password. DANGEROUS!
Otherwise it is just what I need…
domy
February 14, 20126:48 pmdear anja i have the solution? you must install the plugin “email login” ok?