Latest version: 1.3 – Released September 5, 2009
Description
Enables you to set a global password for all your password-protected posts, and switch password protection on or off from the writing screen with just one click.
If you publish a lot of password-protected posts (or even if you don’t), you may end up using the same password for every post. With this plugin you can define a global post password from your ‘Settings-> Privacy’ menu, and switch password protection on or off from the writing screen. When you change the global password, all password-protected posts are automatically updated with the new password.
Note that this plugin does not automatically enable password-protection on every post. It allows you to use a global password for every post that you choose to password-protect.
Installation
- Unzip the ZIP file and drop the folder straight into your
wp-content/plugins/directory. - Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress.
- Visit the ‘Settings -> Privacy’ menu in WordPress and set a global post password.
Now whenever you write or edit a post (or page) you’ll be able to switch password-protection on or off with one click, instead of having to manually type in a password for each post. You can change the password whenever you like.
More Information
Please see the plugin’s page on the WordPress Plugin Directory for more information, including FAQs.
Download
ZIP file from downloads.wordpress.org
Any comments, questions, queries, suggestions, complaints, etc, please leave a comment below!
October 2nd, 2007 at 6:07 am
Nice, been setting the PW manually on private blog every time, this helps out a lot! Thanks!!!!!
November 16th, 2007 at 1:33 am
Thanks bro for this great plugin i make us of
June 11th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
A short question: are password protected post shown on the main web page or do you have to know the url?
June 11th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
acrylschaf: The post title is shown on the main page, but the content is replaced with a box asking the reader to enter the password to read the post.
See this screen shot for an example.
June 12th, 2008 at 9:01 am
Hello
This seems like the perfect plugin for me.
Thanks for making it! :)
July 19th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Whenever i try to click on links in all the post (which say “To download this design, go to it’s password protected download page and log in”), 404 error is displayed.
And normally, for the first time a user should see a page where he can enter a global post password, to access all global-post-password protected pages. After entering that password, he should be able to browse all protected pages, until his session expires. I’ve used the “Global-Post-Password” plugin for setting this up. Sir i use wordpress 2.5.1 and cannot change as i use a plugin which works on 2.5.1. please i need help
Thxs.
July 23rd, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Thanks, this is exactly what i was looking for.
August 2nd, 2008 at 6:18 pm
Works great, but I have it installed on a page, not a post, and I have comments enabled – but no comment box appears on that page now. Ideas?
August 2nd, 2008 at 6:19 pm
Mike: does the comment form appear without the plugin activated?
August 2nd, 2008 at 6:23 pm
Hm… No – really odd. I guess I’ll have to look at the code.
August 2nd, 2008 at 6:25 pm
Mike: Off the top of my head, I think if you look at page.php in your template, you might need to add the comment code from single.php to get comments to show up.
August 5th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
We have some problems with people being denied access intermittently when using this plugin with Wordpress 2.5.1. The clients being denied access are all running Internet Explorer 7. The page they are trying to access is a Page, not a Post. I don’t know if this issue is related to this plugin or is a problem with Wordpress in general.
August 6th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
Michael: Can you try deactivating the plugin and see if the problem persists?
September 11th, 2008 at 3:54 am
I’d give my right arm for a password manager that would allow for multiple passwords… either multiple passwords for a individual posts, or just multiple global passwords.
September 11th, 2008 at 3:57 am
Mike: Really? I have just such a plugin sitting right here on my PC.
September 30th, 2008 at 5:03 am
Hello John,
I’m looking for a plugin that will allow for multiple passwords too. Is that plugin sitting on your computer available for download? Thanks.
October 15th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
This is a great plugin. It would be great in the future to look at a multiple password option for say categories. For example, I have a couple of different passwords based on categories. eg Category ‘Inner Circle’ which certain people can access and category ‘Family’ that uses a different password that only family can access.
Just thought it was worth putting out there.
StevieD
October 28th, 2008 at 9:23 am
Hi:
Could you let us know if you will be updating this plugin in the future or whether this is it. I love it, but notice its only really compatible up to 2.5. I’m using 2.6.2 at the moment and although it appears to be working, every time I post a post I get an error message.
Something went wrong – -32300 : transport error – HTTP status code was not 200
This only started after I installed the plugin. I’m just trying to work out if I should look for an alternative.
Kind Regards
November 3rd, 2008 at 2:51 am
StevieD: The plugin is compatible with WordPress 2.6 – I just haven’t updated the readme file to say so. I’m not sure what your problem is, I’ve never heard of that before.
Does the error goes away if you deactivate the plugin?
November 15th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Hello,
Thanks for the plugin. I will be using it on a page where the content needs to be restricted due to the inclusion of telephone numbers.
I have recently had some visitors mention they are able to access this page without being prompted for a password. I would have thought that the browser was storing it in this case, but are there any other issues with repeat login you know of?
Regards,
Andrew
November 15th, 2008 at 11:24 am
Andrew, as far as I’m aware there are no known problems with WordPress post password system. The only way you can view a password-protected post is to have previously entered the password and have the cookie stored in your browser.
There’s no built-in way to “log out” of password-protected posts once you’ve entered the password (although there are plugins to do this), so there is the possibility that they’ve entered the password in the past and the browser still has the password cookie stored.
Another point to note is that once you’ve entered the password for one post, you’ll be able to view every post that shares the same password – in the case where you’re using Global Post Password it’ll mean every post on your blog is viewable once you’ve entered the password on one post.
December 10th, 2008 at 11:10 am
This is a great plugin
December 16th, 2008 at 10:58 am
Plugin version 1.2 released. WordPress 2.7 compatibility.
December 16th, 2008 at 11:22 am
Thanks for the update. Works like a charm on v2.7. :)
January 11th, 2009 at 1:27 am
Hey y’all Saturday night. We are looking for a solution to a puzzle requiring us to have individual passwords AND a global password for a group of posts on a WP site. We have already sold the product and assigned the clients the passwords – then later discovered that you can only have one password per post. Our solution would be either a second password per post, or a combination global + individual password per post. Anyone got an idea? We go to press pretty soon and would love to have this worked out…the workarounds are all klunky…thank you…Eric Francis / publisher / Planet Waves, Inc.
February 26th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
AWESOME PLUGIN!
I need some guidance… I can’t see how/where to apply the password to my pages. I see it in posts. I would like to apply it to my pages dropdown (meaning each page under pages… if that makes sense) or to my bio page. My goal is to have the whole blog password protected… (or not necessary for the links and contact). If anyone can help me I would appreciate it!
February 28th, 2009 at 12:11 am
Wendy:
Applying the password for pages is the same as for posts – on the page writing screen click ‘edit’ next to the visibility section above the Publish button, and from there you can switch password protection on.
If you’re using a WordPress version less than 2.7 then it will work slightly differently but you can still password protect pages.
John
February 28th, 2009 at 12:14 am
Wendy:
I’ve just realised that it sounds like you’re applying the password from the quick edit area. While this can be done with posts I’ve just checked it with pages and for some reason it doesn’t work. I’ll look into it at some point. For now you’ll have to use the above method.
Thanks for the positive feedback by the way, much appreciated!
John
March 15th, 2009 at 7:20 pm
Great plugin! One point of interest… You mention that:
There’s no built-in way to “log out” of password-protected posts once you’ve entered the password (although there are plugins to do this), so there is the possibility that they’ve entered the password in the past and the browser still has the password cookie stored.
I’ve checked and checked the WP Plugins/Extend section and can’t find a password protected page/post logout plugin. Can you give an idea of what plugin allows logging out? My site now reads me as logged in (presumably for 10 weeks), so I can’t see what the pre-login state is for my site development. Even if it’s something as easy as adding a logout link, I’d be happy to manually add the code to my template if you can give me an idea what the URL should be.
Thanks for any assistance!
March 16th, 2009 at 7:23 am
Looks like some code on this WP trac ticket may be useful in creating a logout link, specifically “pluggable.php”…
http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/2055
I tried just inserting the code, but it’s based on an older WP version so doesn’t work with 2.7.1. Maybe stronger coders than I can have better luck, or provide some tips.
March 17th, 2009 at 7:19 am
Frank: Thanks for your feedback. I could have sworn that there was at least one plugin which provided functions for logging out of password protected posts. I must have been imagining things!
I’ll see about adding log out functionality to Global Post Password in the next few days.
April 1st, 2009 at 5:29 am
Hi John: Did the WP trac ticket I provided on 3/16 help? Project was on hold for a few weeks, but the customer is ramping it back up. So I’d like to provide them a logout/cookie clear solution if you can help me here. Thanks in advance for your help, and for the awesome plugin!
April 2nd, 2009 at 12:36 pm
Hi Frank,
To be honest I simply haven’t had time lately. Hopefully I’ll be able to look at it next week.
John.
May 17th, 2009 at 1:23 am
Great plugin! One point of interest… You mention that:
There’s no built-in way to “log out” of password-protected posts once you’ve entered the password (although there are plugins to do this), so there is the possibility that they’ve entered the password in the past and the browser still has the password cookie stored.
I’ve checked and checked the WP Plugins/Extend section and can’t find a password protected page/post logout plugin. Can you give an idea of what plugin allows logging out? My site now reads me as logged in (presumably for 10 weeks), so I can’t see what the pre-login state is for my site development. Even if it’s something as easy as adding a logout link, I’d be happy to manually add the code to my template if you can give me an idea what the URL should be.
Thanks for any assistance!
May 28th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
Kadın: You’re right, there isn’t actually a plugin available to log out of password protected posts. I wrongly thought that there was. I’m working on a plugin to do exactly this thought and hope to release it when I get some spare time.
Meanwhile, if you clear your cookies for the domain you’re working on, you will be logged out of password protected posts.
John.
June 9th, 2009 at 4:43 am
For those people (Frank & Kadın) that are hoping for a log out link for password protected posts, I have just released a new WordPress plugin: Logout Password Protected Posts. Check it out.
June 9th, 2009 at 4:47 am
Yay John!! I’ll be sure to try it out and let you know how it works on my WP install. Thanks again!
July 23rd, 2009 at 2:21 am
Works great. Thanks John!!
August 10th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
Thanks for this great plugin. I wonder if there is any possibility to work with overlapping passwords? The reason is that I want to change the password every month. To avoid problems, there should be a period in which both, the old and the new password, work.
Thilo
August 11th, 2009 at 1:15 am
Thilo: Neat idea. I’m planning on updating this plugin soon so that it supports multiple multiple passwords (meaning visitors can enter any one of the passwords in order to access all your protected posts).
This will allow for things such as giving a certain group of people one password which can be revoked at a later date, while giving another group of people a different password which can be revoked at a different time or kept permanently etc etc.
In your case, it will mean you can run one password for a while, then run two passwords concurrently for as long as you like, then revoke the original one, thus giving you your overlap period.
Expect to see this update within the next two weeks or so.
August 13th, 2009 at 9:52 am
That sounds even better :)
September 3rd, 2009 at 11:34 am
Hi great plugin! And the update sounds cool too.
However, is there a way to make this plugin (or the update) work for private pages/posts? I have a site with members that can see private pages etc but want to tie down some content (1 or more pages/posts) with an extra password for priviledged members only. this plugin looks right except it doenst work for private pages.
Any ideas?
Many thanks in advance!
September 4th, 2009 at 12:30 am
Gyro: It’s not possible to password protect a private post (or page). The reason is the way posts are stored in the database. A post has a ’status’ and this can be one of either ‘published’, ‘private’, ‘protected’, ‘draft’, etc. A post can’t be ‘protected’ and ‘private’ at the same time.
September 5th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
Version 1.3 is out which introduces unlimited multiple global post passwords for those that want them. See the Settings->Privacy menu after upgrading for details.
Note that WordPress 2.7 or later is now required for this plugin to work.
September 13th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
Hi,
I’d like to edit this message:
“This post in password protected. To view it please enter your password below:”
But I can’t find it in any of the phps. Can you tell me where to find?
Thanks,
Simeon
September 13th, 2009 at 11:17 pm
Simeon: Try the Better Protected Pages plugin. It lets you change the text displayed on password protected posts.
October 20th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
Hello John,
Do you know of a Wordpress plugin that allows me to password-protect my posts for multiple users? In this scenario, one user would have a password to give them access to certain posts, while another user has a different password to see a different set of posts. Is this even possible?
Thanks!
/Bob
October 21st, 2009 at 2:27 pm
Bob: I’m sure there are plugins out there that accomplish this by using the user roles system in WordPress (so your users would have to be registered users) but I don’t know of one off hand.
October 21st, 2009 at 2:28 pm
Hi, will you be implemeting something to password protect categories? I am looking for this and have found hundereds of people wanting the same thing, if you could do this, it woul dbe great!
Oh and great plugin by the way. Its great for doing what I want the long way haha.
Category passwords would be soooo mcu easier.
Brett
October 21st, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Brett: A good idea, but no, I won’t be implementing this unless the need arises.
October 21st, 2009 at 6:23 pm
Would you be able to make this into a standalone plugin? Would be very good ;) and useful to many.
Brett
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:17 am
Brett: I’ll add it to my to-do list but I’m afraid it’ll go right at the bottom and may never reach the top as I have to prioritise work that pays the rent. When I get some free time I’ll certainly think about looking into it.
December 26th, 2009 at 10:47 pm
Hi John,
Thank you very much for your Global Post Password plugin. I have been searching for one like this that actually works and first time too. So easy to setup that even a relative newbie like me could do it!
I had originally set up my blog with html pages based on wp-templates but now I think I will migrate these pages into my blog and protect the posts with your plugin.
Thanks again, Morgan
January 6th, 2010 at 11:11 am
Thank for the nice PlugIn! But – if I define a passord with more than 20 characters, it doesn´t work!
Maybe this information is useful for further versions.
Regards from germany.
January 7th, 2010 at 6:11 pm
Kevin, the maximum length for a post password in WordPress is 20 characters. Nothing much my plugin can do about that I’m afraid! Glad you find the plugin useful.
January 14th, 2010 at 12:40 am
It’s working with 2.9.1 but if i click on “fast edit” in post section, it’s not working (plugin enabled) ! when plugins is distabled, everytginh is working fine
January 14th, 2010 at 4:12 pm
Piter: I’ve not had a chance to test it under 2.9.x yet – will do this weekend.
January 18th, 2010 at 6:04 pm
Hi John,
I need to localize the msg on password protected post and the “Protected: Title of Post” line, but I’m not able to find the right file.
Can you help me about this?
Thanks for your work.
January 22nd, 2010 at 7:45 pm
Homitsu: The “Protected: Title of post” line will be localized when you install a language file for WordPress.
The text in the Global Post Password plugin supports localisation but you’ll need to follow these instructions to perform the localisation.
I’d like to provide a PO file for my plugins at some point but I don’t have the time at the moment. Let me know how you get on!