Private page protected with username and password

So here’s what we’re trying to do:

IF A user logs in and is of a specific role ( Subscriber ) then redirect them to a specific page.

IF A user tries to reach the admin panel, redirect them to a specific page.

We’re going to use 3 hooks for the above problems:

login_redirect – Redirect user once they login
after_setup_theme – Remove admin bar
admin_init – Keeps subscribers out of admin panel

First, let’s create our redirect:

/**
 * Redirect subscribers to specific page
 * @param string $redirect
 * @param string $request
 * return string
 */
function member_redirect( $redirect, $request ) {
    if( current_user_can( 'subscriber' ) ) {
        return $specific_page
    }

    return $redirect;
}
add_filter( 'login_redirect', 'member_redirect', 10, 2 );

If the current user is a subscriber, we would replace the $specific_page with the page URL, otherwise let them go to where they were originally headed.

Next, let’s make sure subscribers can’t get to the admin panel:

/**
 * If user is subscriber AND trying to access admin panel, redirect them to specific page
 */
function subs_adminpanel_redirect(){
    if ( current_user_can( 'subscriber' ) ){
        wp_redirect( $specific_page );
        exit;
    }
}
add_action( 'admin_init', 'subs_adminpanel_redirect' );

Again, you could replace $specific_page with your actual URL.

Finally, let’s remove the admin bar so the user doesn’t even know there’s a dashboard.

/**
 * Remove adminbar for Subscribers
 */
function subs_remove_adminbar() { 
    if( ! current_user_can( 'subscriber' ) ) {
        add_filter( 'show_admin_bar', '__return_false' );   
    }
}
add_action( 'after_setup_theme', 'subs_remove_adminbar' );

This is pretty straight forward, if they’re a subscriber remove the admin bar for them.

A step shackleton pointed out in the comments below is by default, subscribers do not have access to view private pages. We need to add this as a capability:

/**
 * Allow Subscribers to view Private Pages
 */
function add_theme_caps() {
    $role = get_role( 'subscriber' );
    $role->add_cap( 'read_private_pages' );
}
add_action( 'admin_init', 'add_theme_caps' );

You would throw all this into your functions.php file at some place and test it out. Again, this only works for subscribers and only if you replace $specific_page with your actual page URL.

Related Posts: