Customize Private & Protected: Password Form & Prefix

Changelog

1.6.0 – 2026-09-28

• Renamed the plugin to “Customize Private & Protected: Password Form & Prefix,” and rewrote the tags, description, and FAQ, so it’s findable by what it actually does
• Feature – Custom “Invalid password” text for a wrong attempt (WordPress 6.8+)
• Feature – Custom excerpt text for protected posts in lists (also works in block-theme Query Loops, where WordPress’s own excerpt filter doesn’t reach)
• Feature – Password cookie lifetime: set how many days it lasts, or make it a session-only cookie
• Feature – Hide password-protected posts from the homepage, archives, search results, and feeds (including block-theme Query Loop blocks), while keeping them reachable at their own URL
• Fix – The custom password form’s error message wasn’t actually linked to its aria-describedby; screen readers now announce it
• Fix – The custom form’s submit button now picks up a block theme’s Global Styles button color
• Added Settings and Get Help links on the Plugins screen, and a Get Help link on the settings page
• The “leave a review” notice now waits 14 days after activation, and its dismiss links persist correctly (they didn’t before)
• Fix – Every release since 1.3.6 had been publishing the plugin’s actual .git directory (full commit history) into the public SVN repository, because .distignore never listed .git. Purged and fixed; no secrets were ever in that history

1.5.0 – 09-27-2026

• Feature – Added a Settings page under Settings > Private & Protected, with every option the Customizer has. Block themes (the default since WordPress 6.x) hide Appearance > Customize, so this makes every option reachable without it
• Both places edit the same settings, so use whichever is easier

1.4.0 – 09-27-2026

• Feature – Added Customizer color pickers for the submit button’s background and text color
• Fix – Live preview: the private-post title prefix preview rendered nothing (missing return); the protected-post one rendered the wrong thing entirely (a format string, not the title). Both properly re-render the title now, which also fixes the live preview causing a full form reload while typing
• Fix – Live preview JS: a broken selector meant it never found the title in block themes; an accidental global variable
• Fix – Checkboxes and pixel-padding fields were sanitized with a text/HTML sanitizer instead of a boolean or number one
• Fix – Prefix filters now use the post WordPress passes them, instead of only the currently-queried global post (matters for titles shown in menus, widgets, and lists)
• Fix – The is-protected/is-private body classes and the frontend stylesheet no longer apply to archive pages just because the first listed post happens to be private or protected
• Fix – The “leave a review” admin notice’s role check was broken (checked role names WordPress doesn’t use) and dismissing it never stuck; both fixed
• Fix – Default values now match between the Customizer and the front end, so nothing changes until a value is actually saved
• Renamed an internal class out of WordPress core’s own naming space, to avoid ever colliding with it; removed a leftover unused function
• Assets are now cache-busted with the plugin version, and the plugin’s stylesheet only loads on private/protected pages instead of every page

1.3.6 – 09-27-2026

• Fix – Escaped two unescaped output points in the Customizer’s custom control (flagged by WordPress Plugin Check): a control’s description text, and its aria-describedby attribute, which was also outputting a bare unwrapped ID instead of a real attribute
• First release shipped via the new automated GitHub Actions → SVN pipeline

1.3.5 – 09-27-2026

• Tested – Passed tests with WordPress version 7.1
• Fix – A % character in a custom title prefix no longer breaks the page on PHP 8
• Fix – Password field no longer caps entries at 20 characters (core allows up to 255)
• Fix – Password form no longer emits a duplicate class attribute, so theme styles for .post-password-form apply again
• Fix – Password form now shows the “Invalid password” message and preserves the redirect after a wrong attempt, matching WordPress core since 6.8
• Feature – Added Customizer color pickers for the password field’s background and text color, to fix white-on-white fields on some themes

1.3.4 – 10-04-2025

• Tested – Passed tests with WordPress version 6.8.3

1.3.3 – 01-18-2025

• Tested – Passed tests with WordPress version 6.7.1
• Fix – Added div element to clear float from form submit button

1.3.2 – 05-19-2024

• Tested – Passed tests with WordPress version 6.5.3

1.3.1 – 01-13-2024

• Tested – Passed tests with WordPress version 6.4.2
• Tested – Passed tests with PHP versions up to 8.1.23

1.3.0 – 07-03-2023

• Enhancement – Tweaked selective refresh to improve user experience for supported themes
• Enhancement – Text domain namespace added for internationalization support

1.2.0 – 04-15-2023

• Enhancement – Implemented selective refresh to improve user experience

1.1.1 – 03-18-2023

• Tested – Passed tests with WordPress version 6.2
• Tested – Passed tests with PHP versions up to 8.1.9
• Fix – Fixed variables for custom input attributes, which broke in PHP 8 and up.

1.1.0 – 01-16-2023

• Tested – Passed test with WordPress version 6.1.1
• Feature – Added ability to customize protected button appearance
• Enhancement – Enabled translation in plugin labels
• Enhancement – Minor cleanup

1.0.1 – 09-24-2022

• Tested – Passed test with WordPress version 6.0.2
• Enhancement – Added dismissible notice for plugin review

1.0.0 – 04-06-2022

• Tested – Passed test with WordPress version 5.9.3
• Enhancement – Updated default values for button and label

0.2.0 – 01-09-2022

• Enhancement – Made fields hide/show based on hide Prefix & Use Default checkboxes
• Enhancement – Added support for Divi password form
• Feature – Added option to display WordPress’ default form with widgets

0.1.0 – 08-31-2021

• Initial Release