I’m a little confused by what you have said:
- “when I go to my site home page, no login is required”
- “Is my exemption of my home page the problem which is negating a login?”
If you have a checkmark in the “Site Home is visible to everyone?” field, you will never see a Login or Registration prompt on your site home page. You can, of course, add a Login link to a sidebar using a Widget.
Caching is the most likely cause of Pages and Posts being displayed that are not set as Visible Exclusions in My Private Site. I’ll get to Caching in a minute.
I’m not aware of the plugin ever being tested with Content Protector, so I would recommend momentarily deactivating Content Protector while testing My Private Site. They may indeed clash. My Private Site should do the job for you without Content Protector.
As for what is protected from viewing, My Private Site requires login to view anything that WordPress delivers to a visitor. Examples of things that WordPress does not deliver are mentioned on the Description page in the Plugin Directory:
This plugin does not control non-WordPress web pages, such as .html and .php files created by hand or by other software products. Or images and other media and text files directly accessed by their URL, or from a browser’s directory view, if available.
As promised: Caching. Your web browser caches based on URL. WordPress has plugins that cache WordPress-delivered content; some plugins don’t explicitly or obviously say that they cache, including some security plugins that I have seen.
Caching can give you a Time Machine effect. Showing you a Page or Post as it was at some time in the past, before My Private Site began protecting your web site. Instead of prompting you for a login, you may see the Page or Post delivered to you from a Cache.
Finally, this is not official support; David provides that.
Thread Starter
Bill
(@66atomsadmin)
Hi jonradio,
Thanks for the answer. I have made some changes, based on your comments. Let me try to be a bit more specific, as I am still not seeing what I need to see (what I see is no login or registration request anywhere, and no protection for the pages I want hidden from those not registered).
I am using the theme Senses-Lite. I have a child theme, because I changed some images and titles.
My Private Site settings are: what is checked are Private Site, Membership, Reveal Registration Page, Return to Same URL, and Check Custom Login URL. I have Current Visible URL Entries on all pages except Home, Blog-Posts, Classmates:We Found You, and Classmates:In Memoriam.
I have disabled my Safari caches, and emptied them. I have turned off Content Protector.
When I come up on my site, there is no WordPress login screen and no registration request, on any page (including Home, We Found You, and In Memoriam). I am not sure what to expect. But, at the moment, there appears to be no protection being provided anywhere, and I can’t figure out why. I expected that selecting the menu choice Classmates:In Memoriam, for example, should have caused a Login screen to display, but it does not.
I recognize that previous site crawling could cause search results to include pages I want protected; that is not the current issue. I can’t seem to get basic protection for the pages I want not to be visible to the general public. I am fine with my Home page being visible, but if making it protected is required for the plugin to work, then I will change that.
Thx,
Bill
I’ll respond again in a few minutes, but I wanted to say that the most likely problem, in my opinion, is a WordPress plugin that does Caching. As I said in my previous post, even some security plugins default to doing Caching. Usually, the Cache has to be completely flushed after changing any My Private Site settings.
I do not understand: “I have Current Visible URL Entries on all pages except Home, Blog-Posts, Classmates:We Found You, and Classmates:In Memoriam.”
Do you mean that you want everything to be visible except the following four pages, which you want to be hidden: Home, Blog-Posts, Classmates:We Found You, and Classmates:In Memoriam? If so, I’m not sure how you would set the settings to accomplish that, as the Settings were originally intended to protect everything and exclusions were added later.
At this point, the easiest way to explain what you have set up in the plugin would be to list (cut and paste) what the plugin shows under “Current Visible URL Entries”.
Thread Starter
Bill
(@66atomsadmin)
Hi jonradio,
Sorry if I am testing your patience; it is not intentional. This is my first WordPress site (although I have been responsible for design and web mastering of 2 other websites, that I write in straight HTML and CSS). I have been trying LOTS of plugins trying to find what are the “best” ones to use for my site, so some of my questions or assumptions may be particularly uninformed or poorly stated. Again, not intentional.
I would like to know what you mean by “the Cache”. If you mean the browser cache, as I explained previously, I emptied and disabled my Safari browser cache. Does that not accomplish the desired goal? If it does not, please be more specific about what needs to be done to get this plugin working.
Here is a C&P of “Current Visible URL Entries”:
Delete URL=https://annandalehs-class66.org/reunion_news/
Delete URL=https://annandalehs-class66.org/looking-for-you/
Delete URL=https://annandalehs-class66.org/attendees/
Delete URL=https://annandalehs-class66.org/photos/
Delete URL=https://annandalehs-class66.org/contact/
Yes, there are 3 pages I would like to protect, namely, Blog-Posts, Classmates:We Found You, and Classmates:In Memoriam. I did not include the Home page in the Current Visible URL Entries list based on a misreading of your previous comment on “never seeing a login or registration prompt on your site home page.” I would like the Home page to be visible, and a Login or Registration page to display whenever any of the three named above display for the first time.
I still can’t quite figure out how this plugin is designed to work. Should a login and/or registration page be displayed without any further action on my part (to add a login widget, for example) if someone tries to access a protected page? Or, am I to supply such pages, and if so, what do you recommend (since apparently Content Protector is not a good choice)?
I am confused by your statement that “I am not sure how you would set the settings to accomplish that…”. Is there some limit on how many pages can be excluded from protection? I might add that Content Protector works fine for the Classmates pages, but does not work for Blog-Posts; this is what drove me in the direction of Private Site.
Thx,
Bill
Thanks for YOUR patience on this.
The official documentation on Caching is brief: https://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Optimization/Caching
Both Server Caching and Browser Caching can be a problem with this plugin, in the sense that both Caches may need to be flushed (completely) if there is any chance the Cache may include a “protected page”. As well as what the article says, some plugins include caching by default, even though they are not Caching Plugins. If in doubt, you may need to momentarily disable any suspect plugins while testing My Private Site. In my experience, Security plugins are the most likely to Cache.
My Private Site is designed to automatically display the default wp-login.php WordPress login (or a Custom one you select in the Settings) whenever a non-logged-in visitor to your site goes to one of your “protected pages”.
“I am not sure how you would set the settings to accomplish that…” was based on the plugin setting having a concept of protecting everything but what you specify in Visible Exclusions. There is no “Protect Nothing” setting nor Invisible Exclusions.
I hope that addresses your questions.
As for the issues that you are seeing, the high likelihood (Cause) is Server Caching. It really is important, at this point, to rule that out as the possible Cause.
By the way, it may be a “red herring” but I just hit your home page and was met by a login screen.
Thread Starter
Bill
(@66atomsadmin)
Hi jonradio,
I got all excited with your last message, and went to my site too, and also saw a login screen. However, as I started today there was no login screen on the pages I want protected.
I have added annandalehs-class66.org/index/ to Current Visible URL entries.
I deactivated all plugins except jonradio Private Site and WordPress HTTPS. I then cleared both the browser caches and the system cache. But, cached pages are still displaying.
I went to a different browser (Firefox) and everything displays as it should. I went to my wife’s computer, and registered her for the site, and that works correctly.
Thanks much for the help! All is working fine, except that I can’t figure out where/how/why Safari is caching my old pages. I have the Safari menu named Develop, and I have chosen Empty Caches many times (Sigh !).
Anyway, thanks again.
Bill
I have no Mac experience, but I would suggest researching Safari caching, to be sure that you haven’t missed some part of its cache. For example, this article talks about a time range: https://guides.instructure.com/m/4214/l/334964-how-do-i-clear-my-browser-cache-on-a-mac
Not sure that I can do much else at this point.
Thread Starter
Bill
(@66atomsadmin)
I figured it out. Activating JetPack by WordPress.com causes your site to not work correctly. I had JetPack deactivated, Private Site worked as advertised. I deleted History on Safari, re-started Safari, activated JetPack, and Private Site was not working (no password requested on my protected pages). I deleted History on Safari, re-started Safari, deactivated JetPack, and Private Site worked correctly.
I would greatly appreciate a shout when this is fixed.
Thx,
Bill
As I said at the outset, David provides the official support, including changes to the plugin. I’m just a bystander at this point in time.
Thanks for all the hard work diagnosing this problem. It sounds like Jetpack is doing more caching than just its Photon feature which caches images. If so, how do you flush that cache? That will be the real mystery to solve.
