Hide Previous Content From New Members

Build a membership site that rewards members for signing up earlier rather than later. This can be done by preventing new members from seeing published content that was published before a members join date.

About the Code Recipe

In some cases, you may want to prevent new users from seeing older content on your membership site. This is especially true if your content is very serial in nature or if you want to generate a more exclusive feel for your membership site. This code will create a content filter for all pages and posts to remove access to posts that were published before a member’s join date. Only the posts or pages which require membership will be hidden.

Note: Pages and posts that require a membership will still be hidden from non-members regardless of the publish date.

The Code Recipe

	/*
	This code will create a content filter for all pages and posts to remove access to posts that were published before a member's join date. Only posts or pages which require membership will be hidden. Note that pages and posts that require membership will still be hidden from non-members regardless of the publish date.

	The params passed are:
	$hasaccess - (bool) what PMPro thinks about whether the user has access
	$thepost - (post object) the post being checked, usually the current post
	$theuser - (user object) the user being checked, usually the current user
	$post_membership_levels - (array of levels) the levels this post requires (if any)
	*/
	add_filter("pmpro_has_membership_access_filter", "hide_old_posts_from_members", 10, 4);
	function hide_old_posts_from_members($hasaccess, $thepost, $theuser, $post_membership_levels)
	{
	global $wpdb;
	//if PMPro says false already, return false
	if(!$hasaccess)
	return false;

	//if the post doesn't require membership, allow access
	if(!$post_membership_levels)
	return true;

	//okay, this post requires membership. start by getting the user's startdate
	$startdate = pmpro_getMemberStartdate($theuser->ID);

	//no startdate? return false
	if(empty($startdate))
	return false;

	//if the startdate is before the post date, return true
	if($startdate < strtotime($thepost->post_date))
	return true;
	else
	{
	//in this case we want to also tweak the message shown
	add_filter("pmpro_non_member_text_filter", "swap_old_posts_member_text");
	return false;
	}
	}
	function swap_old_posts_member_text($s)
	{
	$s = "This content was published before your membership started.";
	return $s;
	}

view raw hide_old_posts_from_members.php hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Adding the recipe to your website

Copy and paste this code recipe into a helper PMPro Customizations plugin.

Author: Jason Coleman

Jason Coleman is the co-founder and CEO of Paid Memberships Pro, the most trusted membership platform that grows with you. With a deep passion for open source software, Jason is the author of Building Web Apps With WordPress, published by O'Reilly Media.

Jason's entrepreneurial spirit is driven by uncertainty, risk, and the thrill of new opportunities. With over two decades of experience in development, management, and marketing, he is committed to Paid Memberships Pro: the only open source platform focused on helping creators get paid so they can find freedom in their life and fulfill their goals.

View more articles by Jason Coleman »

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