Not Really Protected If Using Search

[tjfisher]

I've had the s2Member Plugin working for the past month and I just decided to do a search on a protect page and when I typed in search on my site the page came up and wasn't protected. How do i protect posts & pages from showing up in search results? Thanks!

I just did some searching here and found that searched posts & pages aren't protected! that's a bummer! Any suggestions on how to go about doing that since I do have a community of "paid" members that are paying for access yet anyone can gain access to what they are paying for?

[Jason Caldwell]

Thanks for the great questions.

If you protect a Post ID, it ONLY protects the Permalink for that Post. In other words, an Excerpt for that Post could still be displayed in an archive view ( i.e. search results, category listings, author lists, date listings, etc ). If you would like to prevent an archive view from being listed, you will need to protect an entire Category ID, or an entire Tag.

For example, if you want to block access to Post ID# 123, and that Post resides in Category ID# 442, you can either protect the Permalink ONLY, by entering 123 into s2Member -> General Options -> Post Level Access. OR, you could skip that, and instead, protect the entire Category, by entering 442 into Category Level Access.

You may also want to upgrade to s2Member v3.2.3+. In the latest release of s2Member, there is a new feature in the General Options panel, that's called "Alternative View Protection", whereby search results, XML feeds, and other archive views ( i.e. home page, categories, custom queries ) can be protected with s2Member in more advanced ways.

== Changelog ==

= 3.2.3 =
* New Feature - "Alternative View Protection". Check your Dashboard: `s2Member -> General Options -> Alternative View Protection`. This new feature deals with some long awaited (protection) for things like: search results, RSS/XML feeds, and custom queries; where excerpts of protected content may slip through, depending on your theme. This feature is NEW, and still in an experimental state. It is disabled by default, but we encourage you to try it with different settings, and report back to us through the support forums for s2Member.

[tjfisher]

Hi Jason! Thank you so much for the great info! I can't believe that 15 mins after I posted I had an update in my wordpress for exactly this issue! I updated to 3.2.3 and turned on the Alternative View Protection (ALL) and WOW like magic... all protected! I'm so please!! Thank you so so much... you ROCK!

[Jason Caldwell]

Fantastic. Thanks for the kudos.
and for reporting back with your success!