Securing Pages

You may have one or more Pages in your website that you don't want just anyone to be able to see.  For example, you may have personal information or photographs that you only wish to share with family.  You might even have proprietary sports statistics that you charge customers to access.  It is easy to limit viewing of a page to a specific group of website visitors.

Pages can be viewed anonymously or by a specific group of Registered Users.  If a visitor does not have permission to view a page (or has not logged in yet), it will not appear as an available menu item for them to choose.  If a user navigates to a secure page, they would be asked to Login so that their permission to view the page can be verified.

Step By Step: Registered Users Only

Begin by creating a new page as you learned in the tutorial Create Page (Basic).  However, instead of allowing everyone to view that page anonymously, we'll change it so that only Registered Users can see it.

1.  Navigate to your new Page and click Settings in the Page Functions area of the Control Panel (on the upper left corner of the page).

2.   Scroll down to the Permissions area.

3.   Check Registered Users under the View Page permission.  Uncheck any other groups (note that Administrators always have View Page permission).

Now, when an anonymous visitor comes to your website they'll see a Menu which does not include your secure Page!  A user must Register and then Login, then they'll be able to see your Menu item and visit your secure Page.

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Additional Information:

There are really four (4) different ways to think about giving access to your website's pages.  Who would you like to be able to see each page?

(1) Administrators:  Only users who have the authority to "administer" your website can see these pages (so that means you)!  This is a good setting to use for pages that you are working on but don't want anyone to see until you are finished editing. (This is the default for new pages).

(2) Unauthenticated Users:  All visitors can view your page anonymously.  "Unauthenticated" means that the user has not logged in and may not even be registered as a user of your website.  Think of this as "public" access... things that you want everyone to be able to see.

(3) Registered Users:  Users that have filled out a Registration form on your website and now have a User Name and Password and have already logged in.

(4) Custom Group of Users:  These are Registered Users that you have also placed into a special group or "Role" that you have created (e.g. "Family" or "Customers").  For more information on custom groups you'll want to read the tutorial: Manage Users.