Pages only members can see

Once you have members, you can put pages behind their login. It takes four steps, in this order: a page to log in on, a setting that sends people there, the pages you want protected, and the members themselves.

Protection is all-or-nothing. A restricted page is visible to every logged-in member. There's no way to give some members access to one page and other members access to another.

Step 1. Make a login page

Create an ordinary page (/login is a sensible address) and put the Members element on it. You'll find it in the editor's component list under Modules → Members.

The element is a single block that changes with who's looking at it:

Its wording is fixed. The labels and buttons come from ClickWhale and can't be edited, translated or replaced, and several of them read in Dutch. Put your own heading and explanation in a Text element above it.

You can style the block: Background, Border, Border radius and Padding on the element itself.

Don't mark this page as restricted. It's the page people land on when they're not logged in.

Step 2. Point ClickWhale at it

Manage → Settings → Website settings → 401 page (not logged in), choose your login page, save.

This is the page shown whenever someone who isn't logged in asks for a restricted one. It keeps the address they asked for in the bar, so once they log in they're already where they wanted to be.

If you leave it on No 401 page, they're sent to your home page instead, with no explanation of why. To them that looks like a bug. Set it.

Step 3. Restrict the pages

Pages, then the ⋮ menu on the page's row → Edit page name / url → switch on Requires logged in user and save.

The toggle only appears when the members module is switched on, and it's per page. A page that exists in two languages needs it set on both.

Then publish. Restriction is part of the page, so like any page change it reaches visitors on the next publish.

Step 4. Add the members

Modules → Members → Member overview → add member, and send each person their email address and password. See Members.

Then test it in a private window: ask for a protected page, land on the login page, log in, and arrive on the page you asked for.

What restricting a page does

• Menu items disappear. A menu entry pointing at a restricted page is hidden from visitors who aren't logged in and appears once they are. So you can put the members' area straight into your main menu; it simply isn't there for the public.
• Search engines don't see it. Restricted pages are left out of sitemap.xml, and a request without a login gets the 401 page rather than the content.
• Files can be restricted too. A short file address has its own Login required setting, which is the way to protect a PDF price list. See Short addresses for your files.

What it doesn't do

• It doesn't protect the images and files a restricted page uses. Anything in your media library is reachable at its own address by anyone who has the address. Give files that matter a short address with Login required on, instead of relying on the page around them.
• It isn't a security system. It's a door for ordinary use. Enough to keep a price list off Google and out of the wrong customer's hands. It is not the place for anything you'd be in trouble for leaking.
• It doesn't separate members. Everyone with a login sees everything restricted.

Common issues