I finally got to rewriting the Registered Only plugin. The new version works on WordPress version 1.5.1 and 1.5. The older version had some issues. The new version is much lighter, and uses a core WordPress function, and so should work without any issues. If there are any issues, please report them at the wp-plugins.org issue tracker.

The registered only plugin restricts access to the WordPress weblog and site (including Pages, if any), to registered users who are logged in. This will be useful for those that want a private blog, or a blog restricted to friends and family. Consider it the WordPress version of a friends-only Livejournal or similar.

The latest version has the tag (version number) 2005-05-12-2000. I will be using a YYYY-MM-DD-HHMM (in UTC time) (based on the ISO8601) format for version numbers, since it seems easily sortable, and conveys information about the freshness of the version. You can download it from the wp plugin repository, save the file as registered-only.php and then upload it to your wp-content directory on the web server.

There is now a readme file with relevant details.

Many thanks to the many users who wrote in regarding this plugin over the days. Leave me a comment if you use the plugin and like, or better still, dislike it.

Update: This plugin does not protect your feeds. So you may want to delete the feed files.

I was gonna call this plugin “Bouncer” but settled for a more explanatory name instead.

This plugin will allow only registered users of your blog to view the blog. If you have a wordpress powered blog that you don’t want your parents, or the secretary in your office, or the POTUS, to read it(okay, well, I can’t guarantee the last one ), then View source and save or Download the .zip file to start using it. This will effectively password protect your wordpress blog, and also prevent search engines from indexing the pages in the blog.

Instructions :

1. Save the file registered_only.php to your wp-content/plugins folder
2. Activate the plugin from the plugin administration page
3. Relax

Usage Notes:

1. If you really want your defense against unscrupulous readers to be strong, then disable the “Anyone can register” option in Options->General in your WordPress administration interface.
2. If you want google and other search engines to be able to index your blog pages, then comment(add two // in the beginning of) the line
   echo '<meta name="robots" content="noindex,follow" />'; . This, however, would mean that the search engines might index your pages and if you want a “private” blog, then this would not be suitable, which is why is it uncommented by default.
3. If you are getting a “headers already sent” warning, then try adding the following one line to your .htaccess file (create a file called .htaccess if you don’t have one already) :
   PHP_FLAG output_buffering on

This plugin is basically the auth.php file that ships with WordPress 1.2, adapted to fit needs, and is distributed under the GPL license.