Page Gating
Page gating locks a WordPress page (or a document) until the visitor has acknowledged one or more required documents. It makes reading your policies a real prerequisite for reaching a system or resource, not just a box to tick later. Page gating is part of the Free plugin.
Who this is for: administrators who set up the rules, and staff who meet a gated page.
What is page gating?
When you gate a page, a logged-in visitor who still has required documents to acknowledge sees an intercept screen instead of the page. It lists the documents they still need to read and acknowledge, each linked. Once they have acknowledged them all, the page opens normally.
Common uses:
- Staff intranet home — acknowledge the Code of Conduct before reaching the intranet dashboard.
- New starter onboarding — gate the “systems access” page behind the onboarding policy pack.
- Annual review — block the HR portal page until this year’s policies have been re-acknowledged.
- Training resources — require the safety procedure before the training materials page.
- Sensitive forms — gate the expense, leave or payroll request page behind the relevant policies.
Setting up page gating
Turning page gating on
Page gating is off by default.
- Go to Policy Management → Settings → Features.
- Tick Enable Page Gating and save.
A Page Gating screen then appears under Policy Management, in the Configuration group of the menu. If someone opens that screen’s address while the feature is off, they are taken to Settings with the message “Page Gating is currently turned off, so that screen isn’t available.”
Turning page gating off later keeps your rules but stops enforcing them. Turning it back on makes them active again.
Before you add a rule
A gate is satisfied by acknowledging documents. Each document you list in a rule needs:
- Require acknowledgement turned on;
- an acknowledgement audience (Target roles or Target user lists) that includes the people you want to gate;
- to be published and viewable by those people.
A listed document that doesn’t meet all three for a particular visitor is ignored for that visitor (see Behaviour details below).
Adding a gating rule
- Go to Policy Management → Page Gating.
- Click + Add Gating Rule.
- Choose the Content Type — Page or Document.
- Choose the item to lock in Page / Post.
- Under Required Document(s), select the documents that must be acknowledged first. Hold Ctrl (Cmd on a Mac) and click to select several.
- Click Add Rule. The rule is staged: “Gating rule added. Click Save Changes to apply it.”
- Click Save Changes. Rules don’t take effect until you save, and the screen reminds you while you have unsaved changes. After saving you see “… page gating rule(s) saved successfully.”
The Page Gating Rules table shows each rule’s Content Type, Page / Post and Required Document(s). Use the edit (pencil) or delete (bin) button on a row, then Save Changes. Deleting asks you to confirm (“Delete this gating rule?”).
You can add more than one rule for the same page. The page then requires the documents from all of those rules.
Limits and validation
- The Page / Post list shows up to 200 published pages or documents, sorted by title. Drafts and private pages can’t be chosen.
- The Required Document(s) list shows up to 200 published documents, sorted by title. It lists all published documents, including ones that don’t require acknowledgement — so double-check each one you pick has Require acknowledgement on.
- In the rule window, you must pick a page (“Please select a page or post.”) and at least one document (“Please select at least one required document.”).
- If an incomplete rule reaches the save anyway, it’s dropped with the warning “… incomplete gating rule(s) was not saved. Each rule must have a page/post selected and at least one required document.”
The intercept screen
When a logged-in visitor opens a gated page without the required acknowledgements, the page is replaced with a screen showing:
- the heading Action Required Before Accessing “page title“;
- “You must read and acknowledge the following document(s) before you can access this page:” followed by a numbered list of the outstanding documents, each linked;
- “Click each document link above, review the content, and complete the acknowledgment form at the bottom of the page. Once all required documents have been acknowledged, you will be able to access this page.”;
- a ← Go Back link to the page they came from (or your home page).
The browser tab reads Acknowledgment Required, and the address bar still shows the gated page. The screen is sent with a “forbidden” (403) status. Its wording is built in and can’t be changed in settings.
After acknowledging the listed documents, the visitor goes back to the gated page — using the browser’s back button, a menu link or their original link — and it opens normally. They are not returned to it automatically.
Behaviour details
Logged-out visitors. A logged-out visitor can’t acknowledge anything, so they are sent to the WordPress login page. After logging in they come straight back to the gated page and either see it (if they’ve already acknowledged everything) or the intercept screen. Logged-out visitors are sent to log in whenever a gated page has any in-force required document, even one that wouldn’t apply to them once logged in.
Partly complete. The intercept screen lists only the documents still outstanding, so the list shrinks as the visitor works through it.
Expiry and new versions. If a visitor’s acknowledgement of a required document expires, or stops counting because a new version needs re-acknowledgement, they see the intercept screen again on their next visit. Periodic re-acknowledgement is enforced without any manual work.
Documents that don’t apply to the visitor. A logged-in visitor is only held back by required documents they are asked to acknowledge and are allowed to view. If a listed document doesn’t target them, doesn’t require acknowledgement, or is hidden from them, it’s skipped and can’t block them. That way nobody is stuck on a document they could never acknowledge. With the Pro waiver register, an active waiver for a person also releases them from that document’s gate.
Retired documents. A document whose status is Superseded or Archived no longer gates any page, even if a rule still lists it.
Administrators. Users with full administrator rights always bypass page gating, so they can view and edit gated pages. To see what staff see, test with a non-administrator account. You can’t add other bypass roles — editors and everyone else are gated like other staff.
What gating doesn’t do. Gating controls opening the page itself. It doesn’t remove the page from menus, search results or listings, and it doesn’t hide the page from logged-in staff by role — use your document visibility and audience settings for that.
Combining page gating with other features
With the comprehension and read-time gates. Documents listed in a page gate can have their own comprehension quiz and, with Pro, minimum reading requirements. This layers your assurance: staff can’t race through the required documents just to unlock the page, because the Acknowledge button on each document is itself gated.
With audiences and user lists. Make sure every document used in a gate targets all the roles, or user lists, of the people who must acknowledge it before reaching the page. If the gate seems to let someone through too easily, an audience gap is the usual cause.
Settings summary
| Setting | Where | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enable Page Gating | Settings → Features | Off | Shows the Page Gating screen and starts enforcing rules. |
| Page Gating Rules | Policy Management → Page Gating | None | One row per gated page or document. |
Who bypasses the gate (administrators only) and the intercept screen’s wording are built in.
Permissions: the Page Gating screen is available to administrators (anyone who can manage the plugin’s settings).
Note: The description at the top of the Page Gating screen says visitors are “redirected to the first required document” and mentions “custom post types”. In practice, visitors see the intercept screen listing every outstanding document, and you can gate pages and documents only.
Troubleshooting
The gate isn’t stopping anyone. Check that Enable Page Gating is on and you clicked Save Changes after adding the rule. Make sure you’re not testing as an administrator. Then check each required document has Require acknowledgement on, targets the visitor’s role or user list, is published and isn’t Superseded or Archived.
A visitor is stuck on the intercept screen after acknowledging. Ask them to open each listed document and check it shows the green Acknowledged box. If a document shows no acknowledgement box at all, they aren’t in its audience and it shouldn’t be listed for them — check the document’s visibility and audience settings. If they acknowledged in another tab, reloading the gated page clears the screen.
The page or document I want isn’t in the list. Only published items appear, up to 200 of each. Publish the page first. On very large sites, give the item a title that sorts early or ask your developer to raise the limit.
Logged-out visitors are sent to the login page. That’s expected for a gated page: they need to log in so their acknowledgements can be checked and recorded.
Worked example — an aged-care provider
Banksia Aged Care wants every care worker to acknowledge the Medication Management Policy and the Incident Reporting Procedure before they can open the Rostering & Shift Swap page on the staff intranet.
- The quality lead turns on Enable Page Gating under Settings → Features.
- Both documents already have Require acknowledgement on, targeting the Care Worker role and the Agency Staff user list. The medication policy also has a five-question comprehension quiz.
- Under Policy Management → Page Gating, she clicks + Add Gating Rule, chooses Page and Rostering & Shift Swap, selects both documents, clicks Add Rule, then Save Changes.
- A care worker who hasn’t acknowledged the medication policy clicks the rostering link and sees Action Required Before Accessing “Rostering & Shift Swap”, listing that one document. She reads it, passes the quiz, acknowledges, goes back to the rostering page and it opens.
- When the medication policy moves to version 3.0 (a major change), every care worker’s acknowledgement stops counting. The next time each opens the rostering page, the intercept screen appears again until they’ve acknowledged the new version.