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MemberPress Forward-Only Access

WordPress plugin that restricts members from viewing content published before their membership start date. Content published on or after that date remains available according to your existing MemberPress rules.

by Omar ElHawray · github.com/omaraelhawary/memberpress-forward-only

★ 1stars

Install

Download source zip No release zip yet

This is the repository archive. It installs, but the folder name will carry the branch suffix and updates will not flow.

Install straight from GitHub with WP-CLI:

wp plugin install https://github.com/omaraelhawary/memberpress-forward-only/archive/refs/heads/main.zip
No built-in updater. New versions won't appear under Dashboard → Updates. Install new releases yourself, or let Git Updater track the repository.
Readme github.com/omaraelhawary/memberpress-forward-only ↗

WordPress plugin that restricts members from viewing content published before their membership start date. Content published on or after that date remains available according to your existing MemberPress rules.

Requires: MemberPress (active).

License: GPL-2.0-or-later

Installation

  1. Copy the memberpress-forward-only folder into wp-content/plugins/.
  2. Activate MemberPress Forward-Only Access in the WordPress Plugins screen.
  3. MemberPress must already be installed and active.

If MemberPress is missing, site administrators see an admin notice and the plugin does not load its features.

How it works

  • The plugin compares each protected post’s publish date (post_date) to the member’s earliest qualifying active transaction from MemberPress (same basis as “signup” for this feature).
  • If the member’s start is after the post was published, access is blocked for that content (full-page and partial [mepr-active] flows, where MemberPress applies).
  • Users with the manage_options capability are not blocked.

Settings

In the WordPress admin: MemberPress → Forward-Only Access.

Area Description
Rules Optional list of MemberPress rule post IDs. Leave empty to apply forward-only logic to all rules that protect the content. When set, only those rules participate.
Message HTML shown when access is blocked. Use %signup_date% for the formatted membership start date (uses the site date format).
Exclusions Optional post type names and category slugs (comma- or line-separated) to never apply forward-only checks to.

If MEPR_FORWARD_ONLY_RULE_IDS or MEPR_FORWARD_ONLY_MESSAGE is defined in wp-config.php, that constant overrides the matching setting from the admin (the settings screen shows a notice when overrides are active).

wp-config.php overrides

// Optional: restrict enforcement to these rule IDs (array of integers).
define( 'MEPR_FORWARD_ONLY_RULE_IDS', array( 123, 456 ) );

// Optional: fixed HTML message (string). Replaces the Message field.
define( 'MEPR_FORWARD_ONLY_MESSAGE', '<div class="mepr-forward-only-notice"><p>…</p></div>' );

Filters

Other code can add exclusions in addition to the settings screen:

  • mepr_forward_only_exclude_post_types — array of post type names to exclude.
  • mepr_forward_only_exclude_categories — array of category slugs to exclude (posts only).

The plugin merges saved settings into these filters at priority 5.

Use on dashboards or landing pages to show inner content only when the linked “archive” page’s publish date is on or before the member’s signup (relative to optional membership scope).

[mepr_forward_link page_id="101"]
<a href="/april-2026">April 2026 Archive</a>
[/mepr_forward_link]

Attributes:

  • page_id (required) — ID of the page whose publish date is compared.
  • membership_ids (optional) — Comma-separated membership product IDs; limits the signup date calculation to those products.

Logged-out visitors get no output from the shortcode. Users with manage_options always see the inner content.

PHP helpers

These functions mirror the internal API for use in themes or other plugins:

  • mepr_forward_only_get_signup_ts( int $user_id, ?array $product_ids = null ): ?int
  • mepr_forward_only_rule_applies( int $rule_id ): bool
  • mepr_forward_only_is_excluded( WP_Post $post ): bool

Development

Run unit tests (requires Composer):

composer install
vendor/bin/phpunit -c phpunit.xml.dist

Uninstall

Deactivating leaves options in the database. Uninstalling the plugin removes the mepr_forward_only_settings option.