Update 16JAN13 – the older post blow is now invalidated.
The solution you seek is now the Post Password Token plugin, http://top-frog.com/projects/post-password-token/ which is a FREE plugin on WordPress. Donate $10 if you like it ! I did.
Old solution
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So if you are reading this, you already know how to click the password protect button in WordPress. But what you are really wanting to know is how to send a link to someone, with the password option already embedded. Say a client who isn’t going to remember his password.
First, you probably searched WP looking for the #@$! plugin that does this. No luck.
Second, you’ve realized that you’ll have to either install a ‘membership’ style plugin or tweak htpaccess code.
Third, you’ve found my humble musing with a promise of an elegant solution.
Well, i’m hitchhiking off of http://wordpress.org/support/topic/bypass-password-prompt-with-direct-link-to-protected-page
who really solved it, but made a typo just at the finish line and screwed up the answer.
So use your friendly ftp program to log into your website, download the /wp-includes/post-template.php and look for function post_password_required about halfway down.
insert this little snippet near the top.
if ( $_GET[‘get_password’] == $post->post_password )
return false;
so it looks like
function post_password_required( $post = null ) {
$post = get_post($post);
if ( $_GET[‘get_password’] == $post->post_password )
return false;
if ( empty($post->post_password) )
return false;
if ( !isset($_COOKIE[‘wp-postpass_’ . COOKIEHASH]) )
return true;
if ( $_COOKIE[‘wp-postpass_’ . COOKIEHASH] != $post->post_password )
return true;
return false;
}
SAVE THE FILE locally. On the server, save the old file post-template.php as post-template.php.old (in case you screw up, you can roll back).
UPLOAD the new file post-template.php.
And now send the link as http://www.mysite.com/my-secret-post-which-sucks/?get_password=your-password-here
it pulls up like a public page. Note that once it pulls up, that I think a cookie is set, and it keeps showing. So you’ll have to test on a 2nd computer that hasn’t entered the password before.
Done.
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Note! 4/23/12 – WordPress updates will wipe out this file. So you need to save a copy of this file as post-template.php.working and then after an update, replace the post.template with the post-template.php.working after EVERY wordpress update.
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BTW, this is really really handy for delivering ebooks from Clickbank so you can control access to the files.
-mt
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8/1/2012 recent WordPress updates changed this and this solution is no longer valid. now the best thing to do is simply hide the page to deliver the product.