How to make authors’ profiles public while user profiles hidden

Hi @alschmitt,

I’m afraid it is only possible if users go to the Account page -> Privacy tab and set “Hide my profile from directory”.

Regards.

Actually this can be easily done by creating two profile forms and assigning them to 2 user roles where one would have no access to view the other’s profile form. Then both shortcodes will be pasted into the User page.

Hi WP-Tutorial,

I’m afraid but this won’t apply to public users so it won’t suit my problem. Public users/visitors should be able to view authors’ profiles but not subsribers’ profiles. I would have to hide all profiles to public visitors (= not logged in) if I used your method.

Hi Ultimate Member Support,

thanks for the information. I have already had the feeling that this could get complicated.

But I actually found a solution that fits my needs. It’s not the smoothes, not the most elegant and maybe also not the most resource-friendly workaround (WordPress purists might hate it) but it’s working. I hope my tips are not removed as I’m going to suggest another plugin to work together with Ultimate Member:

1. Assign role-specific profile forms to both authors and subscribers

2. Add the author profile form id to the “User” page. Now there should be two profile form ids: The standard id for the standard profile form (for the standard user = subscriber) and the shortcode/id for the author profile form.

3. Install the plugin called “Members”.

4. The “Members” plugin provides a shortcode for restricted, role-specific access within the sourcecode of pages. Restrict the access to the standard user profile form with these shortcodes on the Ultimate Member User page. It should now look like that:
[ultimatemember form_id=XXX] –> profile form for authors
[members_access role=”administrator,author,[add the roles that should have access]”]
[ultimatemember form_id=YYY] –> standard profile form for normal subscribers
[/members_access]

If you click https://www.alexander-schmitt.me you can find out that you (as a public visitor, not logged in) can view the profile of “MrSmith” (author) but not of “Test1” (subscriber).

I’m pretty sure that there are more elegant workarounds but for me, as WordPress newbie, this was the most obvious and easiest way of getting want I want.

Regards
alschmitt

• This reply was modified 7 years, 4 months ago by alschmitt.

I’m afraid but this won’t apply to public users so it won’t suit my problem.

Yes it would, you just don’t get it. Public users could simply be not allowed viewing access in the UM Form by means of making a profile role-specific. Sorry, I am not going to provide you with a step-by-step tutorial for this because I am a busy developer. But, having that extra plugin to control access on your UM site seems like a bad idea in the long run as plugins change, get updated and you could end up with a real mess in the database. You were warned. Just saying.

I’m sorry. I’ve clearly got no intention of wasting your time. I tried it out and it didn’t work.

If I make profile form 1 role specific for authors and form 2 for subscribers, I can prevent the subscribers from viewing form 1 (for authros) in the UM “User Role” menu. But the “User Role” menu won’t let me control what public (not logged in) users see because they are simply not logged in and thus don’t have a UM role. A public user (not logged in) was still able to view the profile of “Test1” on my sample page.

Concerning the backend UM profile form editor, I can see no such field or prompt which would let me control for whom to make the form visible or not (just for making the form role specific, which, as stated above, has no effect for users not logged in) – at least not in my version. If this is included in the PRO version, I’m willing to pay. But someone has to let me know then.

I have no idea about what you tried out so all I am going to say is that you’re setting up things wrong. I suspect hundreds if not thousands of users know also what I am talking about but won’t post either because the steps to take are several. And since you already found your own solution I see no point in continuing any further with this discussion so good luck with your UM website.

hundreds if not thousands of users know also what I am talking about

Well, except the User “Ultimate Member Support” who stated that my goal can only be reached if users hide their profiles themselves. So nothing about me doing something wrong.

I have explained what I tried: Making the two profile forms role-specific and then editing the UM user role rights so that normal subscribers are only able to view their own profiles. This made no changes to the ability of not logged in users to see all profiles.

Wouldn’t it be the point of support to tell what I’m doing wrong if I’m doing something wrong? ‘You’re doing something wrong but I’m not going to tell you what.’ is no help.

I see no point in continuing any further with this discussion

Well, you stated yourself that my site is going to crash and warned me not to continue with my workaround.

So what should I do?

I never said such thing. It’s you who posted your “solution” here. I said what I said to warn others that it’s a bad idea. What you should do at this point is stop manipulating my words in hopes I give you more information in this topic. I didn’t even make the initial reply for you. I simply replied the team member who said that it’s not possible. You should have taken what I said as a hint and not expect that either someone else or I spoon-feeds you the correct information now. You need to mark this topic as resolved.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 4 months ago by WP-Tutorial.

Okay, so let’s cut it short: I’m really sorry if I have bothered you. I am just looking for help with an issue I am note able to deal with alone. So I posted my question here.

What I did now:
– removed my “workaround”, removed the Plugin “Members” from my site
– created two profile forms
– assigned them to specific roles via the UM form editor (one for authors, one for subscribers)
– posted both shortcodes to the UM “Users” page
– denied both authors and subscribers the right to view each others’ profiles via the UM “User Roles” editor

The outcome can be seen here: https://www.alexander-schmitt.me/
Public (not logged in) users are still able to view both the profile of “MrSmith” (author) and “Test1” (subscriber).
https://alexander-schmitt.me/user/mrsmith
https://alexander-schmitt.me/user/test1

I applied your tip from your initial reply:

Actually this can be easily done by creating two profile forms and assigning them to 2 user roles where one would have no access to view the other’s profile form. Then both shortcodes will be pasted into the User page.

I wanted to remove my workaround from this topic because I see that it’s no good idea but I couldn’t edit my reply any longer.

I am going to mark this topic as resolved. Unfortunately it’s not…