PMPRO Member RSS Addon

When paid content ends up in a friend's inbox

A member who wants to read your articles or listen to your podcast from their feed reader is not going to log in to your site every day. PMPRO Member RSS Addon solves that tension: each member gets their own feed URL, tied to their account, and what appears in it depends on their membership level.

One link per person, which you can invalidate, changes that.

How PMPRO Member RSS Addon decides what each member sees

The plugin assigns each user a unique key that is added to any WordPress feed as a ?memberkey= parameter. When a request arrives with a valid key, the feed is built with:

• The posts that the member's level gives access to.
• Public content.
• Without the posts their level does not allow them to see.

If the URL carries no key, the feed behaves like a normal WordPress RSS feed and shows only public content. The key also works for category feeds, tag feeds or custom endpoints: just add the key at the end of the URL. The text that replaces restricted content inside the feed can be customized with a filter.

What matters to each type of project

If you publish a private podcast

In podcast feeds, protected audio files are removed from the items the member cannot access.

If you run a paid blog or newsletter

Your subscribers read the latest posts in their usual reader, filtered by their level. If you have several levels, each one sees their own without you having to maintain separate feeds by hand.

If you manage an association or community

Members manage their own feed from the account page. They can regenerate their key without writing to you, and you can also do it from the member edit screen, in the Member RSS panel.

URL keys or Basic Auth: three authentication settings

In Memberships > Settings > Advanced there are three options:

• Enable Basic Auth for feeds: the member identifies themselves with their WordPress username and an application password, and adds ?pmpromrss_basic_auth=1 to the URL. It is off by default.
• Allow the memberkey as Basic Auth password: useful if the feed reader does not support application passwords.
• Disable the memberkey in the URL: forces the use of Basic Auth. It requires Basic Auth to be enabled first.

The regular account password does not work for Basic Auth, only application passwords do. If a request carries both a key and credentials, the key takes priority. Failed Basic Auth attempts are integrated with PMPro's spam protection, and repeating them causes a block.

A dedicated feeds page and what happens when you regenerate the key

By default, the links appear in the member links section of the My Account page. If you prefer a dedicated page, create it as a child of the membership account page, add the [pmpro_member_rss] shortcode and assign it in the PMPro page settings. The account page then shows a link to it instead of the URLs.

That page lists the feeds with authentication added, shows the key in a read-only field when applicable, includes the regenerate button and adapts what it displays according to the active settings.

When you regenerate a key, the previous one is deleted for good: any reader using it loses access instantly and needs the new URL pasted in. The key is also generated again when the member's level changes.

It needs Paid Memberships Pro and does not replace content protection

It is an add-on: it requires Paid Memberships Pro installed and active, and it does not work on its own. Nor does it protect anything by itself: it respects the restrictions you have already defined in PMPro by level. If a post is not restricted, it will appear in anyone's feed.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to configure anything to get started?

Not for basic operation with the key in the URL: the links appear on their own on the account page. The dedicated page and Basic Auth are optional.

What do I do if a member shares their link?

Regenerate their key from the Member RSS panel on their record. The old URL stops working immediately.

Does it work with any RSS reader?

The URL with the key can be pasted into any RSS or podcast reader. If the reader asks for credentials and does not support application passwords, enable the option to use the memberkey as the password.

Does it work with category feeds?

Yes, by adding ?memberkey= and the key to the URL of any WordPress feed.

What does a member without a key in the URL see?

The standard WordPress feed, with public posts.