Add new visibility type: Hidden

[intersol]

Based on an old thread from ​https://wordpress.org/ideas/topic/hidden-page-visibility we would like to add a new visibility type: Hidden.

Here are the essential out-comings of the discussions:

A hidden page differs from the existing page visibilities like this:

• Public: A hidden page isn't widely advertised. They don't get added automatically to menus even if that option is selected, but they can still be included in menus manually.
• Private: A hidden page's content is accessible to anyone who knows the URL, regardless of their authorisation level.
• Password Protected: A hidden page requires no password to access.

Mainly a hidden page should be accessible only if you go with the browser directly to its URL. This would work very similar with the sharing functionality in Google Docs and Dropbox, where you can share a document via the URL.

[helen]

There are a lot of assumptions tied up in this about how one would use a hidden page that would make this a solution that would be unlikely to satisfy anybody out of the box. There are some existing UI issues (confusion about scheduled posts and visibility, which cannot co-exist given the way statuses are stored) as well as a custom status API that really needs fleshing out - see #12706. Closing as maybelater based on the need to shore up what we have first.

[headofrock]

Replying to helen:

There are a lot of assumptions tied up in this about how one would use a hidden page that would make this a solution that would be unlikely to satisfy anybody out of the box. There are some existing UI issues (confusion about scheduled posts and visibility, which cannot co-exist given the way statuses are stored) as well as a custom status API that really needs fleshing out - see #12706. Closing as maybelater based on the need to shore up what we have first.

This is what I want the hidden page for... I do not use primarily for blogging so I'm only concerned with pages. 1) I'm trying to cultivate a specific kind of customer. I don't want to attract the coupon follower kind of customers and so don't want the special offers out there for just anybody. 2) TUse of a hidden page would help in marketing analytics. I've tried several different types of marketing outside of the internet. Never really been able to get good tracking. Using a QR/link to the the hidden page would help us to see what marketing people are looking at and paying attention to.

[netweb]

Seeing as this was closed as maybelater I'll just add that bbPress uses custom post types and uses custom post status hidden, BuddyPress also uses hidden statuses though not custom post types, both these plugins definitions of hidden do not quite match your proposal Headofrock, as Helen noted, there are some assumptions here that would need fleshing out as one size does not fit all here.

This plugin may do what your after Headofrock: ​https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-hide-post/

If not there are quite a few similar plugins: ​https://wordpress.org/plugins/search.php?q=hide+pages

[jodamo5]

I definitely agree with the need for this "hidden" page type to be added.

My core problem is that when I create "Thank You" pages, I use Yoast SEO plugin to set these pages as "noindex", so that search engines don't index them. However, these pages still appear in the internal search results in Wordpress. This is very frustrating.

I have read through all the comments on the topic discussion, and I think it is a valid request to have a page visibility type of "hidden" added to WP Core which automatically sets the page to "noindex" AND hides it from the internal Wordpress search results.

[fastfastlane]

This is a feature I would like to have for our Promotions page for our business website which is built using pages, not posts.

As others on that discussion page that Intersol mentioned, there is a need for businesses using Wordpress to be able to hide pages so that they are only visible and accessible via shared links.

We don't want every visitor to our website to see this Promotion, and we certainly don't want our competitors viewing these pages. That's like selling the store to the wolves to be publicizing company secrets to competitors.

More and more businesses are rebuilding their websites on Wordpress to go mobile-friendly, and for a more affordable method of doing so. It's how and why we ended up using Wordpress to update our site.

To anyone who might say that there doesn't appear to be much discussion on this request page, I'd like to say that I found my way here by sheer accident. How many more have not found there way here but need this functionality for pages?

[intersol]

If anyone wants to take ownership of this feel free to do so. I got rid of Wordpress half a year ago and since then my life was much better.