Plugin Changelogs

Need the details? Check out our latest development changelogs below.

WooCommerce Protected Categories

2.8.0 — 22 December, 2025

  • Fix— Category protection integration improvements with other plugins
  • Fix— Checkboxes not aligned properly in setup wizard
  • Dev— Tested up to WordPress 6.9.0 and WooCommerce 10.3.6

2.7.9 — 17 September, 2025

  • Fix— Category protection should not apply on admin

2.7.8 — 12 September, 2025

  • Dev— Updated internal libraries and tested up to WordPress 6.8.2 and WooCommerce 10.1.2.

2.7.7 — 26 August, 2025

  • Dev— Tested up to WP 6.8.1 and WooCommerce 9.9.5

2.7.6 — 23 December, 2024

  • Fix— Translation compatibility issues with WordPress 6.7.
  • Dev— Tested up to WP 6.7.1 and WooCommerce 9.5.1

2.7.5 — 19 September, 2024

  • Fix— WooCommerce Protected Categories visibility conflict with WooCommerce Private Store
  • Dev— Tested up to WP 6.6.2 and WooCommerce 9.3.2

2.7.4 — 28 August, 2024

  • Fix— Wholesale store page category visibility for protected products
  • Dev— Tested up to WP 6.6.1 and WooCommerce 9.2.3

2.7.3 — 13 June, 2024

  • Tweak— Updated title and description of the "Logged out" setting.
  • Dev— Updated Barn2 libraries.
  • Dev— Tested up to WP 6.5.4 and WooCommerce 8.9.2

2.7.2 — 1 May, 2024

  • Fix— Ensure UTF-8 encoding is preserved.
  • Dev— Updated internal libraries.
  • Dev— Tested up to WP 6.5.2 and WooCommerce 8.8.2

2.7.1 — 9 August, 2023

  • Dev— enabled HPOS compatibility.
  • Dev— Updated internal libraries.
  • Dev— Tested up to WP 6.3 and WooCommerce 8.0

2.7.0 — 1 August, 2023

  • New— Reorganised settings panel.
  • New— Added protection of cross-sells and upsells.

2.6.3 — 13 June, 2023

  • Fix— Undefined tag_ID notice

2.6.2 — 13 June, 2023

  • Fix— PHP 8.1 - Deprecated Return type
  • Tweak— Added validation notices to the term protection form.
  • Dev— Updated Barn2 libraries.

2.6.1 — 31 October, 2022

  • Fix— protected sub categories are showing in the categories filter when using the WooCommerce Product Table plugin.
  • Dev— Updated Barn2 libraries.

2.6.0 — 12 May, 2022

  • New— Added users & user role REST API protection of products via the /wc/store/v1/products/ route.
  • Dev— Updated Barn2 libraries.

2.5.5 — 22 April, 2022

  • Fix— Shop Managers unable to search for users when protecting categories.
  • Dev— Tested up to WooCommerce 6.4.0.

2.5.4 — 10 February, 2022

  • Fix— fixed an issue that prevented passwords from being displayed when changing/switching protection type.
  • Test— Compatibility with WooCommerce 6.2.0.

2.5.3 — 8 February, 2022

  • Deprecated— "Private categories" option. Private categories will continue to work, but it's recommend to switch to the more user-friendly "Role" option.
  • Tweak— Added a deprecation notice inside the category editing page.
  • Tweak— adjusted the order of certain options inside the setup wizard.
  • Tweak— adjusted the order of sections inside the plugin's settings page.
  • Tweak— updated language files.

2.5.2 — 13 January, 2022

  • Fix— ajax user search not firing due to invalidated nonce.
  • Test— Compatibility with WooCommerce 6.1.0.

2.5.1 — 6 January, 2022

  • Tweak— search users via ajax when protecting categories by "users".
  • Fix— product category visibility settings displayed the text-domain instead of the real labels.
  • Test— Compatibility with WooCommerce 6.0.0.
  • Dev— Updated library code.

2.5.0 — 7 October, 2021

  • New— Added setup wizard.
  • Tweak— Added compatibility with the upcoming WooCommerce admin menu.
  • Tweak— Javascript code consistency update.
  • Tweak— Updated language files.
  • Dev— Updated library code.

2.4.2 — 20 July, 2021

  • Test— Compatibility with WooCommerce 5.5 and WordPress 5.8.
  • Dev— Updated library code.

2.4.1 — 1 May, 2020

  • Test— Compatibility with WooCommerce 4.1 and WordPress 5.4.1.
  • Dev— Added Composer support.

2.4 — 1 April, 2020

  • Fix— Change loading of stylesheet for login page to ensure it's always loaded correctly.
  • Fix— Bug with page title when main Shop page is used as central login page.
  • Fix— Minor bug in product categories list table in Dashboard.
  • Dev— Refactor plugin to use new architecture; deprecate old classes and functions for backwards compatibility.
  • Dev— Add new Barn2 license system and library.
  • Dev— Remove is_admin() checks on file includes.

2.3.3 — 12 March, 2020

  • Change— Tested up to WooCommerce 4.0 and WordPress 5.4.

2.3.2 — 21 January, 2020

  • Change— Fully tested with WordPress 5.3.2 and WooCommerce 3.9.
  • Change— Move position of Visibility setting on Edit Category screen.

2.3.1 — 30 October, 2019

  • Change— Tested up to WordPress 5.3 and WooCommerce 3.8.

2.3 — 19 August, 2019

  • Change— Tested up to WooCommerce 3.7.
  • Change— Removed backwards compatibility for old versions of WordPress and WooCommerce (WP < 4.4 and WC Categories menu now shows 'inherited' status when parent category is protected.
  • Fix— Prevent accidental login to multiple categories when two or more categories share the same password.
  • Fix— Central password login page - prevent access to categories which have changed status from 'protected' to 'public' or 'private'.
  • Fix— Products in two or more protected categories can now be unlocked by unlocking any one of its categories.
  • Fix— Ensure protected products are not purchasable from product tables in WooCommerce Product Table.
  • Tweak— Update HTML in woocommerce_template_loop_category_title to match WooCommerce.
  • Dev— Apply BEM CSS standards for password entry form and category visibility settings.
  • Dev— Tested up to WP 4.9.8 and WooCommerce 3.4.4.
  • Dev— Various new actions and filters.
  • Dev— Code restructure and improvements.

1.7.3 — 13 June, 2018

  • New— Allow shortcodes to be used in login form message.
  • Tweak— Added license.txt for GPL.
  • Fix— Fatal error setting Category login page in plugin settings.

1.7.2 — 4 June, 2018

  • New— Add separate stylesheet for front-end and remove inline styles from login form.
  • New— Added WPML config file.
  • New— Tested up to WP 4.9.6 and WC 3.4.1.
  • Tweak— Various code improvements; renamed admin classes.
  • Fix— Conflict with Cosmetro theme (and potentially other themes which override the woocommerce_template_loop_category_title function).
  • Fix— Template issue with Flatsome theme for products in protected categories.
  • Dev— Updated license code.

1.7.1 — 18 October, 2017

  • Change— Tested with WooCommerce 3.2.1.

1.7 — 6 October, 2017

  • Change— Add more options to shortcode (button_text, label, etc).
  • Change— Restructured plugin code and object creation - use dependency injection, and move hooks & filters out of constructors.
  • Change— Fix potential issue in category login shortcode.
  • Change— Fix bug in protection for WooCommerce shortcodes.
  • Change— Additional multisite testing.

1.6.6 — 4 October, 2017

  • Change— Tested with latest versions of WooCommerce and WordPress.
  • Change— Fix potential issue if category login shortcode runs in admin.

1.6.5 — 5 September, 2017

  • Fix— Ensure password cookie is set correctly when no expiry set in plugin options.
  • Tweak— Restructured plugin initialisation and added extra utility functions.
  • Tweak— Updated plugin support links.
  • Tweak— Updated translations.

1.6.4 — 7 June, 2017

  • Fix— Bug on product category archives when display type set to subcategories.

1.6.3 — 5 June, 2017

  • Fix— Bug in get_terms_args filter which was causing incorrect display of product category pages.
  • Tweak— Tested with WordPress 4.8.

1.6.2 — 22 May, 2017

  • Fix— PasswordHash class was not found under certain conditions.

1.6.1 — 5 May, 2017

  • Fix— Bug for variable products for WooCommerce below v3.0.

1.6 — 25 April, 2017

  • New— Plugin setting to control how long the password entered is valid before it expires.
  • New— Plugin settings to customise the login form - heading, password label, and label placeholder option.
  • New— Login form now shows error messages if no password or incorrect password entered.
  • Fix— The form message in plugin settings is now used if not set in shortcode.
  • Fix— Category login page can now be set to the main shop page.
  • Fix— Compatibility with WooCommerce 3.0.

1.5.3 — 3 February, 2017

  • Fix— Revert error with password protected categories introduced in previous version.

1.5.2 — 3 February, 2017

  • Fix— Compatibility issue with servers running older versions of PHP.
  • Tweak— Updated license code.

1.5.1 — 28 January, 2017

  • New— Plugin option to set CSS class on password form container.
  • Fix— Bug with products in protected categories when 'show protected products' option disabled.
  • Tweak— Ensure category login shortcode works in widgets.
  • Tweak— Update license key code.

1.5 — 26 January, 2017

  • New— Category login shortcode which allows customers or clients to login to their own product category by using a category password.
  • New— Plugin option to allow the 'category login' page to be set.
  • Fix— Bug with protected child categories which have a password protected parent.
  • Tweak— Change filter for category password form to 'wp_ppc_password_form' to prevent theme conflicts.
  • Tweak— Update license code and plugin updater.

1.4.2 — 5 January, 2017

  • Change— Fix fatal error in WC_Category_Prefixer class.
  • Change— Update license activation code.
  • Change— Tested with WordPress 4.7.

1.4.1 — 21 November, 2016

  • Change— Revert to default WordPress login code for setting password cookie.
  • Change— Styling improvements to category visibility option in admin.

1.4 — 16 November, 2016

  • New feature— support for multiple passwords for each category. The category is unlocked if any valid password is entered.
  • Change— Added plugin option to change button text on protected category form.
  • Added Italian translation (credit— Libri Ehret).

1.3.4 — 3 November, 2016

  • Change— Add protection for built-in WooCommerce shortcodes (recent products, sale products, featured products, best selling, etc)
  • Change— Update license validation code and fix error with license key activation
  • Change— Add link to documentation from Plugins page

1.3.3 — 16 September, 2016

  • Change— Fixed PHP error when password protected category contains no products
  • Added Spanish translation (credit— Victor Castillejos)

1.3.2 — 8 September, 2016

  • Change— Fixed bug with filtering of protected & private categories introduced in WordPress 4.6
  • Change— Renamed utility functions to prevent conflicts with other themes/plugins
  • Change— Updated translations

1.3.1 — 31 August, 2016

  • Change— Fixed bug with password being reset when using 'quick edit' to edit category
  • Change— Fixed bug with license validation code which prevented it working on servers earlier than PHP 5.5

1.3 — 26 August, 2016

  • Change— Added support for the WooCommerce category shortcode [product_category]. When used on any page, widget, etc. your products will now be protected.
  • Change— Added new option to allow the password form to be customised to any wording you choose. Set this under WooCommerce -> Settings -> Products -> Password Protected Categories.
  • Change— Updated EDD Updater which handles the plugin updates
  • Change— Updated license key code

1.2.4 — 16 August, 2016

  • Change— Update category protection logic to work with existing taxonomy queries
  • Change— Fix problem with category visibility option not working properly in certain themes
  • Change— Fix E_NOTICE errors generated on pages in some themes
  • Change— Fix error retrieving product categories for WordPress versions prior to 4.5

1.2.3 — 28 June, 2016

  • Change— Ensure products in password protected categories cannot be added to the cart
  • Change— Improve error handling for license activation
  • French translation added (credit— Yven Lebreton)
  • Change— Fix bug retrieving product category ancestors which resulted in unnecessary DB calls

1.2.2 — 9 May, 2016

  • Change— New visibility option to show/hide password protected categories in navigation menus (see WooCommerce -> Settings -> Products -> Password Protected Categories)
  • Change— Updated main protection hooks to exclude categories during database queries rather than remove products afterwards
  • Change— Bug fix for certain themes to display password form correctly

1.2 — 21 April, 2016

  • Change— Re-write main plugin architecture to improve database performance and caching

1.1.3 — 15 April, 2016

  • Change— Update plugin licensing to work with servers using older versions of cURL
  • Change— Add link to settings from main WordPress Plugins page
  • Change— Test with WordPress 4.5 and WooCommerce 2.5.5

1.1.1 — 11 March, 2016

  • Change— Fix compatibility issue with PHP 5.2

1.1 — 2 March, 2016

  • Change— Added plugin settings page and license key registration.
  • Change— Added plugin options to show/hide password protected categories, and to prefix category names.

1.0 — 1 March, 2016

  • Change— Initial release.

WooCommerce Protected Categories

Not bought the plugin yet?
WooCommerce Protected Categories left-right CTA Buy Now

Our Customers Say

Amazing IT support! Best functionalities and amazing IT support
—Santiago Morales