Plugin Changelogs

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

WooCommerce Protected Categories

2.8.3 — 7 October, 2026

  • Dev— Updated internal libraries
  • Dev— Tested up to WordPress 7.1.3 and WooCommerce 11.1.2

2.8.2 — 16 July, 2026

  • New— Live chat support feature
  • Dev— Updated internal libraries
  • Dev— Tested up to WordPress 7.0.0 and WooCommerce 10.9.4

2.8.1 — 24 March, 2026

  • Fix— Security hardening
  • Dev— Updated contributors
  • Dev— Tested up to WordPress 6.9.4 and WooCommerce 10.5.3

2.8.0 — 18 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

  • Tested up to WooCommerce 4.0 and WordPress 5.4.

2.3.2 — 21 January, 2020

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

2.3.1 — 30 October, 2019

  • Tested up to WordPress 5.3 and WooCommerce 3.8.

2.3 — 19 August, 2019

  • Tested up to WooCommerce 3.7.
  • 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

  • Tested with WooCommerce 3.2.1.

1.7 — 6 October, 2017

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

1.6.6 — 4 October, 2017

  • Tested with latest versions of WooCommerce and WordPress.
  • 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

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

1.4.1 — 21 November, 2016

  • Revert to default WordPress login code for setting password cookie.
  • 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.
  • Added plugin option to change button text on protected category form.
  • Added Italian translation (credit— Libri Ehret).

1.3.4 — 3 November, 2016

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

1.3.3 — 16 September, 2016

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

1.3.2 — 8 September, 2016

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

1.3.1 — 31 August, 2016

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

1.3 — 26 August, 2016

  • Added support for the WooCommerce category shortcode [product_category]. When used on any page, widget, etc. your products will now be protected.
  • 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.
  • Updated EDD Updater which handles the plugin updates
  • Updated license key code

1.2.4 — 16 August, 2016

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

1.2.3 — 28 June, 2016

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

1.2.2 — 9 May, 2016

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

1.2 — 21 April, 2016

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

1.1.3 — 15 April, 2016

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

1.1.1 — 11 March, 2016

  • Fix compatibility issue with PHP 5.2

1.1 — 2 March, 2016

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

1.0 — 1 March, 2016

  • Initial release.

WooCommerce Protected Categories

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Our Customers Say

Excellent Plugin! We use this plugin to add enquiries (email and whatsapp) and downloads tabs to products. This really helps to keep important info front and centre, without it getting lost within lengthy product descriptions. I also helps massively when changes are made to forms and downloads as they can be made in one simple interface instead of multiple edits to the actual products.
—John Beardon