How to set up website access rules
In this help article, we are going to share the instructions on how to set up limited access to your content by creating access rules and allowing certain users or user groups to access it.
This feature is currently in beta so if you encounter any issues, kindly let us know.
Before setting up access rules, you need to create a new Google Sheet which will be used as a user database.
Please note this feature will allow you to add user logins, but it doesn’t add user signups. This feature doesn’t offer your users an option to sign up. This means that updating the user base is still to be done on your side.
To do that, go to the Access Manager Tab and click on Create Users Sheet
A new Sheet will be created for you from a template:
The template Sheet contains user emails and access groups. Fill the Sheet in with the emails of the users who you want to give access to the website content, and create custom categories.
Don’t forget to refresh the User List Sheet in the Access Manager tab after you’ve finished making the changes.
Alternatively, you can use your own Google Sheet if you already have a list of users whom you want to give access to.
Make sure the Sheet has headers, and a list of users, and allows it to be viewed by anyone with the link. This is required so the SpreadSimple app can read the data in the Sheet.
After the Users Sheet is connected, configure the access settings by mapping columns from the Users Sheet to the certain access settings:
The user email column needs to contain the email addresses of your users who will get access to the content.
The access group column needs to contain the names of different user groups. This will allow you to define what content on the website is available to a certain group of users.
A tip: if you are using the template User Sheet, you can keep the default mapping without changes.
After you enable access rules, a login page will be created on your website automatically.
You can customize the text that will be displayed on the login page:
This area supports Markdown so feel free to use it to format the text and insert links and images.
Here you can customize the name of a sender, the email subject, and the message of the email that will be sent to a new visitor after they log in.
The email message will contain the magic link and the validation code. SpreadSimple app will automatically insert both into the email message in the places of {{loginUrl}} and {{validationCode}} respectively.
Please do not remove the replacement tags {{loginUrl}} and {{validationCode}} from the email message otherwise your visitors won’t be able to log in.
Save the changes and now you can move on to the next step.
After access rules are created, you can start applying them to areas of our website.
For example, you can limit access to the content pages only to a certain group of users.
To do that, go to the Pages&links Tab and open settings of the page:
Scroll down to the Access settings.
Select the necessary user groups in the dedicated menu to allow these groups access to this page.
Selecting all the groups means that this page will be available to all users who signed up and logged in. Users who haven’t logged in will not be able to see this page in the navigation menu or open it by following the link.
You can specify which items from the main page should be displayed to specific user groups.
To allow access to the items only to certain groups of users, do the following steps.
Open the website source Google Sheets where all the content is stored:
Create a new column and fill it in with the user groups who will be allowed to see this item on the page. You can list multiple user groups separated by a comma.
Leave the cell empty for the item to be viewed by users who are not on the access list.
After you finish editing the new column, refresh the Sheet in the Content Tab to synchronize it with the editor (in case you are editing the website and the Sheet at the same time).
Scroll down to the access rules and select the column with user groups in the dropdown menu:
And save the changes.
Now your items will be available only to the users from certain user groups. If there are no items available to a visitor, they will see the following message:
This feature is currently in beta so if you encounter any issues, kindly let us know.
Setting up Access rules
Before setting up access rules, you need to create a new Google Sheet which will be used as a user database.
Please note this feature will allow you to add user logins, but it doesn’t add user signups. This feature doesn’t offer your users an option to sign up. This means that updating the user base is still to be done on your side.
1. Create Users Sheet
To do that, go to the Access Manager Tab and click on Create Users Sheet
A new Sheet will be created for you from a template:
The template Sheet contains user emails and access groups. Fill the Sheet in with the emails of the users who you want to give access to the website content, and create custom categories.
Don’t forget to refresh the User List Sheet in the Access Manager tab after you’ve finished making the changes.
Alternatively, you can use your own Google Sheet if you already have a list of users whom you want to give access to.
Make sure the Sheet has headers, and a list of users, and allows it to be viewed by anyone with the link. This is required so the SpreadSimple app can read the data in the Sheet.
2. Configure Access Settings
After the Users Sheet is connected, configure the access settings by mapping columns from the Users Sheet to the certain access settings:
The user email column needs to contain the email addresses of your users who will get access to the content.
The access group column needs to contain the names of different user groups. This will allow you to define what content on the website is available to a certain group of users.
A tip: if you are using the template User Sheet, you can keep the default mapping without changes.
3. Set up login page
After you enable access rules, a login page will be created on your website automatically.
You can customize the text that will be displayed on the login page:
This area supports Markdown so feel free to use it to format the text and insert links and images.
4. Configure email settings
Here you can customize the name of a sender, the email subject, and the message of the email that will be sent to a new visitor after they log in.
The email message will contain the magic link and the validation code. SpreadSimple app will automatically insert both into the email message in the places of {{loginUrl}} and {{validationCode}} respectively.
Please do not remove the replacement tags {{loginUrl}} and {{validationCode}} from the email message otherwise your visitors won’t be able to log in.
Save the changes and now you can move on to the next step.
Adding access rules
After access rules are created, you can start applying them to areas of our website.
Setting up access rules on the content pages
For example, you can limit access to the content pages only to a certain group of users.
To do that, go to the Pages&links Tab and open settings of the page:
Scroll down to the Access settings.
Select the necessary user groups in the dedicated menu to allow these groups access to this page.
Selecting all the groups means that this page will be available to all users who signed up and logged in. Users who haven’t logged in will not be able to see this page in the navigation menu or open it by following the link.
Setting up access rules on the main page
You can specify which items from the main page should be displayed to specific user groups.
To allow access to the items only to certain groups of users, do the following steps.
Open the website source Google Sheets where all the content is stored:
Create a new column and fill it in with the user groups who will be allowed to see this item on the page. You can list multiple user groups separated by a comma.
Leave the cell empty for the item to be viewed by users who are not on the access list.
After you finish editing the new column, refresh the Sheet in the Content Tab to synchronize it with the editor (in case you are editing the website and the Sheet at the same time).
Scroll down to the access rules and select the column with user groups in the dropdown menu:
And save the changes.
Now your items will be available only to the users from certain user groups. If there are no items available to a visitor, they will see the following message:
Updated on: 28/06/2024
Thank you!