uukidev

YUI Preview Token solves the authentication problem in decoupled (headless) WordPress architectures. Application Passwords are a great built-in WordPress feature for this purpose, but they require managing long-lived secrets on the frontend side. This plugin instead issues per-post tokens that grant read access for a configurable period — no persistent secrets required.
The frontend (Astro, Next.js, Nuxt, etc.) receives a preview URL and can fetch the draft content directly via the REST API.
<h4>How it works</h4>
<ol>
<li>An authorized WordPress user generates a token from the Gutenberg sidebar, Quick Edit panel, or Classic Editor meta box.</li>
<li>The token is embedded in a preview URL pointing to your external frontend.</li>
<li>The frontend calls <code>/wp-json/yui-preview-token/v1/preview?token=…</code> to retrieve the draft content.</li>
<li>The token expires automatically; no manual cleanup needed.</li>
</ol>
<h4>Key Features</h4>
Token Management
<ul>
<li>Generate tokens with expiry presets: 1 hour, 24 hours, 30 days, custom date/time, or no expiry.</li>
<li>One token per post — issuing a new token invalidates the previous one.</li>
<li>Tokens are generated with <code>bin2hex(random_bytes(32))</code> (256-bit CSPRNG). The lookup key stored in <code>wp_options</code> is the SHA-256 hash of the raw token, not the token itself — so a database leak does not expose usable tokens directly.</li>
<li>Automatic cleanup of expired tokens via WP Cron (daily).</li>
</ul>
Editor Integration
<ul>
<li>Gutenberg: dedicated panel in the Document Settings sidebar.</li>
<li>Quick Edit: token controls directly in the post list.</li>
<li>Classic Editor: meta box in the editor sidebar.</li>
<li>Copy preview URL to clipboard with one click.</li>
<li>Update expiry without invalidating the current token.</li>
</ul>
Admin Settings
<ul>
<li>Set the external frontend URL (clicking “Open external preview” navigates directly to this URL).</li>
<li>Configure allowed CORS origins (multiple, with wildcard support — <code>https://*.example.com</code>).</li>
<li>Choose the minimum WordPress role required to issue tokens (Subscriber → Administrator).</li>
<li>Tune rate limiting (requests per time window).</li>
<li>Optionally permit no-expiry tokens.</li>
</ul>
Issued Tokens List
<ul>
<li>View all active and expired tokens with post title, status, expiry, and issuer.</li>
<li>Revoke individual tokens or bulk-delete expired ones — all from the Settings screen.</li>
</ul>
Security
<ul>
<li>HTTPS required for the preview endpoint (overridable for local development).</li>
<li>Per-IP rate limiting with configurable thresholds (default: 30 req / 60 s).</li>
<li>Role-based access control for token issuance.</li>
<li>CORS headers only sent for explicitly configured origins; WP core’s permissive echo-back is suppressed.</li>
<li><code>Referrer-Policy: no-referrer</code> prevents token leakage via referer headers.</li>
<li>Tokens are only valid for <code>draft</code>, <code>pending</code>, and <code>future</code> post statuses.</li>
<li>Admin-only settings page with defence-in-depth capability checks.</li>
<li>CSRF protection on all admin actions (nonce verification).</li>
</ul>
Audit Logging
<ul>
<li>Logs token issuance and usage events (post ID, user ID, client IP).</li>
<li>Logs security events: invalid token attempts, rate-limit violations, capability denials.</li>
<li>Output goes to <code>WP_DEBUG_LOG</code> by default; point to a dedicated file with <code>PVT_LOG_FILE</code>.</li>
</ul>
Internationalisation
<ul>
<li>Ships with Japanese (ja) and Simplified Chinese (zh_CN) translations.</li>
<li>All admin UI strings are translation-ready.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Developer Hooks</h4>
Filter
<ul>
<li><code>yuipt_preview_response_data</code> — Modify the REST API response data before it is sent.</li>
</ul>
Actions
<ul>
<li><code>yuipt_token_issued( int $post_id, int $user_id )</code> — Fires after a token is issued.</li>
<li><code>yuipt_token_used( int $post_id, int $user_id )</code> — Fires when a token is used successfully.</li>
<li><code>yuipt_invalid_token( string $ip )</code> — Fires on an invalid/expired token attempt.</li>
<li><code>yuipt_rate_limit_exceeded( string $ip, string $endpoint )</code> — Fires when rate limit is hit.</li>
<li><code>yuipt_capability_denied( int $user_id, int $post_id )</code> — Fires on a capability denial.</li>
</ul>
Constants (wp-config.php)
<ul>
<li><code>PVT_SKIP_HTTPS_CHECK</code> — Set to <code>true</code> to disable the HTTPS requirement (development only).</li>
<li><code>PVT_LOG_FILE</code> — Absolute path to a dedicated audit log file.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Use Case</h4>
This plugin is designed for headless WordPress setups where a decoupled frontend (e.g. Astro, Next.js, Nuxt, SvelteKit) renders content from the WordPress REST API. It gives content editors a simple, secure way to share draft previews with stakeholders without granting them WordPress accounts or exposing long-lived API credentials.

YUI Preview Token

Issue time-limited preview tokens for headless WordPress setups. Open drafts directly in your frontend URL without long-lived credentials.

Shawn Parker

gordonbrander

The Post Password Token plugin lets you issue secret urls that allow readers to access protected content without having to enter a password. It extends the default WordPress post password protection functionality by creating secret urls to the post that have an encoded token. This is similar to the guest pass functionality that can be found on Flickr.
<h4>Who is it for?</h4>
Sometimes you would like to share your blog posts with a specific group of people, but not with the wider world. For example, a family might want to blog about their adventures together for friends and family, but would rather not broadcast this to everyone. WordPress provides for this scenario by allowing you to password-protect a post. Unfortunately, we’ve found through experience that a lot of our friends never make it past the password form. Either they mis-type the password, are confused about what it is, or are simply scared off by an intimidating form.
The solution: give password-protected posts a secret url that can be shared with friends and family. The url allows your select audience to see the content without the confusion and hassle of an authentication form, while hiding the special content from search spiders and the wider-world. You can revoke secret urls at any time, so if a secret url gets to someone you don’t want it to, you can simply invalidate it.
<h4>The Details</h4>
The encoded tokens are made by taking the post-name and post-password and encoding them together. The plugin’s admin page also allows you to create a “salt”, or a unique key that makes the resulting encoded token more secure. Please note that once the salt option is set, changing it will change the secret urls for all posts. Unless you want to invalidate all of your old secret urls, it is recommended that you set the salt and leave it.

Post Password Token

The Post Password Token plugin allows readers to access protected posts without having to enter a password by creating secret token urls for the post.

YUI Preview Token vs Post Password Token