Your first gate

Install Gate Manager, look at the age gate that is already there, then build a gate of your own and switch it on. The free license is optional.

1. Download and install

1. On affstackdev.com open My Account → Downloads and download Gate Manager. Keep the ZIP file as it is; do not unpack it.
2. In your WordPress admin open Plugins, choose Add Plugin (older WordPress versions call it Add New), then Upload Plugin.
3. Choose the ZIP file and select Install Now, then Activate Plugin.

Gate Manager now has its place in the WordPress menu: Settings → Gate Manager. With the AffStackDev Suite installed you also find it in the AffStackDev menu. If WordPress refuses the file, or to install a newer version over an older one, see Install a plugin.

2. The free license (optional)

Gate Manager works fully without a license. The free license adds signed updates from affstackdev.com and counts for the full mode of AffStackDev Suite: to use it, open the License tab, enter your free Gate Manager key and activate it (Activate your license).

3. The gate that is already there

A new installation comes with one gate: an Age confirmation for 21 and older. It is switched off: no visitor is asked anything until you enable it. It is set up so that the home page stays open and signed-in visitors are not asked.

If you sell age-restricted goods, this is your start: on the Gates tab, select Review draft on that gate (or Edit gate to change it first), read through it, tick the confirmation and select Enable this gate. If you do not need it, leave it off or delete it.

4. Make a gate

Select Add gate. Set up a gate walks you through four steps: Choose a starting point, Configure a draft, Test and review, Enable.

1. What should this gate do? Pick a purpose: Ask visitors to confirm, Restrict access by account, Use invitations or verified email, Ask for policy acceptance or Control site availability. Each offers ready-made starting points (for example 18+ content, Client preview, Members-only content, Coming Soon; sixteen in all). Start with a blank gate lets you pick the kind of gate yourself.
2. Give it a name you will recognize in the list, and write what the visitor reads: the title, the text and the button labels.
3. Where it applies, Page scope: All public pages, except exclusions, or Only included paths. Allow this gate on the homepage too decides about the home page. Under Excluded paths keep your login page, your policy page and the page visitors are sent to when they say No reachable; exclusions always win.
4. What is required: depends on the kind (an age, a role, a code, dates).
5. Save. A new gate is always saved disabled.

The sixteen starting points

Every starting point is an ordinary gate with a few settings filled in. It is saved disabled, and you can change everything. It never invents a role, a destination, a code, a screen page or a location source for you: the last column says what you add.

The five confirmations

The confirmation kinds ask in the browser and remember only a Yes. They lock nothing: for a real lock use an access requirement (private areas).

5. Review and enable

Select Review draft on the gate. The review shows Where it applies, Who passes, any Additional targeting, Exemptions and order and the Configuration checks, and offers Test draft in Simulator. While editing, Preview shows the gate on a desktop and a phone screen. When it is right, tick I reviewed the scope, requirements and visitor behavior for this site. and select Enable this gate.

After enabling, clear your page cache if you use one, then look at the page signed out (a private browser window is easiest).

Worked example: a store that sells to adults 21 and older

The pictures in this guide come from a sample store, Harbor & Pine (camping gear, candles, blankets). Say it also sells products that only adults 21 and older may buy. What the owner wants:

• every shop and product page asks the age question once;
• the home page and the privacy policy stay open, so anyone can see who the store is;
• customers who signed in are not asked, and the sign-in page itself is never in the way;
• a regular visitor can tick a box and not be asked again on that browser for a month.

Open Gates, select Edit gate on the age confirmation that came with Gate Manager, and fill in:

Save, review and enable it (step 5 above). A visitor who opens the shop now sees the question over the page, with the box "Remember this browser for 30 days" and the advice "Only select this on a personal device you do not share.":

What happens next:

How long an answer is remembered

For confirmations, under Answers and return visits in the gate:

• Ask again after no site clicks: 60 minutes at the start. A visitor who answered is asked again after that long without a click on your site. Enter 0 to keep the answer only as long as the browser session lasts.
• Offer "Remember this browser": off at the start. When you offer it, a visitor who ticks the box is not asked again for Remember for this many days (30 at the start).
• Changing the question, the required age, the policy or the routing choices asks every visitor again. Changing the home page setting or the colors does not. To make everyone answer again on purpose, open the gate and use Reset answers or delete this gate.

Several gates on one page

Each gate has an Evaluation / display order number (Order on the Gates tab): lower numbers run first. Access rules are checked on the server before any confirmation can show. A visitor must pass every access gate that applies; confirmations are then asked one after the other.

For every field of the editor, what it starts at and what its messages mean, see Every setting of a gate.

The switches in Settings

Download configuration JSON on the same tab saves your configuration to a file.

Limits worth knowing

Up to 50 gates. An age between 1 and 120. Up to 20 destinations in a Visitor routing gate.

What else Gate Manager can do