Description
Simple Post Preview & Review is the complete solution for client content review and approval workflows. Share unpublished content with clients, collect feedback and approvals, receive client edits, and manage the entire review process – all without giving clients access to your WordPress admin area.
Key Features
- Secure Preview Links: Generate cryptographically secure, unique preview links for any post, page, or custom post type
- No WordPress Login Required: Clients can review content and provide feedback without creating an account
- Review & Approval System: Built-in feedback mechanism with approve/request changes options
- Client Editing: Clients can submit edited versions of title and content for your review
- Approval Workflow: Review client edits with side-by-side diff view before applying changes
- Feedback History: Track all reviews, approvals, and decisions with timestamps
- Automatic Data Cleanup: Schedule automatic cleanup of old data or manually clean as needed
- Rate Limiting: Protect against spam with configurable rate limits
- Security First: Links are hashed in the database, include noindex/nofollow headers, and are non-cacheable
- Privacy Conscious: Minimal fingerprinting for rate limiting
- Easy to Use: Simple metabox in the post editor with one-click link generation
- Dashboard Overview: Centralized view of all active preview links and their approval status
- Customizable: Configure which post types support preview links
- Developer Friendly: Clean, documented code following WordPress coding standards
Perfect For
- Agencies sharing work with clients for approval
- Publishers getting editorial feedback
- Content teams collaborating with external reviewers
- Anyone who needs to share unpublished content securely
How It Works
- Edit any post, page, or custom post type
- Click “Generate Preview Link” in the Simple Post Preview metabox
- Copy and share the secure link with your reviewer
- They can view the content and provide feedback without logging in
- See all feedback and approval status directly in the WordPress editor
Security Features
- Tokens are hashed using SHA-256 before storage
- High-entropy random token generation (64 characters)
- Preview pages include X-Robots-Tag: noindex, nofollow
- Cache-Control headers prevent caching of preview content
- Rate limiting prevents abuse
- Easy token revocation/regeneration
Coming Soon (Premium)
- Approval gates (block publication until approved)
- Multiple reviewers with approval rules
- Email notifications
- Link expiration
- Editing/suggestions from reviewers
- Watermarks
- Slack/Teams integrations
Privacy Policy
Simple Post Preview & Review is designed with privacy in mind:
- No personal data is collected from reviewers
- A non-identifying fingerprint (hash) is used for rate limiting only
- No tracking cookies are used
- No data is sent to external services
- All data stays on your WordPress installation
Support
For support, feature requests, or bug reports, please visit the WordPress.org support forums.
Credits
Developed with ❤️ for the WordPress community.
Screenshots
Post editor metabox – Generate preview links, view approval status, and manage feedback 
Dashboard overview – Centralized view of all active preview links and their status 
Public preview page – Secure preview with feedback form and approve/request changes options
Installation
Automatic Installation
- Log in to your WordPress admin panel
- Navigate to Plugins Add New
- Search for “Simple Post Preview”
- Click “Install Now” and then “Activate”
Manual Installation
- Download the plugin ZIP file
- Log in to your WordPress admin panel
- Navigate to Plugins Add New Upload Plugin
- Choose the ZIP file and click “Install Now”
- Click “Activate Plugin”
After Activation
- Go to Settings Post Preview to configure options
- Select which post types should support preview links
- Configure rate limiting settings
- Customize the preview banner text
- Start creating preview links from any post/page editor!
FAQ
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Who can generate preview links?
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Any user with the capability to edit posts can generate preview links for their content.
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Are preview links permanent?
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Preview links remain active until you disable or regenerate them. In the MVP version, links don’t expire automatically, but you can disable them at any time.
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Can I use this with custom post types?
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Yes! Any publicly queryable custom post type can be enabled in Settings Post Preview.
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Is this secure?
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Yes. Tokens are cryptographically secure (64 characters), hashed before storage, and preview pages include security headers to prevent indexing and caching.
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Can reviewers edit the content?
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No. In the MVP version, reviewers can only view content and provide feedback. Editing capabilities are planned for the premium version.
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What happens if I regenerate a link?
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The old link will immediately stop working, and a new secure link will be generated.
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Does this work with page builders?
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Yes! Simple Post Preview works with any page builder including Gutenberg, Elementor, Divi, WPBakery, and others.
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Can I track who submitted feedback?
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The plugin stores a privacy-safe fingerprint (hash of IP + user agent) to enable rate limiting, but doesn’t collect personal information. All feedback is anonymous.
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What if someone submits spam feedback?
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Rate limiting is built-in. By default, reviewers can only submit 5 feedback entries per hour. You can adjust this in settings.
Reviews
There are no reviews for this plugin.
Contributors & Developers
“Simple Post Preview & Review” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors
Translate “Simple Post Preview & Review” into your language.
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Changelog
1.0.0
- Initial release
- Secure token generation and validation
- Admin metabox for link management
- Public preview rendering with security headers
- Feedback/approval system
- Rate limiting
- Settings page
- Support for posts, pages, and custom post types
- Internationalization ready