SureDash & SureMembers Integration: How to Restrict Access to Spaces and Content

SureMembers lets you control who can see specific content inside your SureDash portal. Once a Space, Course, Event, Resource, or Collection is protected by a SureMembers Membership, members without access see it as locked content instead of the item disappearing or showing an error. This guide explains what locked content looks like, how to set it up, and how to give away a free preview item while keeping the rest protected.

Applies to: SureDash Core and Pro/Business 1.10.0 and above.

Before You Begin

• You need both SureDash and SureMembers installed and active.
• Restricting Courses, Events, Resources, or Collections requires SureDash Pro/Business.

The Four Ways a Member Can See Content

Before setting anything up, it helps to know the four outcomes a member can land in:

• Normal: The content is not restricted, or the member has access. They see everything as usual.
• Locked: The member does not have access. They see a locked card and cannot open the content.
• Doorway: The content is restricted, but the admin has freed one or more items inside it. The member sees only those freed items; everything else stays locked.
• Hidden: A developer has turned on Hide Mode. Restricted items do not appear at all, instead of showing as locked.

Note: Portal admins always see everything unlocked, no matter what rules are set. To check what a member actually sees, use an incognito window or a test account without admin access.

What a Locked Card Looks Like

When a member does not have access to a Course, Lesson, Event, Resource, or Collection, they see a locked card instead of the normal content. It has the same size and layout as a regular card, but the cover is blurred with a padlock icon and a “Locked” tag in the center. The title stays visible, but the content itself is never loaded onto the page.

Locked cards look the same across grid, list, and stacked layouts, and they also work correctly in right-to-left languages.

Note: If you deactivate SureMembers, everything goes back to showing normally. Nothing breaks, and no locks are left behind.

How to Restrict a Space, Course, Event, or Resource

1. Go to SureMembers > Memberships.
2. Click on the Membership you want to use, or create a new one.
3. Add the Space, Course, Event, or Resource under Protected Content.
4. Choose the restriction action for this Membership. Message, Redirect, or Page/Post.
5. Save the Membership.

Once saved, members without access to this Membership will see the content as a locked card wherever it appears in the portal.

What Happens When Someone Clicks a Locked Card

What a member sees after clicking a locked card depends on the restriction action set on the Membership:

• Message: A popup opens with a heading, a message, and a call-to-action button, such as “Upgrade.” If enabled, a login link also appears.
• Redirect: The browser takes the member straight to the URL set on the Membership, such as a pricing page.
• Page/Post: The popup shows the content of a page you chose. If that page is ever deleted or unpublished, the member sees the message pop-up instead of a blank screen.
• Show in Content: Instead of a popup, the locked item opens its normal page with the restriction message shown inside it, so the card behaves like any other clickable card.

Note: If two Memberships restrict the same item with different actions, the Membership with higher priority wins. You can set Membership priority inside SureMembers.

How to Give Away One Free Item (Exclusions and Doorways)

This is one of the most useful parts of this update. You can keep a course locked, but still give away one lesson for free, such as lesson one, as a preview.

1. Go to SureMembers > Memberships.
2. Open the Membership restricting your course.
3. Click on Exclusions.
4. Add the lesson, event, resource, or post you want to keep open.
5. Save the Membership.

Once saved, that item opens normally for everyone, even members without access, whether they open it from a listing or a direct link. The course itself becomes a “doorway.” It opens and shows only the excluded lesson, while every other lesson stays locked. Direct links to the locked lessons still stay locked, so members cannot skip ahead using a URL.

Note: If more than one Membership restricts the same item, the item only opens once every single Membership excludes it. Excluding it from just one Membership is not enough; it will stay locked. This is the most common reason an excluded item still looks locked.

How Restriction Works with Collections

A Space that has no restriction rule of its own can still inherit protection from the Collections it belongs to.

• The Space only locks if every Collection containing it is locked.
• If even one Collection containing the Space is open, or the Space itself is excluded, the Space stays visible.
• This also applies to direct links. A Space locked through its Collections cannot be opened by URL either.

Course Lessons and Locked Content

Inside a course playlist, locked lessons show the same blurred lock look in place of their thumbnail.

When a member finishes a lesson, SureDash automatically skips any locked lessons and moves them to the next one they can access. If there is nothing left they can access, they are taken back to the course page instead. Members are never sent into a restriction pop-up in the middle of a course.

Good to Know: Emails and Locked Content

Reply and mention notification emails are now checked against what the recipient can actually see. If a member cannot view a community post, they will not get an email about it, so restricted titles and content never end up in someone’s inbox by mistake. This happens automatically and needs no setup.

For Developers: Hiding Locked Items Instead of Showing Them

If you would rather remove restricted items from listings completely, instead of showing a locked card, add this code snippet to your theme’s functions.php file or a code snippets plugin:

// Hide SureMembers-restricted items from listings
// instead of showing locked cards. Default: off.
add_filter( 'suredash_sm_hide_restricted', '__return_true' );

Removing this line brings back the default locked card behavior. Hidden items are also left out of a doorway’s locked list, so the member never sees them at all.

What You’ll See: Quick Reference

Content situation	Visitor or member without access	Member with access	Portal admin
Not protected	Normal	Normal	Normal
Item restricted by a Membership	Locked card	Normal	Normal
Item excluded by all blocking groups	Opens normally	Normal	Normal
Item excluded by only some blocking groups	Stays locked	Normal	Normal
Space restricted, has excluded items	Doorway	Normal	Normal
Space restricted, nothing excluded	Restriction message	Normal	Normal
Space inside Collections, all locked	Locked, even by direct link	Normal	Normal
Space inside Collections, at least one open	Visible	Normal	Normal
Any of the above with Hide Mode on	Removed from listings	Normal	Normal

With SureMembers connected to SureDash, you can control exactly who sees what inside your portal, right down to a single lesson or post. Whether you want to fully lock a course, give away one free lesson, or hide restricted content completely, the setup only takes a few minutes inside your Membership settings.

If you have any questions or need further help, feel free to reach out to our support team. We’re always happy to help!