Choose who sees which folder (access rules)

Access is decided by rules. Each rule links one WordPress role (the type of account a user has, such as Subscriber, Editor or Customer) to one Drive folder. A logged-in user sees only the folders linked to their roles. You set rules in box 3. Map folders to roles on the Drive Documents page.

Add a rule

1. Go to Drive Documents and scroll to 3. Map folders to roles.
2. Click + Add rule. A new row appears, marked new in the ID column.
3. In Role, pick the WordPress role.
4. In Drive folder, click Browse. A window lists the Folders shared with the service account. Click a folder to open it, or use Parent folder to go back up, then click Use this folder. You can pick the shared folder itself or any subfolder inside it. Shared drives the service account is a member of are listed first, marked Shared drive.
5. In Label, type the name users will see, for example Contracts. If a user has several folders, they switch between them by this label.
6. Click Save settings at the bottom of the page.

After saving, the rule gets a number in the ID column. You need this number to show a single folder on a page (the root attribute, see Put the portal on a page).

How rules combine

• A user with several roles sees every matching folder.
• The same role can appear in several rules, to give it several folders.
• Users who are not logged in never see the portal: they see the Message for logged out users.
• Logged-in users with no matching rule see the Message for users with no folder.
• With no rule at all, the portal shows documents to nobody.
• To remove a rule, click the × at the end of its row, confirm, then click Save settings.

Administrators

The option Administrators see every configured folder (on by default) lets administrators see the folders of all rules, which is useful to check what each group sees. Untick it if administrators should follow the rules like everyone else.

A separate folder for each client

Rules work by role, not by single user. To give each client their own private folder, create one role per client:

1. Install a free role manager plugin (for example Members or User Role Editor) and create a role for each client, for example Client Rossi. It can have the same permissions as Subscriber.
2. In Users, give each client user their role.
3. In Google Drive, create one folder per client inside the folder you shared with the service account. Subfolders are visible to the plugin automatically.
4. In Drive Documents, add one rule per client role and use Browse to pick that client's folder.

A client can open only their own folder and what is inside it. The plugin checks every request: even if someone guesses the ID of another file, it is refused when it is not inside a folder assigned to them.

The Downloads switch on each rule (Pro)

Each rule has a Downloads switch. Turn it off to make that folder view only. See Downloads, previews and uploads.