Once you surmount the beginning of WordPress learning curve like how to make a blog and how to login to the dashboard or how to navigate around, it quickly becomes apparent that the WP back-end gets packed with a lot of menus and options. Consequently, at some point, mainly, if operating with guest authors, many WordPress users come across an essential question i.e. what do you do when you need to give someone access to your dashboard, provided that access is limited regarding how long it lasts?
Many of the users quickly figure out that user roles are the basis of WordPress access, which you can manage from the dashboard. Hence, you can add extra user functions and obtain more control over the specific points of authority, and access by setting and configuring user role plugins.
1. Some of the defaults user’s roles are:
·        Administrator: Administrator is the main admin of the website and has the full access to its features and functionalities.
·        Editor: Editor can publish, edit, and moderate every post. They are usually the user role that approves content submitted by contributor role.
·        Author: Author can publish posts without any need to moderate
·        Contributor: he can write posts, but needs to have them reviewed by an editor or an administrator.
·        Subscriber: The basic user role, which can comment and manage user profile.
You still have the ability to grant and revoke access to specific users, as well as to manage user roles from the dashboard even without adding functionality through plugins. For instance, the moment you need to give access to a new user or customer, through the user’s menu on your dashboard, you can create a new user, set the functionalities of that user’s access by assigning the right role, and then delete the user.
Preferably, and more effectively, you can design a temporary user account that automatically expires so that you don’t have to work on deleting it later. Even better, the access you form for this temporary user isn’t bound to login usernames and passwords. It works off one URL that you create and control. With the help of this post, we’ll assist you in creating temporary user accounts that expire automatically using a particular plugin called Temporary Login Without Password.
2. When you may need temporary access to a website!
While you’re wondering, why would you ever need to give someone access to your admin area, we have listed few scenarios that fit right to the creation of temporary logins.
       I.           Outsourcing of WordPress: Many a time you would want to outsource your WordPress website to freelancers, developers, designers or security technicians to perform basic or advanced tweaks. They’ll need the complete access to your website to assure a good job that couldn’t get completed when you initially create WordPress blog. You wouldn’t want an administrator-level account dangling out there in the cosmos well past the event that accelerated the requirement. Once the work is complete, you’d most likely prefer accessing your WordPress website to revoke.
     II.           Guest Author: Whenever you want to include guest editor or blogger, you would want to create an automatically-expiring, temporary account for your WordPress website. It can happen when you invite an outside author or writer to join your website for few hours, day or days about certain events or topics like a book launch, a national event, the Election Day and much more. Strategies like guest editors and guest bloggers are highly beneficial in exposing your website to a whole new audience. You can engage in influencer marketing and attract new users and subscribers to your website. To pursue this strategy, you would want to set up lots of guest user accounts i.e. temporary logins to implement it energetically.
Irrespective of the different scenarios we have covered, you don’t want those accesses to be open-ended.
 3. Temporary access Solution: Plugins
As mentioned above, there are two significant ways where you need to give permission to someone to access your WordPress website. For the first option, you can create a new user account with a particular level of access. Delete the account once the job has completed or when the access has passed. It can easily get done by creating temporary login credentials with an automatic expiration time.
For the second one, you can use plugins like Temporary Login Without Password, which is available in the official Plugin Directory free of cost.
It helps to create a set of login credentials for a user whose account expires automatically. Every new user obtains an individual link, which gives them direct access to your WordPress dashboard, without having to use a username and password at all.
The plugin’s settings allow you to establish parameters for the account’s automatic expiration as well as the user role. Various developers even claim that if you integrate this WordPress plugin with another WordPress plugin, i.e., WordPress Security Audit Log, you will be able to track what exactly a user do on your website after using the link you created to give the access.
4. Setting up temporary access for a WP site User
If you want to use Temporary Login Without Password on your website, simply go to your WordPress website’s plugin page and search by typing the exact words. It’ll pull up the plugin which you can install on your account by just clicking on the ‘Install’ button. Once you’ve setup and activated the plugin, click on the plugin menu and go to user menu. After that, click on temporary Logins to set up the accounts you want to give access to your website.
You’ll see a form with heading as ‘Temporary Logins’. Fill the form with name and email. Also, choose the level of access you’d like the user to have and then set the user’s access expiration date. Once done, click on ‘Submit’.
You’ll receive a message with a URL, which means the information has added successfully. Note that, the URL that you’ll receive will give access to whosoever use that. So, be careful before sharing those URL. Provide access to those who are going to work on your website. To send URL into an email message, click and copy the URL to your device’s clipboard and paste it into your email, and then, send it.
End-Note
The given access through that URL expires right when you have set it for, and there’s no need to delete that user manually. Ensure that you set it before leaving your dashboard. If you also have some other method to grant temporary access to your WP dashboard, do let us know in the comments!
About the author:
Catherrine Garcia is an experienced Web Developer and a passionate blogger. She loves to share her knowledge through her articles on web development and WordPress.
Article source: http://www.htmlgoodies.com/beyond/webmaster/a-guide-for-creating-temporary-logins-on-wordpress-website.html