Managing content access is one of the most important parts of running a knowledge base, documentation site, or membership portal. If you want to restrict who can view specific categories or articles in WordPress, the Pro Article Manager feature of AI SmartBase Plugin makes it simple and powerful.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to set up category-level and article-level access control.

Why Access Control Matters?

• Protect Premium Content – Only paid or authorized users can access.
• Internal Knowledge Base – Share documentation with staff while keeping it private from the public.
• Better User Experience – Show users only what’s relevant to them.
• Role-Based Management – Assign permissions for admins, editors, contributors, and subscribers.

Setting Up Category Access Control

Category-based restrictions allow you to hide or lock down entire groups of articles.

• Go to Pro Article Manager Settings
  • Navigate to AI SmartBase > Pro Article Manager in your WordPress dashboard.
• Select Category Access Rules
  • Choose the categories you want to restrict.
• Assign User Roles
  • Decide which roles (e.g., Administrator, Editor, Subscriber, Member) can access them.
• Save Settings
  • Once saved, only users with permission will see articles inside those categories.