Client areas (per-user document portals) Pro

A client area turns a document category into a private portal space for specific people: an accountancy’s per-client folders, an agency’s deliverables area, a consultancy’s project rooms. Assign users to a category and only they (plus site managers) can see it — everywhere.

FileDeck Pro — this feature is included in all Pro plans. See pricing

Set up a client area

1. Create (or edit) a document category: Documents → Categories.
2. In Client area — assigned users (FileDeck), enter the client’s usernames or email addresses, comma-separated. They need WordPress accounts (any role — Subscriber is fine).
3. Save. The category is now visible only to those users and site managers.

If an address you typed has no account yet, FileDeck says so after you save and offers to invite them. The quickest way to start a new client is Documents → Clients → Add client, which creates the account, a private area and an invitation in one step — see client portal.

Assignment is enforced the same way as every FileDeck restriction — in libraries, search, downloads, single pages, feeds, and WordPress’ own REST/sitemap surfaces — and it keeps being enforced even if a licence lapses.

The portal page

FileDeck creates a Client Portal page the first time you add a client under Documents → Clients. It uses the [filedeck_client_portal] shortcode: a sign-in card for visitors, then each client’s areas, a Send us a document form and an Account tab. The client portal article covers it in full.

The older [filedeck_my_documents] shortcode still works on a page of its own; to make that page your portal, change its shortcode to [filedeck_client_portal] before you add your first client. Each visitor sees only their client areas, each as a section with its name, description, and its document library. Visitors who are not signed in get the portal’s sign-in card; users with no assigned area get a friendly empty message (customisable via empty_message).

Let clients send you files

Add uploads="1":

[filedeck_my_documents uploads="1"]

Each area gains a "Send us a document" form, locked to that area’s category. Uploads go through FileDeck’s normal document submission moderation — nothing a client sends is published until you approve it.

Notifications

When a document is first published into a client area, the people who can open it are emailed automatically: the people named on the area, members of its groups, and everyone at its email domains (see Domain access for the per-domain limit). That holds however it was published: one at a time, in a batch upload, from the block editor or on a schedule, and into a sub-folder of the area as well as the area itself.

A few things are deliberate:

• Membership-plan members aren’t emailed. FileDeck can check whether a member holds a plan, but the membership plugins can’t list everyone who holds one. They can still open the documents.
• The publisher isn’t emailed about their own publish, and nobody is emailed twice about one document, even if it’s unpublished and published again.
• From the block editor, it waits for the document’s settings. The email goes out once the document box has saved, so a document you restrict to one person in the same click reaches only that person.
• Imports stay quiet. Moving a library over from another plugin doesn’t email anyone about documents they already had. Adding existing Media Library files in bulk, CSV imports and cloud sync don’t send it either, and nor do new files a server drop folder brings in on its daily re-scan.
• There’s a ceiling. If one document would email more than 200 people, nobody is emailed rather than an arbitrary few. Developers can change the limit with filedeck_client_notify_cap.

When you have a portal page, the email’s link goes through it, so a client who is signed out signs in and lands on the document. Clients can switch these emails off on their portal Account tab.

Sending relies on your site’s email (wp_mail); on hosts that can’t send mail, use an SMTP plugin. Developers can reshape or suppress the email with filedeck_client_notification_email, add recipients with filedeck_client_notify_recipients (anyone added must still be able to open the document), or turn notifications off with filedeck_client_notify.

How it composes with the rest of FileDeck

• Access control — role and password restrictions on the same category stack with user assignment (all must pass).
• File protection — restricted files vault automatically on download, so raw URLs stop working.
• Versions, review cycles, expiry — lifecycle features work unchanged inside client areas.
• Watermarking (AI tier) — pair with PDF watermarking and every file a client receives carries their name.

Notes

• A category with no assigned users is a normal category — clearing the field removes the restriction.
• One user can be assigned to many areas (they’ll see one section per area), and one area can serve a team of users at the same company.
• Managers (manage_options) always see everything, everywhere.