Title: AlterCove Author: Muhammad Mujahid Sarfraz Published: سبتمبر 28, 2026 Last modified: سبتمبر 28, 2026 --- Search plugins ![](https://ps.w.org/altercove/assets/banner-772x250.png?rev=3716489) ![](https://ps.w.org/altercove/assets/icon-256x256.png?rev=3716489) # AlterCove By [Muhammad Mujahid Sarfraz](https://profiles.wordpress.org/mujahidwp/) [Download](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/altercove.1.0.1.zip) * [Details](https://arq.wordpress.org/plugins/altercove/#description) * [Reviews](https://arq.wordpress.org/plugins/altercove/#reviews) * [Installation](https://arq.wordpress.org/plugins/altercove/#installation) * [Development](https://arq.wordpress.org/plugins/altercove/#developers) [Support](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/altercove/) ## Description WordPress lets you draft a single post before publishing it. AlterCove brings a similar workflow to a wider set of site changes. Create a private **workspace**, activate it, and keep working in wp-admin as usual. Supported changes you save are kept in the workspace instead of going live. You and anyone you share a private preview link with can see the site with those changes; everyone else keeps seeing the live site. When the workspace is ready, publish it in one step or schedule it. AlterCove works on the same WordPress installation. It does not copy your database and it never touches orders, customers or other transactional data. #### How to use AlterCove **1. Create a workspace** Go to **AlterCove > Workspaces** in the admin menu. Under “Start a new workspace”, type a name (for example “Spring homepage refresh”), keep **“Activate it now”** checked and click **Create workspace**. While a workspace is active for you, the toolbar at the top of every screen shows**“ Workspace: your workspace name”**, so you always know your changes are private. **2. Change settings, theme options and widgets** Work as you normally do. Save settings on the **Settings** screens, change options in **Appearance > Customize**, or edit widgets. With the workspace active, these saves are kept in the workspace instead of going live. Visitors still see the live site. **3. Edit a post or page privately** Open **Pages** or **Posts** and click **“Edit in workspace”** under the title (or use the **Content** tab of your workspace and search for it). AlterCove opens a private copy in the normal editor. Edit it and click **Update** or **Publish** as usual: only the private copy is saved, the live page does not change. **4. Edit a classic menu privately** Open the workspace’s **Menus** tab and click **“Edit in workspace”** next to a menu. A private copy opens on the Appearance > Menus screen. Rename, reorder, add or remove items there. (Block themes use the Site Editor for navigation instead; see the next step.) **5. Edit templates and styles in the Site Editor** For block themes, open **Appearance > Editor** while the workspace is active. Saving a template, template part, global styles or navigation menu that has already been customized on your site keeps the change in the workspace. WordPress Additional CSS is excluded from AlterCove workspaces. Deactivate the workspace before editing Additional CSS. **6. Review your changes** Open your workspace from **AlterCove > Workspaces**. The **Overview** tab shows your progress and every pending change. Click **“Show differences”** on any change to compare the live version with the workspace version. Use **“Remove from workspace”** to drop a change you no longer want. **7. Preview the site** Click **Preview site** at the top of the workspace screen to browse the front end with your changes. Only you see them. A banner at the bottom of the page lets you leave the preview at any time. **8. Share a preview with someone else** Open the **Preview** tab, choose how long the link should work and click **Create preview link**. Copy the link right away: for security it is shown only once. Anyone with the link can view the front end with your changes, without logging in and without any access to wp-admin. Click **Revoke** to switch a link off immediately. **9. Resolve conflicts** If someone changed the same setting or content on the live site after you added it to your workspace, the **Conflicts** tab shows the original, the current live and your workspace version side by side. Choose **Keep live version**, **Use workspace version**, or **Review manually** to edit it yourself. Publishing is not possible until every conflict is resolved. **10. Publish or schedule** Click **Publish now** at the top of the workspace screen. All changes go live together, and the workspace is marked Published. To publish later, open the **Schedule** tab, pick a date and time and click **Schedule publish**. Conflicts are checked again at that moment. **11. Stop, pause or throw away** * Click **Deactivate** to pause a workspace. Your changes stay saved in it, and anything you save afterwards goes to the live site as usual. Click **Activate** to continue later. * Use **Discard workspace** on the Overview tab to delete all its private changes. The live site is not changed. #### What a workspace can hold * **Settings:** site title, tagline, reading, discussion and media settings, date and time formats, site icon and logo. * **Theme customizations and widgets:** supported Customizer options and widget settings saved while the workspace is active. The Custom HTML widget is intentionally not captured. * **Posts and pages:** “Edit in workspace” creates a private copy that you edit in the normal editor. Title, content, excerpt, order, parent, comment settings, featured image, custom fields and categories/tags are included. Developers can enable other content types. * **Classic menus:** a private copy of the menu, edited on Appearance > Menus. * **Site Editor:** customized templates, template parts, global styles and navigation menus saved while the workspace is active. #### How it keeps the live site safe * **Workspace copies can never go public.** They use an internal status that WordPress does not serve to visitors. Pressing Publish or Update on a copy only saves the copy. * **Conflict detection.** When you add something to a workspace, AlterCove remembers the live version. Before publishing, it checks whether the live version was changed in the meantime. If it was, publishing stops and you choose: keep the live version, use the workspace version, or review it manually. Nothing is overwritten silently. * **Best-effort rollback.** Right before each object is changed, its live state is saved. If a step fails, the steps already applied are rolled back, and settings that did not exist before are removed again. WordPress has no transaction that covers every kind of data, so rollback is best effort; side effects in other plugins or external services cannot be undone. * **Publish lock.** Only one request can publish a workspace at a time. * **Scheduled publishing** re-checks conflicts at publish time. If there is a conflict, nothing is published, the workspace is marked Blocked and you are emailed. * **Secure preview links.** Links use 256-bit random keys. Only a SHA-256 hash is stored; the link is shown once. Links expire, can be revoked at any time, never give wp-admin access, and people using them cannot send forms. * **Sensitive values** such as passwords, API keys and tokens are masked in comparisons and never written to the history. #### What is not captured Some changes cannot be kept privately in a safe way and are not part of an AlterCove workspace: WordPress Additional CSS, the Custom HTML widget, activating plugins or themes, site address, admin email, user and role management, media uploads, comments, deleting content, and creating new posts (new posts stay ordinary WordPress drafts). Deactivate the workspace before editing excluded code-based settings such as Additional CSS or the Custom HTML widget. WooCommerce orders, refunds, customers, sessions, coupons, products and scheduled actions are always excluded; WooCommerce settings are left live. Creating or resetting templates in the Site Editor is blocked while a workspace is active. AlterCove does not replace a staging site for plugin updates, theme switches or code changes. #### Compatibility notes AlterCove includes conservative rules for Elementor, WPBakery, ACF, Yoast SEO, Rank Math, WooCommerce, Jetpack and WPForms: page-builder and SEO data stored with a post follows its workspace copy, generated caches are excluded, and Elementor caches are cleared after publishing. These rules are not a claim of full compatibility with every feature of those plugins. The Settings screen lists what applies to the plugins active on your site. #### For developers Filters: `altercove_capability`, `altercove_supported_options`, `altercove_excluded_options`,` altercove_supported_post_types`, `altercove_excluded_post_types`, `altercove_site_editor_post_types`,` altercove_excluded_post_meta`, `altercove_sensitive_keys`, `altercove_before_change_capture`,` altercove_publish_option_value`, `altercove_workspace_changes`, `altercove_adapters`,` altercove_schedule_grace_period`, `altercove_block_preview_writes`. Actions: `altercove_after_change_capture`, `altercove_before_workspace_publish`,` altercove_before_apply_change`, `altercove_after_workspace_publish`, `altercove_workspace_publish_failed`,` altercove_content_published`. Custom object types can be supported by registering a class that implements `Altercove_Adapter_Interface` through the `altercove_adapters` filter. ### Privacy AlterCove does not track visitors, does not contact external services and does not use a CDN. It stores the user account IDs of people who create workspaces, capture changes, create preview links and perform workspace actions, with the date of each action. The history is deleted automatically after the retention period set on the Settings screen (90 days by default). Setting values, content and preview link keys are never written to the history. People who open a preview link receive a cookie named `altercove_preview` that holds the link key until it expires or they leave the preview. AlterCove stores no IP addresses or browser details; it only counts how often each link was used. AlterCove adds suggested text to the privacy policy guide and supports the WordPress personal data export and erasure tools. ## Screenshots [⌊The Workspaces dashboard: workspaces in progress, pending changes, conflicts to review, scheduled and published work at a glance.⌉⌊The Workspaces dashboard: workspaces in progress, pending changes, conflicts to review, scheduled and published work at a glance.⌉[ The Workspaces dashboard: workspaces in progress, pending changes, conflicts to review, scheduled and published work at a glance. [⌊A workspace overview with progress steps, what the workspace contains and every pending change with a side-by-side comparison.⌉⌊A workspace overview with progress steps, what the workspace contains and every pending change with a side-by-side comparison.⌉[ A workspace overview with progress steps, what the workspace contains and every pending change with a side-by-side comparison. [⌊Resolving a conflict: the original, current live and workspace versions shown together, with Keep live, Use workspace and Review manually choices.⌉⌊Resolving a conflict: the original, current live and workspace versions shown together, with Keep live, Use workspace and Review manually choices.⌉[ Resolving a conflict: the original, current live and workspace versions shown together, with Keep live, Use workspace and Review manually choices. [⌊Creating a private preview link. The link is shown once and only its hash is stored.⌉⌊ Creating a private preview link. The link is shown once and only its hash is stored .⌉[ Creating a private preview link. The link is shown once and only its hash is stored. [⌊The front-end banner people see while viewing a workspace, with a one-click way out.⌉⌊The front-end banner people see while viewing a workspace, with a one-click way out.⌉[ The front-end banner people see while viewing a workspace, with a one-click way out. ## Installation #### Install 1. In your WordPress admin, go to **Plugins > Add New**, search for “AlterCove”, then click **Install Now** and **Activate**. 2. Or download the ZIP file, go to **Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin**, choose the file and click **Install Now**, then **Activate**. You can also upload the `altercove` folder to `/wp-content/plugins/`. #### Quick start (2 minutes) 1. Go to **AlterCove > Workspaces** and create a workspace with “Activate it now” checked. 2. Go to **Settings > General** and change the Site Title. Click **Save Changes**. 3. Open your site in a private browser window: visitors still see the old title. 4. Back in **AlterCove > Workspaces**, open your workspace and click **Preview site**: you see the new title. 5. Click **Publish now**. The new title is now live for everyone. The full step-by-step guide is in the “How to use AlterCove” section of the Description. #### Requirements * WordPress 6.4 or newer * PHP 7.4 or newer * An administrator account (users with the `manage_options` capability) ## FAQ ### How do I know if my changes are going live or into a workspace? Look at the toolbar at the top of the screen. When it shows “Workspace: name”, supported changes you save are kept in that workspace. When it does not, you are working on the live site. The block editor also shows a notice when you open the live version of a page while a workspace is active. ### How do I edit a page without changing the live page? With a workspace active, click “Edit in workspace” under the page title in Pages, or open the workspace’s Content tab and search for it. Edit the private copy that opens. Pressing Update or Publish there only saves the copy. ### How do I show my changes to a client? Open the workspace, go to the Preview tab and click “Create preview link”. Send the link to your client. They do not need an account. Revoke the link when you no longer need it. ### How do I undo changes before publishing? Remove a single change with “Remove from workspace” on its card, or delete everything with “Discard workspace” on the Overview tab. Nothing on the live site is affected. ### Can I work on more than one workspace? Yes. You can create as many workspaces as you like. Each administrator has at most one active workspace at a time; activating another one switches to it. ### Do visitors see my workspace changes? No. Only users with the AlterCove capability (administrators by default) who are working in or previewing a workspace, and people holding a valid preview link, see workspace changes. ### Is this a staging site? No. AlterCove keeps supported changes privately on the live installation and publishes them when you are ready. It does not clone the database and is not meant for testing plugin updates, theme switches or code. ### What happens if someone edits the live site while I work in a workspace? AlterCove detects it before publishing and stops, showing the original, current live and workspace versions so you can decide. ### What if publishing fails halfway? AlterCove rolls back the steps it already applied, using snapshots taken right before each change. Rollback is best effort: it cannot undo actions other plugins or external services performed in reaction to the change. ### Can I schedule a workspace? Yes. Scheduling uses WordPress cron. If AlterCove is deactivated while a workspace is scheduled, the schedule is restored on reactivation. If the time passed more than an hour earlier, the workspace is blocked for review instead of publishing unexpectedly. ### Does it work with WooCommerce? AlterCove never copies or publishes orders, refunds, customers, sessions, coupons, products or scheduled actions, and it leaves WooCommerce settings live. You can still use workspaces for pages, menus, theme settings and other supported changes on a store. ### Does deactivating the plugin delete my workspaces? No. Deactivation only removes scheduled events. Deleting the plugin removes all AlterCove data, including unpublished workspaces. Published changes stay on your site. ### Who can use AlterCove? Users with the `manage_options` capability. Developers can change this with the ` altercove_capability` filter. ## Reviews There are no reviews for this plugin. ## Contributors & Developers “AlterCove” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin. Contributors * [ Muhammad Mujahid Sarfraz ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/mujahidwp/) [Translate “AlterCove” into your language.](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/altercove) ### Interested in development? [Browse the code](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/altercove/), check out the [SVN repository](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/altercove/), or subscribe to the [development log](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/altercove/) by [RSS](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/altercove/?limit=100&mode=stop_on_copy&format=rss). ## Changelog #### 1.0.1 * WordPress.org review fixes and security hardening. #### 1.0.0 * Initial release. ## Meta * Version **1.0.1** * Last updated **14 hours ago** * Active installations **Fewer than 10** * WordPress version ** 6.4 or higher ** * Tested up to **7.1.2** * PHP version ** 7.4 or higher ** * Language * [English (US)](https://wordpress.org/plugins/altercove/) * Tags * [draft](https://arq.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/draft/)[preview](https://arq.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/preview/) [staging](https://arq.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/staging/)[workspace](https://arq.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/workspace/) * [Advanced View](https://arq.wordpress.org/plugins/altercove/advanced/) ## Ratings No reviews have been submitted yet. [Your review](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/altercove/reviews/#new-post) [See all reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/altercove/reviews/) ## Contributors * [ Muhammad Mujahid Sarfraz ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/mujahidwp/) ## Support Got something to say? Need help? [View support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/altercove/)