The Dynamic CMS takes data from your account and puts it on the web. That's what makes it powerful. But some of that data is private, especially your contacts' information. So before you publish, you need to decide who can see each page and block, and which records they show. Here's how.
Dynamic pages and blocks can show data about whoever is visiting. Ontraport knows who that is in one of two ways. An identified visitor has the Ontraport cookie, which gets set when they click a link in your email, fill out a form, or click a tracked link. A logged-in member has signed in to your membership site.
A cookie works well for light personalization, but it has limits. If a visitor clears their cookies, Ontraport can't identify them anymore. A login is the most reliable way to know exactly who's visiting. So for anything private, require a login. If you haven't set up a membership site yet, the Ontraport for memberships course walks you through it.
You set this in each dynamic template's display settings. Hover over Pages in the top navigation and click Dynamic Templates. Open your template, then click Settings, then Display Settings. Under "Display this page to whom?", you can choose everyone, anonymous visitors only, identified visitors, or logged-in members.
For private pages, choose All logged in members, or Some logged in members if you want to add conditions.
In "Redirect users with no access here," you can send everyone else to another page, like a sales page where they can join. If you leave it blank, they see an access denied message.
A login tells Ontraport who the member is. Conditions make sure they only see what's theirs. If your template's source is Contacts, like a member profile page, choose Some logged in members, click Add a condition, and select "Contact matches dynamic page record." Now each contact can only see their own page.
For other objects, use the condition "Visiting contact is related to this dynamic page record," and pick the relationship. In the vet portal, with Pets related to Contacts, each pet's page shows only to that pet's owner. You can also choose "is not" to show a page only to people without that relationship.
You can also limit which records get a visible page at all. In the same Display Settings, turn on "Only show this page if the dynamic page record meets these conditions," and add a condition. If a record doesn't match, its page won't display, and you can send visitors to a redirect page instead.
Dynamic blocks have the same kind of controls. When you pick a block's data source, the "Related to visiting contact" options show data about the person viewing the page, like their own files or open orders.
For records in your other objects, click Edit Dynamic Block, then Dynamic Block Settings, and add the condition "Visiting contact is related to this dynamic block record." In the vet portal, that means each client sees only their own pets. And a dynamic block has its own display settings too, so you can show it only to logged-in members.
Before you publish, think carefully about what each page and block reveals. In the editor's preview, use View as Contact to check exactly what different contacts will see. And make sure anyone on your team who builds dynamic pages understands these risks.
So: use the cookie for light personalization, require a login for anything private, and add conditions so each person sees only their own records. Next up, we'll build custom lists with dynamic list HTML.