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How do I choose a locking mode for my content on Poool Access?
How do I choose a locking mode for my content on Poool Access?

Choosing the most accurate method depending on your strategy and on the evolution of browsers

Madeleine White avatar
Written by Madeleine White
Updated over a week ago

Ad blockers, paywall blockers, private browsing, zen mode ... The evolution of browsers and people's uses can have an impact on your content access strategy.

About the evolution of browsers

First of all, please note that most of the problems you are facing regarding browsers (reading in private mode, use of ad blockers ...) are strongly linked to the content of external filters like EasyList. Get in touch with us to know more about this topic.

Aside from these problems, other subjects, like the emergence of paywall blockers or zen modes, are at the heart of your thoughts. However their negative impact is preventable if you use the right locking mode for your content, with Poool's dynamic paywall! Let's review the available modes and the questions to ask yourself in order to choose the one that best fits your priorities.

Several options are actually offered so you can mask your content and display the paywall instead. Each method has its own pros and cons. With this article, we want you to understand all the ins and outs of each option so you can make an informed choice.

Native locking modes

We developed our natives modes so publishers can implement Poool really fast, without having to code internally the mechanism to lock then unlock the content. Their main aim is to send the whole content into the page so you can manipulate it afterwards, depending on the chosen option.

We based our development on our experience with numerous publishers and also on the most implemented methods on famous media websites.

1. Hide mode (CSS)

Hide mode is the easiest mode, and the one that produces less side effects. We calculate the size of the <div> on which data-poool and data-poool-mode attributes are affixed. Then we cut the content at the % defined in data-pooo-mode. When unlocking content, we use the original size again for the content <div>.

In this mode, content remains complete and can be seen while inspecting the webpage.

2. Excerpt mode (Javascript)

Like the Hide mode, we calculate the % of text to hide. The main difference is that the text is not staying on the page but is being hidden with a javascript element that readers are not able to access.

However, text remains available in the source code of the page.

This is the characteristic that paywall blockers or zen mode use to display content to readers. To prevent this, we created an alternative mode that we call "custom mode".

Custom locking mode

If these two previous modes don't need any technical development on the publishers' side, this new mode requests some work.

In the Custom mode, Poool stands aside so you can manage locking and unlocking content on your side. We trigger the "onLock" event (https://dev.poool.fr/access/events#onlock) when locking content, then the "onRelease" event (https://dev.poool.fr/access/events#onrelease) when unlocking content.

This principle is useful when you want, for example, to unlock content via API for security reasons.

Once your content is "protected" behind the custom mode, you could need to make sure a paywall will always show even if a reader disables Javascript in their console. No worries! To do so, use a <noscript> tag and implement your own paywall there. You can also get in touch with us so we provide you with a code that will display a Poool paywall that will use your customized elements, like your texts or your colors. Please note that it won't work on a dynamical basis though.

In a nutshell

Native modes pros

  • Quick integration

  • Best user experience (not latency while unlocking content)

  • No internal development needed except if there is a conflict with your article content (ads, Javascript...)

Native modes cons

  • Article content visible in the code source

  • Adjustments needed depending on article content

  • No control on the publishers' side

Custom mode pros

  • Control of the locking/unlocking process

  • Possible implementation of a security system (API call for example)

  • Flexibility

Custom mode con

  • Internal development needed

  • User experience less optimized if there are numerous processes before unlocking

  • Hard for Poool to be able to help your teams

Don't hesitate to get in touch with us to discuss what option could be the best for your needs, goals and constraints!

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