A certificate is only as trustworthy as it is checkable. Every certificate issued by PressPrimer Certificate carries a unique credential ID, and your site hosts a public verification page where anyone can confirm what that ID represents. No account is needed to verify.

Credential IDs

Each certificate receives a 12-character credential ID, displayed in groups of four like 7K3M-Q8V2-XR4H. The format is designed for real-world use:

• Non-guessable: IDs are random. Knowing one credential ID tells you nothing about any other, so the verification page cannot be mined by guessing.
• Unambiguous: The character set excludes look-alike characters (I, L, O, and U), so an ID read over the phone or retyped from paper is hard to get wrong.
• Typo-checked: The final character is a check character computed from the rest. Nearly all mistyped or transposed IDs are caught instantly, and the verifier sees “please check for typos” rather than a false “not found”.

The Verification Page

A Verify Certificate page is created automatically when the plugin is activated. It contains a simple form: a verifier enters a credential ID and immediately sees the result. You can restyle or move the form anywhere using the verification block or the [ppcert_verify] shortcode; just keep the assigned page in Certificates > Settings > General up to date, because certificate QR codes and links point to it.

A verification result shows the certificate’s status along with the Recipient, the Certificate (its display name), the Issuer, the Issued date, and the Expires date when there is one. The display name is what makes this result useful to an outside verifier: “Botany 101 Certificate” answers their question, where a generic template name does not. See Awarding Certificates Automatically for how to set it. Possible statuses are:

• Valid certificate: The credential is genuine and in good standing.
• Expired certificate: The credential was genuine but its validity period has ended.
• Revoked: The credential has been withdrawn by the issuer.
• Not found: No certificate exists for that ID.

QR Codes, Clickable IDs, and Direct Links

The QR code element available in the designer encodes each certificate’s verification link, so scanning a printed certificate takes the verifier straight to the result. On the PDF itself, the QR code and the Credential ID merge field are both clickable links to the same page, so a certificate opened on screen or forwarded by email verifies with one click and no phone. (A credential ID typed inside a text element prints the ID but is not clickable; use the Credential ID merge field element for the link.) Previews and sample renders have no credential yet, so they carry no links.

The same link appears in the certificate email. Direct links use the ppcert_id parameter, so you can construct one as your-verification-page/?ppcert_id=CREDENTIAL-ID. Verification works even with JavaScript disabled, and lookups are rate limited to deter automated scraping.

Privacy

Verification checks and certificate views are recorded as anonymous events, without IP addresses or user agents, and are pruned automatically after the retention window set in Certificates > Settings > Advanced.