Getting started

Connect WordPress

Install the Sudwire Newsroom plugin and press Connect with Sudwire, or paste a connection key instead.

The plugin brings drafts into WordPress as posts pending review and tells Sudwire what your editors decide. It needs WordPress 6.0 or newer and PHP 7.4 or newer, and Connect with Sudwire needs your site on https.

#Install the plugin

1. Download the plugin. It's a .zip file: don't unzip it.
2. In your WordPress admin, go to Plugins, Add New Plugin, Upload Plugin. Choose the file and press Install Now.
3. Press Activate. The Newsroom screen opens, and Newsroom appears in the admin menu.

#Connect it

1. On the Newsroom screen, press Connect with Sudwire. Only WordPress administrators see this button.
2. Sign in, or create your account with your work email. You come straight back to the connect page.
3. The page says your site wants to receive drafts from your Sudwire account. If the site is already on your dashboard, it's matched by its address. Otherwise, check the name: the site is added to your dashboard.
4. Press Connect. Back in WordPress you see Connected to Sudwire Newsroom. There's no key to copy.

Editors and the account owner can connect a site, and viewers can't. If the site already had a key, connecting gives it a new one, so any other WordPress using the old key is disconnected.

#Or paste a key

1. In your dashboard, open your site and go to Settings. On the WordPress card, open Use a key instead and press Create connection key.
2. Copy the key. It's shown only once.
3. In WordPress, open Newsroom, choose Have a connection key? Paste it instead, paste the key and press Connect.

Lost the key? On the WordPress card, open Replace the connection key and press Replace key, then paste the new one. The old key stops working at once.

To keep the key out of the database, put it in wp-config.php instead: define( 'SUDWIRE_NEWSROOM_KEY', 'swn_your_key_here' );

#After connecting

• Sudwire confirms that the plugin runs on your site's own address, usually within a few minutes (see Site not confirmed).
• A key only works from that site. The www and bare addresses, or a staging copy on the same domain, count as the same site (see Key used on another site).
• The plugin collects new drafts every five minutes, and when you press Check now on the Newsroom screen.
• Once the site is confirmed and has sources and a running trial or plan, it switches on by itself.

#Plugin settings

Administrators find these under Settings on the Newsroom screen.

• Post author: who drafts are filed under until an editor changes it. A desk account such as "Newsroom" works well. Without one, the first administrator is used.
• Categories: file articles under their section (Local, Crime & Courts, Politics & Government, Business, Health, Education, Transport, Weather & Environment, Sport, Community, Arts & Culture, Science & Tech, National, World), creating the category if needed. Otherwise every article goes into the category you pick.
• Default photo: used when a story has no suitable photo, for example your logo on a branded background. Press Choose photo to pick it from your Media Library.
• Connection key: paste a new key here to replace the saved one, or tick Disconnect this site.

#If connecting doesn't work

Still stuck? See WordPress plugin not seen.