1. How to Install and Activate the Plugin

1. Download the Ingestics plugin ZIP file from AutoAPIWP.com or from your account dashboard.
2. In your WordPress admin, go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin.
3. Click Choose File, select the downloaded ZIP, and click Install Now.
4. Once installation completes, click Activate Plugin.
5. You will see a new Ingestics menu item in the WordPress admin sidebar.
6. Click Ingestics to open the plugin dashboard. The Setup Wizard will launch automatically on first run.

2. How Licensing Works in This Build

This build is Freemius-integrated and initializes Freemius by default.

1. Go to Ingestics → License tab in the admin.
2. Use Upgrade or My Account to manage plan and activation.
3. Your tier is resolved from Freemius plan state. Paid features require the premium-capable build where applicable, and existing providers/posts/settings are preserved during the normal upgrade path.
4. If needed, use the License tab status actions to refresh and confirm your current tier.

3. How to Add Your First API Provider

1. Go to Ingestics → Providers tab and click Add API Provider.
2. Give the provider a name (e.g., “NewsAPI – Technology”) and enter the API endpoint URL.
3. Select the HTTP method (GET is most common) and the expected response format (JSON, XML, etc.).
4. Configure authentication: choose the auth type and enter your API key, Bearer token, or OAuth2 credentials. All credentials are encrypted on save.
5. Add any required query parameters or request headers using the key/value fields.
6. Use the JSON Path Selector to map response fields to WordPress post fields: title, content, excerpt, image URL, source URL, date.
7. Set the post status (Publish / Draft / Pending) and optionally the post type (Lite+).
8. Click Save Provider. The provider appears in the Providers list.
9. Click Fetch Now to run a manual test fetch.

4. How to Add Your First RSS Provider

1. Go to Ingestics → Providers and click Add RSS Provider.
2. Enter a provider name and the RSS/Atom feed URL. If you only know the website URL, enable Auto-Discovery (Lite+) and Ingestics will find the feed automatically.
3. Configure full-text extraction (Lite+) if the feed only provides truncated excerpts — set the max character limit and choose append or replace mode.
4. If full-text extraction falls back to baseline mode for an item, that item is automatically forced to Draft for manual review.
5. Configure the output mode (Business): full_content, excerpt, summary_only, title_only, or raw_payload.
6. Set post status and post type as needed.
7. Click Save Provider, then Fetch Now to verify the feed is accessible and items are imported correctly.

5. How to Use the Call Preview / Inspector Tool

1. Select a provider and open its detail view.
2. Click Load Planned Call to see exactly what request Ingestics will send: the full URL (with query params), all request headers, and the authentication method. Sensitive values are masked with ****.
3. Click Load Last Call to review the most recent actual request and response — useful for debugging unexpected results.
4. Click Run Live Test (Lite+) to fire a real HTTP request immediately and display the raw response body and parsed items side by side.

6. How to Configure Scheduled Fetching (Lite+)

1. Go to Ingestics → Schedule tab.
2. Select your desired fetch interval: 1 hour, 2 hours, 4 hours, 6 hours, or 24 hours on Lite; 12 hours and Custom on Pro+.
3. For a custom interval (Pro+), enter the value in hours (minimum 0.25 h, maximum 168 h). For example, enter 0.25 for every 15 minutes or 2 for every 2 hours.
4. On Business, you can set separate intervals for the API pipeline and the RSS pipeline independently.
5. Click Save Schedule. WordPress cron (aapi_cron_fetch for Lite/Pro, or aapi_api_cron_fetch + aapi_rss_cron_fetch for Business) is registered immediately.
6. The next scheduled run time is displayed in the Schedule tab.

7. How to Set Up Provider Rotation (Lite+)

1. Enable Rotation in the Schedule settings.
2. When rotation is enabled, each cron run fetches from the next provider in sequence rather than all providers simultaneously. This distributes API calls evenly over time.
3. On Business tier, API providers and RSS providers maintain separate rotation queues — you can rotate each independently.
4. Use provider toggle to exclude a specific provider from the rotation without deleting it.

8. How to Use the Query Builder (Pro+)

1. Open an API provider’s settings and click Open Query Builder.
2. Select parameters to add: Country (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2), Category (contextual to the API type), Language (ISO 639-1), or Domain whitelist/blacklist.
3. Each selection is translated to the correct query parameter for that provider type.
4. Click Apply — the query parameters are written back to the provider URL or params fields automatically.
5. Use Load Planned Call in the Inspector to verify the constructed URL before fetching.

9. How to Configure Pagination

1. In your API provider settings, enable Pagination.
2. For page-based pagination (Lite+): set the page parameter name (e.g., page), the starting page number, and the maximum number of pages to fetch per run.
3. For cursor / next-token pagination (Pro+): set the response field that contains the next cursor/token and the request parameter name to send it as on the following request. Ingestics handles the rest automatically across runs.
4. Note: transient caching is automatically disabled for paginated providers to ensure fresh data on each run.

10. How to Set Up OAuth2 Authentication

1. In your API provider’s auth settings, select OAuth2 – Client Credentials (Lite+) or OAuth2 – Auth Code (Pro+).
2. Enter your Client ID and Client Secret (stored AES-encrypted).
3. Enter the Token URL where Ingestics will exchange credentials for an access token.
4. For Auth Code flow (Pro+): also enter the Authorization URL. The admin panel provides an OAuth callback handler — copy the displayed redirect URI into your OAuth app’s settings.
5. Click Authorize (Auth Code) or Fetch Token (Client Credentials). Ingestics obtains the access token and stores it encrypted.
6. Ingestics automatically refreshes the token before it expires on subsequent fetches.

11. How to Configure Content Filters (Pro+ / Business)

1. Go to Ingestics → Filters tab.
2. Each rule has an Enable toggle and an Action dropdown: Reject (discard item), Draft (save as draft), or Publish (allow through).
3. Configure the available rules for your tier (see the table below).
4. For Business threshold rules, set numeric limits: minimum title length (characters), minimum content length, long content threshold, broken image cache TTL.
5. For Blocked Keywords (Business): enter comma-separated keywords. Any item with these words in the title or content triggers the configured action.
6. Click Save Filters. Filters apply to every item on the next fetch.

12. How to Set Up Event Triggers & the Inbound Webhook (Pro+)

1. Go to Ingestics → Settings → Advanced and copy the Webhook Trigger URL: https://yoursite.com/wp-json/ingestics/v1/trigger.
2. Generate or enter a Webhook Secret. It is stored AES-encrypted. Share this secret with the external service that will call your endpoint.
3. Configure the rate limit: maximum requests per IP per minute. Keep legacy GET method and query-string secret fallback disabled unless an integration absolutely requires them.
4. In your external service (GitHub Actions, Zapier, Make, IFTTT, etc.), set up a POST request to the webhook URL with the header X-AAPI-Webhook-Secret: your_secret.
5. Send a JSON body with the fetch_type parameter: api, rss, both, or publish. Optionally include campaign (Pro+) to trigger a specific campaign.
6. Ingestics validates the secret, checks the rate limit, and executes the requested operation.
7. For WordPress-native automation, you can also trigger runs via aapi_trigger_fetch, aapi_trigger_fetch_api, aapi_trigger_fetch_rss, and aapi_trigger_publish.

{
  "fetch_type": "both",
  "campaign": "my-campaign-name"
}

13. How to Configure AI Rewrite (Business)

1. Go to Ingestics → Settings → Pre-Publish Transform.
2. Enable AI Rewrite and select the service: OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini, or Custom Endpoint.
3. Enter the API key for the selected service (stored AES-encrypted). For Custom Endpoint, also enter the endpoint URL and auth value.
4. Configure the rewrite scope: which fields to rewrite (title, excerpt, full content, or combination).
5. Set character limits: max title chars (40–1000), max excerpt chars (80–8000), max content chars (1000–120,000).
6. Enable Strict Mode if desired — when on, items that fail the rewrite guardrails are either skipped entirely or saved as force_draft rather than published.
7. Click Save Transform Settings. AI rewrite now runs automatically as the first step of the pre-publish pipeline on every fetch.

14. How to Configure Translation (Business)

1. Go to Ingestics → Settings → Pre-Publish Transform.
2. Enable Translation and select the service: OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, DeepL, Google Translate, LibreTranslate, or Custom Endpoint.
3. Enter the API key for the selected translation service (all stored AES-encrypted).
4. Set the target language (ISO 639-1 code, e.g., fr for French, de for German).
5. Select which fields to translate: title, excerpt, content.
6. Click Save Transform Settings. Translation now runs as the second step (after AI rewrite if enabled) of the pre-publish pipeline.

15. How to Display Posts with Shortcodes and Blocks (Lite+)

1. Place the shortcode anywhere in a post, page, or text widget:

   [auto_api_feed provider="my-provider-name" layout="grid" count="12" show_excerpt="true" show_image="true"]

2. Available shortcode attributes:
   • provider — provider name or slug to display
   • fetch_type — api, rss, or both
   • post_type — WordPress post type to query
   • count — number of items (default: 10)
   • order — ASC or DESC
   • orderby — date, title, rand, etc.
   • layout — grid (Lite+), carousel (Pro+), ticker (Business)
   • show_excerpt — true/false
   • show_image — true/false
   • empty_message — text shown when no items found
   • class — extra CSS classes for the wrapper
3. For theme-level rendering, call aapi_get_feed() or aapi_render_feed() directly in your template files.
4. In the Gutenberg block editor, search for Ingestics Feed and insert the block. Use the block settings panel to configure the same attributes visually.
5. For Elementor (Pro+): find the Ingestics Feed widget in the Elementor widget panel and drag it onto the canvas.
6. For Bricks Builder (Pro+): find the Ingestics Feed element in the Bricks elements panel.

16. How to Configure Stock Image Auto-Attach (Business)

1. Go to Ingestics → Settings → General.
2. Enable Stock Image Auto-Attach and select Pexels as the provider.
3. Enter your Pexels API key (stored AES-encrypted).
4. Configure the search query strategy: Ingestics uses the post title as the Pexels search query by default. You can override this with a static keyword or a field from the fetched item.
5. Stock images are only fetched when a fetched item has no image AND no fallback image matches — they are the final fallback in the image priority chain: feed image → fallback (Pro+) → stock image (Business).

17. How to Set Up the External Webhook Bridge (Business)

1. Go to Ingestics → Settings → Advanced and find the Connector Bridge section.
2. Enter your Bridge URL (your Zapier webhook, Make webhook, or any custom endpoint URL).
3. Enter a Bridge Secret — Ingestics uses it to generate an HMAC signature header (X-AAPI-Signature) so your receiving endpoint can verify the source. Stored AES-encrypted.
4. Ingestics fires POST requests for both fetch_run_completed and post_published bridge events, including event metadata such as post ID/URL (for publish events), provider name, fetch type, campaign, and source URL where available.
5. In Zapier or Make, create a “Catch Hook” trigger pointed at the bridge URL, then build your automation from there (e.g., post to social media, send a Slack message, update a CRM record).

18. How to Configure Failure Digests (Pro+)

1. Go to Ingestics → Settings → General and find Failure Digests.
2. Enable Email Digest and enter the recipient email address. Digests include a summary of failed providers, error messages, item skip counts, and retry statuses.
3. Enable Slack Digest and enter your Slack Incoming Webhook URL.
4. Set the digest frequency. Digests fire on the cron schedule rather than immediately after each failure — this prevents notification floods during temporary outages.

19. How to Read the Activity Log

1. Go to Ingestics → Activity Log tab.
2. Each log entry shows: timestamp, event type (fetch / publish / error / license check), provider name, status (success / warning / error), and a detail message.
3. Use the log to diagnose why items were skipped (duplicate, filter rejection, no image), why a fetch failed (auth error, timeout, 429), or to confirm the schedule is running.
4. Click Clear Log to remove all entries (this is the only destructive action — it cannot be undone).
5. On Business, click Export Log to download the full log as a CSV file.

20. How to Use Provider Health Monitoring (Lite+)

1. Go to Ingestics → Dashboard or Providers tab. The Health Monitor panel shows a table of all providers.
2. For each provider you can see: last fetch timestamp, last fetch status (success / warning / error), response latency (ms), total items fetched, total items published, and consecutive failure count.
3. A provider flagged with a red status has failed its last fetch. Check the Activity Log for the specific error message.
4. Use the health data to identify providers that are consistently slow (high latency) or unreliable (high failure count) and adjust their settings or disable them accordingly.