Connect a WordPress site

This page covers the connection flow in detail. For a 2-minute happy-path, see Quick-Start. Everything below works on a phone as well as on a computer.

How the connection works

When you connect a site, Hubbee and the WordPress plugin exchange a one-time onboarding token to authenticate each other. After the handshake:

• The plugin stores an api_secret used for HMAC-signed requests
• The dashboard stores the site’s REST endpoint URL and metadata
• A heartbeat (interval depends on your plan) reports the site’s status

With Connect with Hubbee you never see that token: Hubbee creates it for exactly this site and hands it to the plugin, which can only redeem it together with a secret value that never leaves your WordPress. With the token fallback you copy the token yourself; it is single-use and expires after 60 minutes.

Step 1 — Install the plugin

1. Download the plugin in Hubbee (Sites → Connect Site, or step 3 of onboarding). On a phone, the file lands in the Files app under Downloads (iPhone) or in your Downloads folder (Android).
2. WP Admin → Plugins → Add New Plugin → Upload Plugin → choose the file
3. Install Now → Activate Plugin

Tip: Opened Hubbee from a link in WhatsApp, Instagram or another app? Those in-app browsers often can’t download files. Open the page in Safari or Chrome first.

There is no automatic plugin updater: to update later, download the new version from the dashboard and upload it the same way (WordPress offers Replace current with uploaded).

Step 2 — Connect with Hubbee

1. WP Admin → Hubbee (left sidebar; on a phone behind the ☰ menu). Right after activation, the Connect link in the Plugins list takes you there.
2. Choose whether the site should send visitor analytics, then click Connect with Hubbee
3. Hubbee opens. Sign in if needed, check the site address, your account and the workspace, and click Connect site
4. You land back in WordPress, which shows Connected to Hubbee! The site appears in your dashboard within seconds.

Don’t have an account yet? Create one for free on the sign-in screen, finish the short setup, then click Connect with Hubbee in WordPress again.

Token fallback (sites without HTTPS, older plugin versions)

One-tap connect needs a site that runs on HTTPS, with its WordPress admin on the same address as the site (not www. on one and without on the other). Otherwise, or with a plugin version before 2.3.0:

1. Hubbee → Sites → Connect Site → expand Connect with a token instead → Copy
2. WP Admin → Hubbee → expand Connect with a token instead (older versions show the token field directly)
3. Paste the token, choose the analytics option, click Establish connection

Staging environments

You can connect both staging.example.com and example.com as separate sites:

• Each is connected on its own
• Each maintains its own api_secret
• Push to one without affecting the other
• Use bulk push to send the same content to both after staging review

Warning: Don’t clone a connected staging site’s database to production. The cloned plugin will inherit the staging api_secret, which Hubbee will reject. Always re-run Connect on the new environment.

WordPress Multisite (network) installs

Hubbee treats each subsite of a Multisite as a separate connected site. Network-activate the plugin once at the network level, then run the Connect flow on each subsite individually.

The plugin only modifies the active subsite’s database — never the network meta. You can connect 3 subsites of a 10-site network without affecting the other 7.

Connection doesn’t work

“The connection link has expired or was not started here” (Connect with Hubbee): the link is only valid for a few minutes and only in the browser where you clicked the button. Click Connect with Hubbee again — if you had to sign in to WordPress again in between, that is the usual cause.

“This connection link was not started from this site”: the confirmation was meant for a different site. Start again from the WordPress site you want to connect.

“This site is already connected”: the site is still connected to that workspace — typically after deleting and reinstalling the plugin. For your protection, one-tap connect never replaces an existing connection. Remove the site under Sites first and connect again, or reconnect with a token.

“Site limit reached”: your plan’s site limit is used up. Upgrade your plan, or remove a site you no longer need.

If a pasted token returns “Invalid or expired”:

• Did you wait more than an hour? Tokens expire after 60 minutes. Generate a fresh one.
• Did you copy a previous token? Tokens are single-use. Generate a fresh one.
• Are there hidden whitespace characters? Copy-paste from the dashboard, not from email forwards. Trim whitespace before pasting.

If the token is fresh and unused but still fails, see Plugin shows offline.

What happens next

Within 2-3 seconds of connecting:

• The plugin creates two database tables: wp_bz_tokens and wp_bz_processed_requests
• An encrypted api_secret is stored in wp_options
• A hubbee_heartbeat cron schedule is registered
• The bz/v1 REST namespace becomes available for inbound pushes

You can now push your first content token. For ongoing health checks, see Site health & monitoring.