Instant website updates

What this is for

If your website uses the WordPress plugin, it normally checks CouncilPapers for changes every ten minutes or so. Turn on instant updates and CouncilPapers instead tells your website the moment you change a meeting, agenda, committee or councillor, so the change shows almost at once.

Instant updates only make your site quicker. They are entirely optional - with them off, or if something goes wrong, your website still catches up on its own by its normal check.

Who can use it

This screen is for users with the Council Admin permission level. It is reached from Council → Website Integration in the left-hand menu; Council Staff do not see it, because setting it up involves a shared secret that makes CouncilPapers send requests to your website.

Setting it up

You switch between CouncilPapers and the plugin's Settings → CouncilPapers screen on your own website:

1. On your website, open Settings → CouncilPapers and find Instant Updates (webhook). Copy the Purge URL it shows. (If you cannot see this box, update the plugin to the latest version first.)
2. In CouncilPapers, on the Website Integration screen, paste it into Purge URL from the plugin and click Add website. Leave the secret box blank and CouncilPapers will create a strong secret and show it to you once.
3. Copy that secret, go back to the plugin's Instant Updates box, paste it into Shared secret and click Save secret. The secret is shown only once, so copy it before you leave the page.
4. Back in CouncilPapers, click Send test against the website to check it works.

The Purge URL must be the address the plugin shows, over https; if CouncilPapers reports a redirect, enter the exact final address the plugin displays.

Reading the status

Each connected website shows one of:

• Working - updates are being delivered; the time of the last one is shown.
• Not tested yet - connected but not yet exercised. Use Send test.
• Problem - a recent delivery failed; a plain-English explanation is shown (usually a mismatched or missing secret, or an address the plugin no longer answers on).
• Off - you have turned instant updates off for this site.
• Switched off automatically - CouncilPapers stopped trying after repeated failures over a sustained period. Your website still updates by its normal check. Fix the problem, then turn it back on.

Managing a connected website

Each website has four actions:

• Send test - sends a test message so you can confirm it arrives. Testing is rate-limited; if you test several times in quick succession you are asked to wait a few minutes.
• Turn on / Turn off - pauses or resumes instant updates. With them off, the site still updates by its normal check, a little less quickly.
• New secret - generates a fresh secret. Instant updates will fail until you paste the new secret into the plugin, so only do this if the old one may have been exposed.
• Remove - disconnects the website. It will still update by its normal check.

If instant updates stop working

The usual cause is that the Shared secret in the plugin no longer matches the one CouncilPapers holds - for example after someone generated a new secret on one side only. Use New secret here, paste it into the plugin, and Send test. Remember that none of this stops your website updating; it only affects how quickly changes appear.