Gratis Community

Overview

Gratis Community adds lightweight social features to WordPress: an activity feed, member profiles with bio and avatar, public groups, and private messaging, all backed by native post types and a small REST API. It is configured from a single settings screen and exposes shortcodes so you can drop profiles and the activity feed into any page.

Opening the settings screen

1. In the WordPress admin sidebar, open the Activity menu.
2. Click Settings (URL: /wp-admin/edit.php?post_type=gratis_activity&page=gratis-community-settings).
3. Adjust the options below, then click Save settings.

Activity, groups, and messages

The plugin registers three post types:

• Activity (gratis_activity) — the feed of member actions. Entries are created automatically (see logging below) and listed under the Activity admin menu.
• Groups (gratis_group) — public groups with a title, description, and image, published with their own archive at /groups/.
• Messages (gratis_message) — private member-to-member messages stored behind the scenes (no admin list) and created through the REST API.

Settings

• Activity logging — when enabled, records published posts and Gratis form submissions in the activity feed. Disable it if you want the feed populated only by your own code. On by default.
• Feed items — how many entries the

  No activity yet.

  shortcode shows. Minimum 1; default 10.

Member profile fields

A Community Profile section is added to each user’s WordPress profile screen (Users → your account). Users (or admins) can edit:

• Bio — a short biography shown on the profile card.
• Avatar URL — a custom avatar image address.
• Social URL — a link to the member’s social profile or website.

Shortcodes

• Profile card — renders a member’s name, bio, and join date. Pass a user ID, or omit it to show the current user.

  User not found.

• Activity feed — lists the most recent activity, limited by the Feed items setting.

  No activity yet.

Recommended starting point

• Leave Activity logging on so the feed fills automatically as members post and submit forms.
• Set Feed items to a comfortable length for your layout (10 is a good default).
• Add

  No activity yet.

  to a community page and

  User not found.

  to a member page.
• Ask members to complete their Bio and Avatar URL for richer profile cards.