Comms.Church — Planning Center Registrations

Display Planning Center Registrations events on any WordPress site via Gutenberg blocks and shortcodes. API credentials are stored server-side and never exposed to visitors.

Installation (first time on a new site)

This plugin is not on WordPress.org, so the first install is manual:

1. Download the latest comms-church-pco.zip from Releases.
2. In WordPress: Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin.
3. Upload the zip, install, activate.
4. Go to Settings → PCO Registrations and enter your Planning Center API credentials.

After this first install, the plugin checks GitHub for new releases automatically and updates show up in the normal Plugins and Dashboard → Updates screens — no need to repeat this process.

Releasing a new version

1. Bump the version in two places in comms-church-pco.php:

   • The Version: line in the file header comment
   • The define( 'CCPCO_VERSION', '...' ) constant

   These must match each other and the git tag, or the release Action will fail on purpose.

2. Commit and push (GitHub Desktop or git push).

3. Create a GitHub Release with a tag matching vX.X.X (e.g. v1.1.0).

4. GitHub Actions automatically builds comms-church-pco.zip and attaches it to the release. Sites with the plugin installed will see the update within ~24 hours (or instantly via the "Check for updates" link next to the plugin on the Plugins screen).

How the updater works

includes/class-ccpco-updater.php hooks into WordPress's native plugin-update system. It polls the public GitHub Releases API (api.github.com/repos/Comms-Church/comms-church-pco/releases/latest) once a day, compares the tag to the installed version, and if newer, points WordPress's built-in updater at the .zip asset attached to that release. No third-party service, no API keys required — GitHub's public API is unauthenticated for public repos.

Repo structure

comms-church-pco/
├── comms-church-pco.php       # Main plugin file, version lives here
├── includes/
│   ├── class-ccpco-updater.php   # GitHub-based auto-updater
│   ├── class-ccpco-api.php       # PCO API client
│   ├── class-ccpco-cache.php     # Transient cache + circuit breaker
│   ├── class-ccpco-renderer.php  # Shared HTML output
│   ├── class-ccpco-shortcodes.php
│   ├── class-ccpco-blocks.php    # Gutenberg blocks
│   ├── class-ccpco-webhook.php   # Webhook receiver (ready for when PCO supports it)
│   └── class-ccpco-admin.php     # Settings + shortcode generator pages
├── assets/                    # CSS/JS for front end, admin, and block editor
└── .github/workflows/release.yml  # Builds & attaches zip on tag push

Changelog

1.2.0

Bricks Builder support

• Added three native Bricks elements — PCO Signup List, PCO Signup Card, and PCO Register Button — under a "Planning Center" category in the Bricks element panel, with full visual controls. Registered only when Bricks is active; Gutenberg blocks and shortcodes remain available everywhere.
• Fixed broken styling on Bricks sites: v1.1.0's conditional asset loading sniffed post_content for PCO shortcodes, but Bricks stores content in its own meta fields, so styles never loaded in the head. On Bricks sites the stylesheet now always loads in the head; Bricks elements also declare their assets via the proper enqueue_scripts() mechanism.
• Asset loading is now self-registering, so late/builder-context rendering can never produce unstyled output.
• Added an admin warning when the GCC-specific PCO plugin is active alongside this one (both register the same shortcode names and will conflict).

1.1.0

Compatibility & stability

• Added PHP 7.4 compatibility: polyfills for str_contains/str_ends_with (previously fataled on PHP < 8.0, common on shared church hosting) plus Requires PHP header and a graceful deactivation guard for even older PHP.
• Fixed cache invalidation: flushes previously wiped the stale fallback copies and the updater's release cache, defeating the circuit breaker. Now uses generation-based invalidation — flushes are instant, and stale/updater caches survive by design.
• Fixed cache-key mismatches left over from an earlier codebase (targeted flushes were silently missing).
• Fixed a bug where an empty cache-duration setting created never-expiring caches; TTL now has a 60-second floor.
• Any API failure (not just rate limits) now serves stale data to visitors instead of an error.

Calendar (.ics) fixes

• Fixed double URL-decoding that corrupted event titles containing % or +.
• All-day events now set the RFC 5545 exclusive end date (previously rendered wrong in some calendar apps).
• Calendar download links are now HMAC-signed, so the public .ics endpoint only serves files the site itself generated.

Performance

• Front-end CSS/JS now load only on pages that actually contain PCO content.
• List caches are keyed on data-affecting settings only — two differently styled blocks now share one API fetch.
• Category-filtered lists fetch a full page from the API so results aren't silently truncated.

Polish

• "Add to Calendar" dropdown flips downward when near the top of the viewport instead of clipping offscreen.
• Block editor: color panels now show whether a block uses a custom or global color, with a one-click reset to global.
• Webhook endpoint throttles failed-authentication logging.
• Added uninstall.php — deleting the plugin now removes all stored options (including API credentials) and caches.
• Added prefers-reduced-motion support and visible keyboard-focus styles.

1.0.0

• Initial release.