WordPress.org

• Either:
  • Put the postie.zip file in wp-content/plugins/ and unzip it
• Or:
  • Use the automatic installer (WP 2.7+)
• Login to WordPress as an administrator
• Goto the Plugins tab in the WordPress Admin Site
• Activate "Postie"
• Goto to the "Settings" tab and click on the sub-tab "Postie" to configure it.
• Make sure you enter the mailserver information correctly, including the type of connection and the port number. Common port configurations:
  • pop3: 110
  • pop3-ssl: 995
  • imap: 143
  • imap-ssl: 993
• (Postie ignores the settings under Settings->Writing->Writing-by-Email)

Automating checking e-mail

WordPress cron (which Postie relies on) doesn't run unless a page is accessed on the site. So if you send an email, but nobody accesses the site for 3 days Postie won't be given the chance to fetch the email and publish the post.

To ensure that Postie runs smoothly on a low or no volume site you need to ensure that a page gets hit (any page is fine). Use something like cron + curl on Linux or install curl on Windows and use the Scheduled Tasks control panel. If you are using a hosting company that doesn't allow you access to cron you can use a service like SetCronJob.

By default, postie checks for new e-mail every 30 minutes. You can select from a number of different checking intervals in the settings page, under the Mailserver tab.

Forcing e-mail check

If you would prefer to have more fine-grained control of how postie checks for mail, you can also set up a crontab. This is for advanced users only.

Setup a cronjob to pull down the get_mail.php - note that every time you access get_mail.php Postie will run - it is like clicking Run Postie on the Admin screen.

Linux

If your site runs on a UNIX/linux server, and you have shell access, you can enable mail checking using cron.

Examples:

*/5 * * * * /usr/bin/lynx --source http://blog.robfelty.com/wp-content/plugins/postie/get_mail.php >/dev/null 2>&1

This fetches the mail every five minutes with lynx

*/10 * * * * /usr/bin/wget -O /dev/null http://blog.robfelty.com/wp-content/plugins/postie/get_mail.php >/dev/null 2>&1

This fetches the mail every ten minutes with wget

Windows

You will need to install wget or curl Then use the Task Scheduler control panel to call wget or cron.