AlitaYoko Conversations

Description

AlitaYoko Conversations is an editorial storytelling plugin for presenting authored conversations on a WordPress site. It is designed for reconstructed chats, interviews, fictional dialogue, educational examples, customer conversations, and complete dialogue-driven stories.

It is not a live chat service and does not send messages between visitors.

Conversation builder

  • Create any number of conversations as dedicated WordPress content items.
  • Add multiple participants with individual names, bubble colors, text colors, left/right alignment, and optional avatars.
  • Build a sortable conversation flow from four entry types: Message, Narration, Divider, and System notice.
  • Use keyboard-accessible Move up / Move down controls in addition to drag-and-drop sorting.
  • Add optional timestamps or narrative labels to participant messages.
  • Add optional per-message typing indicators in Bubble dots or Text style, with an individual 0.5–5 second duration.
  • Attach one Media Library image or one stored link-preview card to a participant Message.
  • Combine text with an image or link preview, or publish an attachment-only Message.
  • Open message images in an accessible, keyboard-friendly lightbox.

Storytelling and presentation

  • Five distinct presets: Modern, Material, Minimal, Classic, and Editorial / Book dialogue.
  • Configure message and participant-name typography.
  • Style narration independently, including size, color, alignment, and italic or regular text.
  • Adjust bubble radius, shadow, and vertical spacing between flow entries.
  • Preview appearance changes immediately on the per-conversation Settings screen.
  • Choose whether participant names, timestamps, and avatars are shown visually.

Progressive reveal modes

  • Instant.
  • Reveal while scrolling.
  • Tap / click to continue.
  • Auto play with a configurable base delay.
  • Show-all control for progressive modes.
  • Reduced-motion preferences are respected.
  • Progressive enhancement keeps authored content readable if JavaScript is unavailable.

Gutenberg and shortcode support

Use the native dynamic AlitaYoko Conversation block to select a published conversation in the block editor. The conversation is rendered dynamically, so later edits automatically appear everywhere it is embedded.

For shortcode-capable contexts, use:

[alitayoko_conversation id="123"]

Examples and portability

Three editable English example conversations are created after first activation. Administrators can recreate missing examples from Conversations > Settings without overwriting examples that still exist.

Conversations can be exported and imported as readable, versioned JSON. Imports create new conversations and never silently overwrite existing content. Persistent UUIDs detect repeated imports, while an explicit option allows an independent duplicate copy when desired.

Avatar and message-image references are portable when the matching image already exists on the destination site. AlitaYoko Conversations does not download external media during import. Link-preview text metadata is included directly in the export.

Privacy

AlitaYoko Conversations does not track visitors, create user accounts, or send analytics. Conversation data is stored in the site’s WordPress database. Avatars and message images use the WordPress Media Library.

The only optional external request added by the plugin is link-preview retrieval initiated explicitly by an authorized editor. When Fetch preview is selected, the WordPress server requests the URL entered by that editor in order to read public page metadata such as title, description, domain, and a preview-image reference. If a supported preview image is available, the plugin may download a local copy into the Media Library. No link-preview metadata is fetched automatically on frontend page views.

JSON import reads only the file explicitly uploaded by an authorized WordPress user. Export is initiated explicitly by an authorized user. The plugin does not automatically download external media during import.

External services

Link-preview retrieval contacts only the URL that an authorized editor explicitly enters and requests through Fetch preview. There is no fixed third-party API or analytics provider. The request may disclose normal HTTP request information such as the site’s server IP address and the plugin’s user-agent string to the destination website. Preview fetching uses WordPress safe HTTP functions, restricts the response size, and rejects unsafe URLs.

Screenshots

Blocks

This plugin provides 1 block.

  • AlitaYoko Conversation Display an authored AlitaYoko conversation.

Installation

  1. Install the plugin ZIP through Plugins > Add Plugin > Upload Plugin, or copy the alitayoko-conversations directory to /wp-content/plugins/.
  2. Activate AlitaYoko Conversations.
  3. Open Conversations to edit an example or create a new conversation.
  4. Define participants and build the Conversation flow.
  5. Open Conversations > Settings to configure presentation and reveal behavior.
  6. Add the AlitaYoko Conversation block to a post or page and select a published conversation.

FAQ

Is this a live chat plugin?

No. AlitaYoko Conversations presents conversations that an editor authors in WordPress. It does not provide visitor-to-visitor or visitor-to-agent messaging.

Can a conversation contain more than two participants?

Yes. Each participant can have an individual name, color, avatar, and left/right alignment.

Can I build a complete story instead of only chat bubbles?

Yes. Messages can be mixed with Narration, Dividers, and System notices in any order. The Editorial preset also provides a bubble-free book/dialogue presentation.

Are appearance settings global?

No. Appearance and reveal settings are stored per conversation, so different conversations can use different presets and behavior.

Does the plugin include a Gutenberg block?

Yes. The AlitaYoko Conversation block is dynamic and is the recommended embedding method. The shortcode remains available for compatibility and non-block contexts.

Can I move conversations between WordPress sites?

Yes. Use Conversations > Import / Export. The versioned JSON format includes participants, conversation-flow entries, ordering, colors, appearance, narration, and reveal settings.

How are link previews created?

Enter a public http or https URL in a Message and choose Fetch preview. WordPress retrieves the page metadata only after this explicit administrator/editor action. The title, domain, and description are stored with the Message. When the remote page exposes a supported preview image, the plugin attempts to cache that image locally in the WordPress Media Library so frontend visitors do not need to fetch it from the linked site.

Does importing overwrite an existing conversation?

No. Imported content is created as a new conversation. UUIDs are used to detect repeated imports, which are skipped by default. You can explicitly allow an independent duplicate copy.

What happens to my conversations if I uninstall the plugin?

Authored conversation content is intentionally preserved. If you want to remove it, delete the conversations in WordPress before uninstalling the plugin.

Reviews

There are no reviews for this plugin.

Contributors & Developers

“AlitaYoko Conversations” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

Changelog

1.2.0

  • Added optional Media Library image attachments for participant Messages.
  • Added accessible image lightbox support with close button, Escape key, click-outside closing, focus restoration, and responsive sizing.
  • Added stored link-preview cards with URL, title, domain, description, and optional locally cached preview images.
  • Added explicit admin-only link metadata retrieval using WordPress safe HTTP requests; frontend views do not fetch preview metadata.
  • Added text + attachment and attachment-only Messages.
  • Integrated image and link attachments with v1.1 typing indicators and all progressive reveal modes.
  • Attachments are intentionally unavailable in the Editorial / Book dialogue preset.
  • Updated the portable JSON format to schema version 4 while preserving schema-1, schema-2, and schema-3 imports.
  • Added portable message-image references without downloading external media during import.

1.1.0

  • Added optional per-message typing indicators for participant Messages.
  • Added Bubble dots and italic Text indicator styles with animated dots.
  • Added per-message typing duration from 0.5 to 5 seconds.
  • Integrated typing indicators with Scroll Reveal, Tap / Click to Continue, and Auto Play; Instant mode displays messages immediately.
  • Typing indicators are intentionally unavailable in the Editorial / Book dialogue preset.
  • Added reduced-motion-safe typing animations and accessible live announcements.
  • Updated the portable JSON format to schema version 3 while preserving schema-1 and schema-2 imports.
  • Updated built-in examples to demonstrate both typing-indicator styles.

1.0.0

  • First public release.
  • Build structured conversations and dialogue stories with Messages, Narration, Dividers, and System notices.
  • Includes five visual presets, per-conversation styling, live preview, avatars, timestamps, and configurable vertical spacing.
  • Includes Instant, Scroll Reveal, Tap / Click to Continue, and Auto Play presentation modes with accessibility support.
  • Includes a dynamic Gutenberg block, shortcode support, editable example conversations, and versioned JSON import/export.
  • Completed WordPress.org release audit and Plugin Check with no reported errors or warnings.

0.9.1

  • Plugin Check cleanup after the release audit.
  • Removed the hidden placeholder file from the languages directory.
  • Added nonce-protected redirect notices for settings and import/export screens.
  • Tightened request sanitization for nested editor data and import/export controls.
  • Removed the example lookup meta query flagged as potentially slow by Plugin Check.

0.9.0

  • Release-audit build for the first public 1.0 release.
  • Hardened import/export request handling and uploaded-file validation.
  • Tightened permissions for creating and restoring built-in example conversations.
  • Added duplicate participant and entry-ID protection during editor saves.
  • Added keyboard-accessible Move up and Move down controls for Conversation flow ordering.
  • Improved form label associations in the conversation editor.
  • Improved front-end conversation semantics and progressive-reveal accessibility, including an assistive live announcement region.
  • Avoided querying the conversation list on ordinary front-end requests solely for Gutenberg editor choices.
  • Removed inline JavaScript from the shortcode helper field.
  • Updated public documentation and privacy information for WordPress.org review.

0.5.1

  • Added configurable vertical entry spacing and completed the feature set planned before the 1.0 release audit.