Coverground

FAQ

What data is exchanged with Coverground?

Connecting stores a read-only access token on your site, used to read your routes and subscription status. The plugin sends nothing about your site’s visitors to Coverground — the published card is static content served by your site. See External services for what is sent and when.

Can I use the block without connecting?

No — the block needs the connection to list and load your routes. For embedding a route on a site you don’t manage a Coverground account on, use the embed snippet from the route’s Embed button in the Coverground dashboard instead.

Do I need a paid Coverground plan?

No. This plugin works on every Coverground plan, including the free one — a free account can publish two routes and show them here.

Where does the card’s photo live?

When you load a route, its cover photo is copied into your media library and the card uses that copy — so your pages serve their own image and keep working fully even when Coverground is unreachable. Reloading a card after the photo changed on Coverground adds the new version as a new media item; older cards keep their own copy. The copies stay in your library until you delete them yourself. If the photo cannot be copied — for instance when you may not upload files — the card is built without an image and the editor shows a warning, with a button to try again.

What if Coverground is down?

Published pages are unaffected: cards are static blocks with their own image copy served by your site. In the editor, the route picker and card loading show a temporary error with a retry; the daily check simply keeps its last report. Only the “Follow this route” button depends on Coverground being reachable at the moment a visitor uses it.

The photo has no alternative text — is that a mistake?

Not necessarily. When the route owner marked the photo as decorative, the card deliberately uses empty alternative text: the title and facts line next to it already carry the meaning, so screen readers skip the photo instead of reading a redundant description. Add your own text if the image is meaningful in your page’s context.

Since 0.2.1 the card marks its own language: the wrapper carries a lang attribute set from Card text language, so a Dutch card inside an English page is read by a Dutch voice rather than an English one. Set that language correctly and screen readers do the rest.

My card is out of date

Cards are snapshots you own, so they are never changed automatically. When a route changes on Coverground, the daily check flags it in the admin and the block shows a notice in the editor; use Reload card from Coverground to update it. Reloading replaces the card’s blocks, including edits you made to them.

Does the button open in a new tab?

No — it is an ordinary link, which is the most accessible default. You can switch it to open in a new tab with the button’s own link settings.

How do I disconnect?

Settings → Coverground → Disconnect, or revoke the site from the Embedding page in your Coverground dashboard. Existing cards keep working either way; the domain you approved stays on your allowed embed domains until you remove it there.

Which admin notices does the plugin show?

Only these three, and only when the daily check finds something: a card that is out of date, a card whose route is no longer published, and a lapsed Coverground subscription (administrators only). They appear on the Dashboard, the post and page lists and Settings → Coverground, and each can be dismissed. A dismissed notice returns only when what it reports changes. The plugin shows no upgrade prompts.

Where is the source code?

The plugin ships with its source. The block script and styles in build/ are compiled from the files in src/ with @wordpress/scripts (webpack, Babel, Sass). The PHP files and assets/notices.js are not compiled.

To rebuild build/, you need Node.js 18.12 or later. In the plugin folder, run npm install, then npm run build. npm run start rebuilds on every change; npm run lint:js and npm run test:unit run the linter and the unit tests.