Description
Hibira Realtime makes your site update while people are looking at it. It uses Hibira, a hosted realtime service that speaks the Pusher Channels protocol, so your server never holds WebSocket connections open. Pages stay cacheable.
- Live comments. An approved comment shows up for everyone reading the post, without a reload. Replies go under their parent comment.
- Post updated notice. When you update a published post, its readers see a notice with a Reload button.
- Readers now. A small “12 reading now” counter on posts, in a corner of the page or wherever you put the
[hibira_readers]shortcode orhibira_readers()template tag. - WooCommerce order status. The order received and view order pages change when the order status changes, so customers waiting on “Processing” see “Completed” the moment you mark it.
- Admin notices. A notice in wp-admin when an order comes in or a comment awaits approval.
- For developers.
hibira_trigger( $channels, $event, $data )sends your own events, andHibiraWP.pusher()in the browser subscribes to them. Private and presence channels are signed by/wp-json/hibira/v1/authand decided by thehibira_authorize_channelfilter.
Hibira’s free plan (no card) covers a typical blog: 100 concurrent connections and 200,000 messages a day.
External service
This plugin connects to Hibira (ws.hibira.io by default, or the host you set):
- Your server sends events (comment author name, avatar URL and comment text of approved comments; post modified time; order status; order number and total for admin notices) to Hibira’s HTTP API when they happen.
- Visitors’ browsers open a WebSocket connection to Hibira on posts and order pages, to receive those events. For the readers-now count, each browser joins with a random ID; no names or personal data are sent.
Hibira’s terms and privacy policy.
Source code and libraries
The plugin’s source, with its tests, is at github.com/hibira-io/wordpress.
assets/vendor/pusher.min.js is the minified build of [pusher-js](https://github.com/pusher/pusher-js) 8.6.0 (MIT), unchanged except for the removed source map comment. Its source is at [github.com/pusher/pusher-js](https://github.com/pusher/pusher-js), and the same file can be built with `npm install pusher-js@8.6.0` (`dist/web/pusher.min.js`).
Installation
- Install and activate the plugin.
- Create a free app at hibira.io, open it and copy the app ID, key and secret.
- Go to Settings Hibira, paste them, choose the features, and press Send a test event.
To keep the secret out of the database, put it in wp-config.php instead:
define( 'HIBIRA_APP_SECRET', 'your-secret' );
HIBIRA_APP_ID, `HIBIRA_APP_KEY` and `HIBIRA_HOST` work the same way.
FAQ
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Does it work with page caching?
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Yes. Pages are served from the cache as usual; the live parts connect from the browser. Visitors’ auth requests (readers now, guest order pages) do not need a nonce.
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Do I need Pusher?
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No. Hibira speaks the same protocol as Pusher Channels, so the plugin uses the standard pusher-js library pointed at Hibira. It also works with another Pusher-compatible server if you set its host and port.
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How much does it cost?
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Each event counts as one message, however many readers receive it. Readers now uses presence channels: each open tab is one connection, and a channel shows at most 100 members, so busier posts show “100+”.
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My theme’s comments look different from the live ones
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Live comments use WordPress’s classic comment markup (
li.comment > article.comment-body). To change what is sent, use thehibira_comment_payloadfilter.
Reviews
There are no reviews for this plugin.
Contributors & Developers
“Hibira Realtime” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors
Translate “Hibira Realtime” into your language.
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Changelog
0.1.2
- Translations come from translate.wordpress.org; the plugin no longer ships .po/.mo files or calls load_plugin_textdomain().
- The auth endpoint checks each channel in its permission callback and validates its parameters.
- Stricter sanitizing of settings and of live comment HTML.
0.1.1
- README: cover image and screenshots.
0.1.0
- First release: live comments, post updated notice, readers now, WooCommerce order status, admin notices,
hibira_trigger().