Title: Homestead Connect
Author: davemedema
Published: <strong>March 23, 2016</strong>
Last modified: November 15, 2016

---

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This plugin **hasn’t been tested with the latest 3 major releases of WordPress**.
It may no longer be maintained or supported and may have compatibility issues when
used with more recent versions of WordPress.

![](https://s.w.org/plugins/geopattern-icon/homestead-connect.svg)

# Homestead Connect

 By [davemedema](https://profiles.wordpress.org/davemedema/)

[Download](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/homestead-connect.1.3.0.zip)

 * [Details](https://wordpress.org/plugins/homestead-connect/#description)
 * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/plugins/homestead-connect/#reviews)
 *  [Installation](https://wordpress.org/plugins/homestead-connect/#installation)
 * [Development](https://wordpress.org/plugins/homestead-connect/#developers)

 [Support](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/homestead-connect/)

## Description

A hurdle to start a business is not always resources but connections. To make it
easier for someone to launch their big idea, we created Homestead Connect. Invite
members of your community, organization or even company to add themselves to the
visual directory. They can label themselves with the categories you choose. Then,
when someone is looking to connect with a developer, manager, mentor or another 
category, they can easily filter and find that person.

With a Facebook integration, this visual directory makes it easy for you to connect
your community and help them connect with one another.

#### Background

Homestead Connect was developed as an open source tool with the Small Business Association’s
Start-Up in a Day Competition. Brookings, SD was a winner of that competition and
our goal was to help creatives in Brookings find and connect with one another. We
also wanted to make our community more welcoming to newcomers, so this tool was 
created with that goal in mind.

Now, Homestead Connect is open to anyone. We invite you to use this tool and share
with us the unique ways it can help people connect. Visit YourHomestead.org to share
your stories and find more tools that help build community.

## Installation

 1. Upload the `homestead-connect` folder to the `/wp-content/plugins/` directory.
 2. Activate the Homestead Connect plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress.
 3. Configure the plugin by going to the Settings menu and clicking on ‘Homestead Connect’

Or, upload via WordPress plugin dashboard.

 1. Click New plugin
 2. Search Homestead Connect
 3. Click Add plugin
 4. Click Activate plugin

#### Customizing the Plugin

The Homestead Connect plugin uses three pages:

 1. Members page – The Members page will show all of your members in a visual grid.
    The photos are pulled from Facebook if they connect with Facebook or show an uploaded
    photo.
 2. Join page – The Join page is where a new user connects their Facebook account (
    optional), uploads a photo (if they do not connect Facebook), chooses their categories
    and finalizes their account.
 3. Update page – The Update page is where a new user can change their photo or categories.

Create a page and then assign that page to be the members, join and update pages
under Settings > Homestead Connect. On each page, add the respective shortcodes:[
homestead_members] on the members page [homestead_join] on the join page [homestead_update]
on the update page

#### Connecting Facebook

A Facebook app ID is required to integrate with Facebook. Learn to set up a Facebook
app here: [https://developers.facebook.com/docs/apps/register](https://developers.facebook.com/docs/apps/register)

#### Receiving Email Alerts for Opt-In Question

An organization can ask users a specific yes/no question. By default, this question
is: Do you need help starting a business/project?” The email address will receive
the submissions of users checking the box yes.

Edit your question by going to the Homestead Connect settings page and editing the“
Opt-In Question” field.

## FAQ

  Who built this?

Homestead Connect was built by Dave Medema and Scott Meyer as a project of Homestead.
Learn more at: yourhomestead.org

The project was funded through the SBA’s Startup in a Day initiative.

## Reviews

There are no reviews for this plugin.

## Contributors & Developers

“Homestead Connect” is open source software. The following people have contributed
to this plugin.

Contributors

 *   [ davemedema ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/davemedema/)

[Translate “Homestead Connect” into your language.](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/homestead-connect)

### Interested in development?

[Browse the code](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/homestead-connect/),
check out the [SVN repository](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/homestead-connect/),
or subscribe to the [development log](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/homestead-connect/)
by [RSS](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/homestead-connect/?limit=100&mode=stop_on_copy&format=rss).

## Changelog

Coming soon.

## Meta

 *  Version **1.3.0**
 *  Last updated **10 years ago**
 *  Active installations **Fewer than 10**
 *  WordPress version ** 4.4 or higher **
 *  Tested up to **4.6.30**
 * Tags
 * [community](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/community/)[facebook integration](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/facebook-integration/)
 *  [Advanced View](https://wordpress.org/plugins/homestead-connect/advanced/)

## Ratings

No reviews have been submitted yet.

[Your review](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/homestead-connect/reviews/#new-post)

[See all reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/homestead-connect/reviews/)

## Contributors

 *   [ davemedema ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/davemedema/)

## Support

Got something to say? Need help?

 [View support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/homestead-connect/)