Integrating WordPress and StoryChief works like a charm and the functionalities have increased over the years. Custom fields, draft publishing etc.
Now, we're also able to publish direct to your Elementor template!
Table of contents
Start setting up your WordPress installation
1. Set up the Elementor template
Introduction: This custom plugin aims to map StoryChief articles to your Elementor template. Other fields in the template work with replacement tags, but the content doesn't have this by default. That's why we're using the %%REPLACE_ME%% from step 2 to find the correct element and place the StoryChief content in the Elementor template.
There are some additional functionalities to make sure the template is automatically activated and works as it should.
Step 1. Go to WordPress and find the Saved templates in the sidebar (Templates -> Saved templates).
Step 2. Go to the template that is normally used for the articles. In the text editor, add something to use as replacement tag, such as '%%REPLACE_ME%%'. This will be used in the plugin to get the element ID of the content to place the content in the article.
🔔 Note: Make sure the other fields are using the correct replacement tags (Title, featured image, ..).
Step 3. Select 'Save as template' and give it a recognizable name, such as 'StoryChief template'.
Step 4. Get the template ID from the template overview under Shortcode, or from the URL when editing the template.
2. Configure and install the plugin
Step 1. Make sure the standard StoryChief plugin is installed and is working well.
Step 2. Go to the GitHub page of our WordPress Mapping Starter Kit and download the Elementor plugin as a ZIP file.
Step 3. After extracting the files from the ZIP, open the PHP file and find the $TEMPLATE_ID where the ID from above (the elementor-template id in the shortcode) has to be placed.
Step 4. (optional) Edit the plugin by adding mappings for multiple templates for multi-post-type publishing, or add custom field mappings. 👉 Help article for custom fields in WordPress
Step 5. When the plugin is finished, compress it to a ZIP file again. Upload/Install to the WordPress website. There are 2 ways to do this:
Going to "Plugins", adding a new plugin by uploading as ZIP
Via FTP. This is preferred as it's safer.
🎉 You're done, grab a coffee, you deserve it!
Check out the next steps below for more in-depth guides.