SWPL Site Content

Getting started with SWPL Site Content

Last updated July 10, 2026

What SWPL Site Content does

Your store has two faces: the WordPress admin, where you manage products and content, and the storefront your customers actually visit. SWPL Site Content connects the two for the words on your homepage. It does two jobs:

  1. Content. Every owner-editable piece of homepage text – the big headline, the button, the section titles, the trust bar claims, and how the wishlist and compare buttons present themselves – is edited on the Settings tab of this plugin’s page. No developer, no code, no theme files.
  2. Instant refresh. A headless storefront keeps its own fast copy of every page. When you save content here, or edit a product, or rename a category, this plugin taps the storefront on the shoulder so the changed page refreshes within seconds instead of on the storefront’s own schedule (which can be up to an hour for product pages).

Installation

  1. Go to Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin, upload the plugin zip, and click Install Now, then Activate.
  2. When licensing arrives for your copy, enter your license key where prompted. Until then the plugin runs unlocked.

The golden rule: blank means default

The storefront ships with complete, sensible text for every spot on the homepage. Every field on the Settings tab shows that built-in text in gray inside the empty box.

  • Type something and save: your text replaces the built-in text.
  • Leave a field blank: the built-in text stays.
  • Clear a field you previously filled and save: the built-in text comes back.

You can never blank out the homepage by accident. The built-in text is always the safety net.

The trust bar deserves extra care

The four trust bar claims (shipping, support, returns, payment) are promises to your customers, not decoration. Before publishing a claim, check it against the matching store policy – if shipping is only free over an amount, the claim must say so. The built-in defaults are claims too, so review them once even if you change nothing.

Setting up the instant refresh (one time)

You need two values from whoever runs your storefront:

  1. The storefront address – for example https://www.example.com
  2. The revalidate secret – a password the storefront was configured with (its developer calls it REVALIDATE_SECRET)

Enter both in the “Storefront connection” section, save, then press Send test ping. The button sends one real refresh request and shows the storefront’s actual answer:

  • Confirmed – you are done. Every save now refreshes the storefront within seconds.
  • Rejected the secret – the secret here does not match the storefront’s. Re-check both sides.
  • No secret configured there – the storefront’s receiving end is off; its developer needs to set REVALIDATE_SECRET there.
  • Could not be sent – the address is wrong or the storefront is unreachable.

If you skip this setup entirely, nothing breaks. Content still saves and the storefront still picks it up on its own timer – within about 5 minutes for homepage text, up to an hour for product pages.

What triggers a refresh notification

Once the connection is set up, the storefront is notified when:

  • you save the Settings tab (homepage text)
  • a product is created, edited, trashed, or restored – including changes made by imports
  • a product’s web address (slug) changes – the old address is refreshed too, so it stops serving the outdated page
  • a product category is added, renamed, or deleted
  • a menu is saved
  • a product import run finishes

Big changes are batched: an import or bulk edit that touches many products sends one “everything changed” notification, not hundreds. And notifications never slow down saving – they go out in the background after the save completes.

Frequently asked questions

How do I know my notifications are actually reaching the storefront?

The connection section lists the recent notifications sent: when, what changed, why, and the result. Automatic notifications show “sent” (they do not wait for an answer, so saving is never delayed); the test ping shows the storefront’s confirmed answer. If you suspect changes are not arriving, press Send test ping – it diagnoses the connection with a real answer.

I do not run a headless storefront. Is this plugin useful?

The plugin is built for the two-face setup: WordPress admin plus a separate storefront that reads your content. The homepage text editing and the refresh machinery both exist to serve that storefront connection.

Can a save be slowed down by a broken storefront connection?

No. Notifications go out in the background after the save completes, and automatic notifications do not wait for an answer.