MiniBook WordPress Plugin – Manual Installation Guide

This page explains how to manually install and activate the MiniBook WordPress plugin.

Manual installation is recommended when:

• You received the plugin as a ZIP file
• The plugin is not installed via the WordPress plugin directory
• You prefer full control over the installation process

Requirements

Before installing the plugin, ensure that:

• You have administrator access to your WordPress site
• WordPress is up to date
• Plugin uploads are enabled by your hosting provider

No additional PHP extensions or external services are required.

Step 1 – Obtain the Plugin ZIP File

Make sure you have the MiniBook WordPress plugin as a ZIP file.

Download: https://minibook.pd5dj.nl/WordPress_plugin/pd5dj-minibook-dashboard.zip

Important:

• Do not unzip the file locally
• Upload the ZIP file exactly as provided

Step 2 – Upload the Plugin via WordPress

1. Log in to the WordPress admin dashboard
2. Go to Plugins → Add New
3. Click Upload Plugin at the top of the page
4. Click Choose File and select the MiniBook plugin ZIP file
5. Click Install Now

WordPress will upload and extract the plugin automatically.

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Step 3 – Activate the Plugin

After installation completes:

• Click Activate Plugin directly

—or—

1. Navigate to Plugins → Installed Plugins
2. Locate MiniBook in the list
3. Click Activate

Once activated, the plugin is ready to receive updates from MiniBook.

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Step 4 – Verify Installation

After activation:

• The MiniBook plugin appears in the plugin list
• Shortcodes and widgets provided by the plugin are available

At this point, the plugin is installed but not yet connected to MiniBook.

Step 5 – Configure MiniBook

Open MiniBook on your local system and:

1. Open the Preferences window
2. Locate the WordPress / Web integration section
3. Enter your WordPress website URL
4. Copy the API key shown in MiniBook
5. Set the update interval if applicable

MiniBook will now start sending live status updates to your website.

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Alternative Installation via FTP

If plugin uploads are disabled by your hosting provider:

1. Unzip the plugin ZIP file locally
2. Upload the extracted folder to:
   wp-content/plugins/
3. Log in to WordPress
4. Go to Plugins → Installed Plugins
5. Activate MiniBook

Common Installation Issues

“The package could not be installed. No valid plugins were found”

This usually means:

• The ZIP file contains an extra folder level
• The main plugin PHP file is not located in the root of the plugin folder

Solution:

• Open the ZIP file and verify that the main plugin file is directly inside the plugin directory

Plugin Does Not Appear After Upload

Possible causes:

• File permissions prevent extraction
• Upload was interrupted

Solution:

• Use FTP installation instead

Security Notes

• The plugin only accepts inbound updates from MiniBook
• No login credentials are shared with WordPress
• No remote control functionality exists

Conclusion

Once installed, the MiniBook WordPress plugin provides a reliable bridge between your local MiniBook application and your website.

After installation, proceed to:

• Configure shortcodes or widgets
• Add screenshots and styling as desired
• Publish your live station status

This completes the manual installation process.

MiniBook Dashboard – Shortcode

This document describes the usage of the MiniBook Dashboard WordPress plugin.

Basic Usage

Place one of the following shortcodes in a page, post, or widget:



Styles

The style attribute controls how the dashboard is displayed. If omitted, the default style is used.

Available styles:

• default – Standard view with band icons
• compact – Smaller layout, suitable for sidebars
• cards – Card-based layout
• dark – Dark themed dashboard
• text – Text-only view
• text-compact – Minimal text-only layout

Bands

The bands attribute controls which band icons are visible in the dashboard. If omitted, all supported bands are displayed.

Important:

Band display is entirely based on the band payload transmitted by the MiniBook Desktop Application. No frequency-based band calculation is performed anywhere in this plugin.

Supported Band Groups

For convenience, commonly used bands can be grouped using predefined keywords:

• hf → 160m, 80m, 60m, 40m, 30m, 20m, 17m, 15m, 12m, 10m
• vhf → 6m, 4m, 2m, 1.25m
• uhf → 70cm, 33cm
• shf → 23cm, 13cm

Individual Band Selection

Individual bands can be specified using comma-separated values. The values must match the band identifiers transmitted by MiniBook.

Examples:

bands="20,40,80"
bands="2,70,23"

Combining Band Groups and Individual Bands

Band groups and individual bands can be freely combined. The resulting dashboard will display the union of all specified groups and bands.

Examples:

bands="hf,13"
bands="vhf,23"
bands="hf,23,13"
bands="uhf,shf,20"

Usage Examples

Band highlighting always reflects the currently active band reported by the MiniBook Desktop Application.

QRZ HTML Snapshot

Each time MiniBook sends an update, the plugin automatically generates a static HTML snapshot intended for QRZ.com embedding.

Snapshot Location

/wp-content/uploads/minibook/

Snapshot Filename Format

qrz-YOURID.html

Example:

/wp-content/uploads/minibook/qrz-YOURID.html

The same YOURID is used for:

• MiniBook Desktop configuration
• WordPress shortcode
• QRZ iframe URL

Embedding on QRZ.com

Edit your QRZ.com biography or HTML section and insert the following iframe:

<iframe
 src="https://yourdomain.com/wp-content/uploads/minibook/qrz-YOURID.html"
 width="100%"
 height="300"
 frameborder="0"
 scrolling="no">
</iframe>

Adjust the height if needed. QRZ loads the static file directly — no WordPress login or PHP execution is required.

This manual reflects the current MiniBook Dashboard behaviour and supported features.