MainWP browses extensions for Chrome and Firefox are designed to help you easily keep track of available updates across all your connected Child Sites, including changes to your plugins and themes status done outside your Dashboard.
NOTE: Requires your MainWP Dashboard to be set up on a web host. Locally hosted Dashboards are not expected to work with the Browser Extension because the REST API requests will not be able to reach the local Dashboard.
Features
Stay informed on WordPress core, plugins, themes, & translation updates
Automatically fetch the number of available updates for all Child Sites
Easily set the updates check time-interval
Manually fetch available updates count
Track the number of changes made outside of your MainWP Dashboard
Quickly jump into the desired Dashboard page to take action on updates
Installation
Chrome
MainWP browser extension for Chrome is located at this URL: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mainwp-browser-extension/kjlehednpnfgplekjminjpocdechbnge
Simply click the Add to Chrome button and then confirm the installation by clicking the Add Extension button.
NOTE: If the Enhanced Safe Browsing feature is enabled in Chrome, you will be prompted by another popup informing you that the extension is not yet trusted. Simply click Continue to install to proceed.
We are working on getting the extension marked as Trusted.
Firefox
MainWP browser extension for Firefox is located at this URL: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/mainwp-browser-extension/
Simply click the Add to Firefox button and confirm the installation by clicking the Add button.
How to connect the extension to your Dashboard
Go to WP Admin > Settings > Permalinks page of your Dashboard site
Choose any settings except for Plain (this is a WordPress REST API limitation)
Navigate to your MainWP Dashboard > REST API page, and click Add API Keys
Enter the desired description for the API Key (e.g. Browser extension)
Select the desired Permissions
Only Read permission is necessary for the Browser Extension, so it is advisable to select only it, if you do not intend to use this API key for other purposesNOTE: The browser extension doesn’t yet support the API key (Bearer token) introduced in REST API v2, so please click on the Show Legacy API Credentials button then toggle on Enable MainWP REST API v1 Compatibility
Click on the extension icon in your browser UI to open the configuration popup
Enter the URL of your MainWP Dashboard
From your MainWP Dashboard REST API screen, copy Consumer Key and Consumer Secret from the Legacy API Credentials section and paste them into the extension configuration popup
In the MainWP Dashboard REST API screen, click the Save Settings button to save and activate the API key
In the browser extension configuration popup
Mark the I have saved the API Key in my Dashboard checkbox
Select the frequency with which the extension will fetch new information from the Dashboard
Select which data you want the extension to sync
Click the Save Settings button
Push Notifications
Each time the extension synchronizes according to the set frequency or when you manually sync it, you will receive a push notification from your browser.
If you are not receiving notifications, please check if the notifications for your browser are disabled in the settings of your operating system.
Troubleshooting connection issues
Make sure that your MainWP Dashboard is running on a web host. Locally hosted Dashboards aren’t expected to work as they won’t accept outside connections.
Set Permalinks (on WP Admin > Settings > Permalinks page) to anything except for Plain (this is a WordPress REST API limitation)
When creating the MainWP REST API Key, make sure to give it Read permission, and please note that the key will not be active until you click the Save Settings button.
When creating the MainWP REST API Key, try copying the Consumer key and Consumer secret elsewhere (e.g. into a Notepad) so you can try pasting them into the browser extension multiple times.
Conflict with HTTP Basic Auth
Currently, the MainWP Browser Extension is NOT compatible with HTTP Basic Auth. We are working on ensuring full compatibility in future versions of the Browser Extension.
In the meantime, we’d suggest switching from HTTP Basic Auth to our Dashboard Lock extension.
The Login Lock feature of the Dashboard Lock extension is equivalent to the HTTP Basic Auth, but we have added some exceptions so that it doesn’t interfere with MainWP functionality.
REST API being blocked by a security or a performance plugin
Some security or performance plugins may block all WordPress REST API, which would include MainWP REST API, if there is no administrator-level user logged in to the Dashboard site.
You can check if this block is in place on your site by logging out all administrator-level users from the Dashboard site and then try opening https://your-dashboard-url.com/wp-json/
If the block is in place, you will receive a message similar to this one: {"code":"rest_cannot_access","message":"DRA: Only authenticated users can access the REST API.","data":{"status":401}}
In that case, try disabling the security and/or performance plugins until you find the culprit, and then look for a setting in that particular plugin that affects this behavior.
These three REST API endpoints must be accessible for the MainWP Browser Extension to work:
/mainwp/v1/sites/all-sites
/mainwp/v1/sites/sites-available-updates-count
/mainwp/v1/site/non-mainwp-changes-count
Permissions and Privacy Policy
The MainWP extension requests permission for alarms, storage, and notifications to store the update count and notify you when you start your browser. Rest assured, this extension does not collect any user data.
The MainWP extension does not collect any data. It simply uses your generated MainWP REST API keys to connect to your MainWP Dashboard. However, by installing this extension, you agree to and acknowledge the following: