Scout Suite for WordPress

A WordPress plugin that connects a Scout Suite Group, District or County to the website you already run.

It does not replace WP Store Locator or Skills for Life. Those plugins keep the public map, list, necker renderer and shortcodes. This plugin writes into the posts they already read (wpsl_stores, and tribe_events when The Events Calendar is active).

What to use where

Site	Org ID	What to put on the site
District or County	That District or County	Sync now. Skills for Life shows the Groups. Do not put the waitlist shortcode on the District homepage — it is a single-Group form. Each Group’s waiting-list link goes to Scout Suite ({origin}/waiting-list/{groupId}).
Group	That Group	Sync if you want the Group as a store, plus [scoutsuite_waitlist] on a page if parents should join the list on your site.

Directory and events sync

Sync pulls plugin-only Scout Suite APIs with Authorization: Bearer {api_key}:

GET {api_base}/api/orgs/{orgId}/wordpress/directory
GET {api_base}/api/orgs/{orgId}/wordpress/events

If either endpoint returns 404, sync stops and an admin notice is shown. The plugin does not invent Groups or events, and it does not ask Skills for Life to fetch a feed.

• Stores: upsert wpsl_stores, matched on _scoutsuite_org_id. Never a second store for the same org. Address, lat/lng when present, phone, email, website, meeting nights, necker colours, waiting-list URL, and Group vs District/County. post_content and the featured image are not overwritten after first create. Stores that vanish from Scout Suite are marked _scoutsuite_sync_status = missing_from_source and are not deleted.
• Events: upsert tribe_events with _scoutsuite_event_id only when The Events Calendar is active. Otherwise events are skipped and an admin notice is shown. No Scout Suite events CPT.

Click Sync now or wait for hourly WP-Cron. Re-running updates address, nights and waiting-list URL without duplicating stores or blanking the editor body.

Waiting list form (Group sites)

Shortcode [scoutsuite_waitlist] and a Gutenberg block. Parents fill in the form; WordPress posts the entry to Scout Suite:

POST {api_base}/api/groups/{orgId}/waiting-list

The JSON body includes "source": "wordpress" alongside the existing fields. An API key is optional for this public endpoint. If you set one, it is sent as a Bearer header from the server and is never exposed to visitors.

The section dropdown comes from the public signup-info endpoint, cached for one hour.

This form always talks to one org. A District or County id will not list member Groups.

Features

• Sync Groups into WP Store Locator / Skills for Life without replacing their UI
• Sync public events into The Events Calendar when that plugin is active
• Sync now button and hourly WP-Cron
• Shortcode [scoutsuite_waitlist] and a Gutenberg block
• Form fields that match the Scout Suite waiting list API
• GDPR ready: configurable privacy notice and required consent, recorded in the entry notes
• Honeypot, nonce, server-side sanitisation; no personal data in URLs
• Light form styling that inherits the theme
• Removes its settings and transients when deleted

Requirements

• WordPress 6.0 or later
• PHP 7.4 or later
• A Scout Suite account for your Group, District or County
• WP Store Locator (and typically Skills for Life) for the public Group directory
• The Events Calendar, only if you want events written into WordPress

Installation

1. Copy the scout-suite-waiting-list folder into wp-content/plugins/, or install the zip.
2. Activate Scout Suite on the Plugins screen.
3. Go to Settings → Scout Suite. Enter the Org ID (District, County, or Group) and API key.
4. Click Sync now if this site should show Groups from Scout Suite.
5. On a Group site, add [scoutsuite_waitlist] or the Scout Suite Waiting List block.

To build the installable zip from a checkout:

zip -r scout-suite-waiting-list.zip scout-suite-waiting-list -x "*.DS_Store"

Local demo (Docker)

A District-style WordPress with WP Store Locator, The Events Calendar (plus Event Tickets, Events Shortcodes, and Events Block), a Scout-branded classic theme, Leaflet (no Google Maps), and this plugin mounted from the checkout:

cd demo
docker compose up -d

If a local Scout Suite API is up (wrangler dev on 8787, or the video-walkthrough servers on 8790), the seed job creates a District, three Groups with HQ pins, two public events, an API key, and runs Sync now. You do not paste an org id or key.

• Site: http://localhost:8888
• Admin: http://localhost:8888/wp-admin (admin / scoutsuite)
• Find a Group: http://localhost:8888/find-a-group/
• What's on: http://localhost:8888/whats-on/
• Waiting list form: http://localhost:8888/join-the-waiting-list/
• TEC archive (unthemed CPT): http://localhost:8888/events/

Re-run seed after the API comes up, or to refresh Groups/events:

docker compose run --rm seed

The video walkthrough wordpress-website does the same from pnpm video:record wordpress-website — Docker, Scout Suite data, plugin settings, and sync are all in setup(). wordpress-waiting-list uses the same site with SCOUTSUITE_WAITLIST_GROUP_ID pointing at a Group.

Find a Group uses Leaflet. Server-side WPSL geocoding is postcodes.io, not Google. That lives in the Skills for Life child at everycastlabs/sfl-wordpress-child-theme — seed clones it into wp-content/themes/skillsforlife-child. The demo parent in demo/themes/skillsforlife is Scout-branded chrome for recordings (purple header, Find a Group / What's on nav). Real district sites should use the Mersey Weaver Skills for Life zip as the parent.

What's on is a page (/whats-on/) using Events Shortcodes for The Events Calendar ([events-calendar-templates …]). Events themselves are still tribe_events from The Events Calendar — the shortcode (or the Events Block) is how most Scout sites list them on a themed page rather than the default /events/ archive. Event Tickets is installed alongside, matching typical stacks.

SCOUTSUITE_API_BASE_URL defaults to http://host.docker.internal:8787. Use port 8790 on the video-walkthrough servers.

Settings

Setting	Purpose
Org ID	District, County, or Group ID from Scout Suite (the same id leaders see in URLs). Required. Existing installs that stored this as Group ID keep working.
Waiting list Group ID	Group the [scoutsuite_waitlist] form posts to. Needed when Org ID is a District or County.
API key	Bearer token ss_at_… from the Scout Suite developer portal. Stored server side only. Required for directory/events sync; optional for the public form.
API base URL	Defaults to https://api.scoutsuite.app. Override for staging.
Sections	One per line to override the list fetched from Scout Suite. Leave blank to fetch automatically.
Privacy notice	Shown above the consent checkbox. Edit to match your group's privacy policy.
Consent checkbox label	The wording next to the required consent tick box.
Success message	Shown after a successful signup.
Sync now	Pulls directory + public events immediately. The same job also runs hourly via WP-Cron.

Form fields

Required: child's first name, child's last name, parent name, parent email, and the consent checkbox. Date of birth, section, phone, postcode, notes and the sibling flag are optional.

Not in v1

• Replacing SFL shortcodes, maps, or necker renderer
• A Scout Suite-branded directory theme
• Deleting WordPress posts that vanish from Scout Suite
• A District/County waitlist form with a Group picker

Plugin structure

scout-suite-waiting-list/
├── scout-suite-waiting-list.php                    Main plugin file
├── uninstall.php                                   Clean up on delete
├── readme.txt                                      WordPress.org readme
├── includes/
│   ├── class-scoutsuite-waitlist-api.php           Scout Suite API client
│   ├── class-scoutsuite-waitlist-form.php          Form rendering and submission
│   ├── class-scoutsuite-waitlist-settings.php      Settings page
│   ├── class-scoutsuite-waitlist-sync.php          Sync now + WP-Cron
│   ├── class-scoutsuite-waitlist-stores.php        wpsl_stores upsert
│   └── class-scoutsuite-waitlist-events.php        tribe_events upsert
└── assets/
    ├── css/scoutsuite-waitlist.css                 Theme-inheriting styles
    └── js/scoutsuite-waitlist-block.js             Gutenberg block (no build step)

There is no build step: plain PHP, JavaScript and CSS.

Licence

GPLv2 or later.