Installing the Plugin

Installing the Plugin

Requirements

WordPress	6.4 or newer
PHP	7.4 or newer
Database	MySQL, as WordPress already requires
Outbound HTTP	Your server must be able to reach your chosen AI provider

That last row is the one people miss. The AI call is made from your server, not from the visitor's browser. If your host blocks outbound HTTP requests, or you are behind a firewall that does, the widget will fail no matter how the settings are filled in.

Installing

The plugin is not on the WordPress.org plugin directory, so install it as a zip:

1. Download the plugin zip from [YOUR DOWNLOAD URL].
2. In WordPress, go to Plugins › Add New › Upload Plugin.
3. Choose the zip, click Install Now, then Activate.

To install over SFTP or SSH instead, unzip it into wp-content/plugins/ so you end up with wp-content/plugins/ai-fun-questions/ai-fun-questions.php, then activate it from the Plugins screen.

What activation does

Activation creates one database table, used only for rate limiting. It holds a hashed bucket key, a window timestamp, and a request count — no question text, no answers, and nothing that identifies a visitor.

Nothing else is added: no custom post type, no options page entries beyond the plugin's own settings, no scheduled content, no menu items on the front end.

An hourly scheduled event is registered to clear expired rate-limit rows, so the table does not grow indefinitely.

If the table is missing

This is worth knowing because the symptom is confusing. The rate-limit table is created on activation only — there is no upgrade routine that recreates it later.

If the table is absent — a database restored from a partial backup, a multisite subsite where the plugin was never properly activated, a migration that skipped it — the rate limiter fails closed, on purpose. Every visitor then sees:

Please wait before requesting another question.

…and it never clears, because no request is ever allowed through. If you see that message on a site with no traffic, deactivate and reactivate the plugin to recreate the table.

After activating

Nothing appears on your site yet. The plugin adds no widget automatically — you have to place the shortcode.

Two steps remain:

1. The Settings Screen — point the plugin at an AI provider
2. Adding the Widget to Your Site — place [ai_fun_question]

Uninstalling

Deactivating stops the plugin and unschedules the cleanup event. Deleting it through the Plugins screen removes the plugin files.

Note that the rate-limit table and the saved settings are not removed automatically. If you want them gone, drop the ai_fq_rate_limits table (with your site's table prefix) and delete the options beginning ai_fq_ yourself.