# Clanfront: Getting started

Clanfront turns WordPress into a complete website for a gaming clan or team. You get a homepage with a Join button, an About page, a roster, a match schedule with results and a win/loss record, a recruitment form, a rules page, a gallery, game servers with a Copy IP button, and Discord and Twitch integration. You add content by filling in forms; the site updates itself. You never have to write HTML.

This guide also appears inside WordPress under **Clanfront → Getting started**.

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## 1. Install

1. In WordPress, go to **Plugins → Add New Plugin** and search for **Clanfront**, then click **Install Now** and **Activate**.
2. Or, if you have the zip file: **Plugins → Add New Plugin → Upload Plugin**, choose it, then **Install Now** and **Activate**.
3. Visit your site. It's already live, with example content.

On activation the plugin creates:

- **An example clan** with its name, mission, values, games, requirements and rules.
- **Six example members**, **six example matches and events** (some played, some coming up), **an example game server** and **three example gallery pictures**, plus example **games**, **medals**, **Hall of Shame** entries and **history** milestones.
- **Pages:** Home, About, Join us, Rules, Game servers and Contact. Your homepage is switched to the Clanfront homepage. If a page with the same name already exists, its text is kept and it gets the Clanfront layout, unless another plugin or theme template is already in charge of it, in which case it's left alone.
- **A new admin menu, Clanfront**, with Matches & events, News, Members, Medals, Games, Hall of Shame, History, Gallery, Game servers, Applications, Settings and this guide.

The plugin works with any theme. On its own pages it replaces the theme's styling with its own dark design, so the theme you use doesn't change how those pages look.

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## 2. Make it yours: Settings

Go to **Clanfront → Settings**.

| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Clan name, tagline, mission statement | The text on the homepage banner and in the menu bar and footer. |
| Clan logo | Shown in the menu bar and on the homepage. A transparent PNG or SVG works best. |
| Accent colour | Used for buttons, highlights and badges. Click one of the ready-made colours or pick any colour. |
| Join button text | The text on the main button, for example "Join us" or "Apply now". |
| Banner image / video | The wide picture behind your name. A short .mp4 can play silently behind it. |
| Our values, Games we play, Achievements | Lists shown on the About page. Game pages (section 7) take over from the games list once you add one. The games also fill the game choices in the match and application forms. |
| Recruitment | Whether you are taking applications, the requirements shown on the Join page, a minimum age, who receives applications, or a link to another form. |
| Rules | The code of conduct, one rule per line. |
| Discord | An invite link for a Join button, and optionally a Server ID for the live widget. |
| Tournaments (optional) | Switch on tournament brackets. Hidden until you do. See section 9. |
| Live data (optional) | "Live now" and "Offline" tags and the latest videos for members who stream on Twitch. See section 8. |
| Support us (optional) | A support button (Buy Me a Coffee, Ko-fi…) in the footer and on the About page. See section 7. |
| Contact email, social icons | Shown on the Contact page and in the footer. |

Click **Save settings** when you're done.

**Your clan's history** is the text of the **About** page itself. Edit it under **Pages → About**.

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## 3. Members

Go to **Clanfront → Members**. Each member has a name, picture, role (Leader, Captain, Coach, Recruiter… or any text), games, a bio, and links: Twitch, YouTube, X, Instagram and a stats page.

- **Order:** use the **Order** box under *Page Attributes*. Lower numbers come first, so give your leaders 1, 2, 3.
- **Colour:** each member can have their own **Accent colour**. On the roster, a line in that colour slides in under their picture when you hover over them, and the colour is used on their profile page. Tick **Use the clan colour** to skip it.
- **Hide someone** without deleting them: untick **Active member**.
- The homepage shows the first six members; the **Roster** page shows everyone.

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## 4. Matches, events and the schedule

Go to **Clanfront → Matches & events → Add match or event**.

1. Type a **title**, for example *vs Team Nova* or *Friday game night*.
2. Pick the **date** (required) and an optional **start time**, a **type** (match, tournament, scrim, practice, game night, event), the **game** and the **opponent**.
3. After the match, set the **result** (win, loss or draw), the **score** and, for tournaments, the **placement**. Add a **link** to a stream, bracket or VOD if you like.

What visitors see:

- **Homepage:** the next three upcoming events.
- **Matches page:** your record (played, wins, losses, win rate), a filter per game, **Upcoming** and **Results**.
- **Event page:** the details, a result badge, your link, and an **Add to calendar** button.
- **Calendar feed:** the link **Add to calendar (.ics)** on the Matches page is a feed that Google Calendar, Apple Calendar and Outlook can subscribe to. It always shows your upcoming events.

Times use your site's time zone (**Settings → General**).

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## 5. Recruitment and applications

The **Join us** page shows your requirements and an application form. You have two choices:

- **Built-in form (default).** Visitors answer a few questions: in-game name, age, region, main game, rank, experience, Discord or email, and why they want to join. Each application is saved under **Clanfront → Applications**, and an email goes to the address in Settings. Open an application to read it, change its **status** (New, Reviewing, Accepted, Declined) and write a private note. New applications show as a number on the menu.
- **Another form.** Paste a Google Forms or Typeform link under **Recruitment → Use another form instead**. The page then shows a button to it instead.

Set **Taking applications** off to show "We are not taking applications right now".

**Spam protection** is built in and uses no outside service: a hidden field, a signed timestamp, limits per visitor and per hour, and a limit on links in the answers.

**Privacy.** Applications are personal data. The form tells applicants how their answers are used. To delete someone's application, move it to the Bin and then delete it permanently. The plugin also supports WordPress's **Tools → Erase Personal Data** and **Export Personal Data** when the applicant gave an email address.

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## 6. Gallery, news, game servers and Discord

- **News and articles:** **Clanfront → News → Add article**. Write a title and the text (the normal WordPress editor, so headings, pictures and quotes work), set an article picture on the right, and optionally write a short **Excerpt** for the card. The three newest articles show on the homepage as **Latest news**, all of them on the **News** page, and the **News** menu link appears once you publish the first one. Nothing shows until you have an article.
- **Gallery:** **Clanfront → Gallery → Add gallery item**. Set the picture; clicking it shows it large. Add a **video link** (YouTube, Twitch clip…) and clicking it opens the video instead.
- **Game servers:** **Clanfront → Game servers → Add server**. Enter the name, game and address. The **Copy IP** button copies the address. Servers show on the homepage and on the **Game servers** page, and the **Servers** menu link appears once you add one.
- **Discord:** add an invite link under **Settings → Discord** for a "Join the Discord" button. Add the **Server ID** as well for the live widget that shows who is online. In Discord, turn on **Server Settings → Widget → Enable Server Widget**. The widget is loaded from discord.com.

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## 7. Games, medals, Hall of Shame and history

New in 1.5. Each one stays hidden until you add something to it, so nothing changes on your site until you're ready. To try them first, click **Add example content** at the top of **Clanfront → Getting started**: it fills all four with examples (and gives medals to the example members). Clicking it again never makes duplicates.

- **Games:** **Clanfront → Games → Add game**. Write the game's name exactly as your members write it in their **Games** field, add a short line, a platform, a wide **Cover image**, and optionally a **Discord channel link** and a **store page**. The large text box is the game page: schedule, loadouts, tactics, field notes. Each game page lists the members who play it, the matches and results for that game, its record and your servers for it, all automatically. The **Games** menu link appears with the first game, and the homepage and About page show your game cards instead of the plain list in Settings. Set **Status** to **Retired** to move a game to the **Game Graveyard** at the bottom of the Games page, with a one-line **Epitaph**.
- **Medals:** **Clanfront → Medals → Add medal**. Give it a name, an emoji (for example 🎖️ 💣 🚑) or a small picture, and a line about what it's for. Then open a member and tick their medals in the **Medals** box on the right. Medals show as small badges on the roster and in full on the member's page.
- **Hall of Shame:** **Clanfront → Hall of Shame → Add entry**. Give it a title, a date, the game, tick **who is to blame**, and tell the story. A YouTube, Vimeo or Streamable **clip link** plays right on the page; other links (Twitch clips, Medal…) show a **Watch the clip** button. The **Hall of Shame** menu link appears with the first entry, the newest one shows on the homepage, and each member's page counts their appearances.
- **History:** **Clanfront → History → Add milestone**. Pick a **date** (required), a **type** (Founded, Victory, Legendary disaster, Roster change or Milestone) and write a few sentences. The **History** page shows them on a timeline grouped by year, oldest first. Its link appears in the footer and on the About page once you add the first milestone. Only know the year? Pick January 1st and write "Summer 2024" or similar in **Date text**.
- **Support us:** under **Settings → Support us**, paste a Buy Me a Coffee, Ko-fi or PayPal link to show a support button in the footer and on the About page.

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## 8. Live data (optional)

Off until you set it up. The result is saved for two minutes, so Twitch is not asked on every visit, and the site shows nothing if Twitch cannot be reached.

- **Twitch:** go to **dev.twitch.tv/console**, register a free application, and copy its **Client ID** and **Client secret** into **Settings → Live data**. Then add each member's **Twitch** channel in their member form (and the clan's own channel under Social icons). Members who are streaming get a red **Live** badge and a **Live now** tag next to their Twitch link; members who are not get a grey **Offline** tag. A **Live now** bar also appears on the homepage. With **Twitch videos** ticked (it is by default), the homepage shows the clan channel's three newest videos and each member's page shows their six newest; the lists are saved for an hour. This asks the **Twitch API**. Your keys are stored in your site's settings; only administrators can see them.

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## 9. Tournaments (optional)

Tournaments are **hidden from visitors until you switch them on**, so you can set one up first. Go to **Clanfront → Settings → Tournaments** and tick the box. The **Tournaments** menu link then appears by itself once there is a published tournament. While it is off, only you (logged in) can see the pages, with a note on top.

- Under **Clanfront → Tournaments**, add a tournament with its start date, game, prize and link, and list the teams or players, one per line (2 to 32, the first line is the top seed).
- Click **Publish** (or **Update**), and a **Bracket and results** box appears: pick the winner of each match and, if you like, type the scores. Winners move on to the next round by themselves, and the champion is shown when the final is decided.
- It is a single-elimination bracket: if the number of entries is not 4, 8, 16 or 32, the top seeds get a free pass ("bye") in round one.
- If you change an earlier result or the list of teams, the results that depended on it are cleared, so pick them again.
- Everything is entered by you. Visitors cannot sign up or report results on the site.
- If a new tournament page says "not found", go to **Settings → Permalinks** in WordPress and click **Save changes**.

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## 10. Look and feel

- **Colours:** your accent colour drives buttons, highlights and badges. The base colours are dark charcoal and off-white.
- **Page width:** **Settings → Page width**. **Centered** keeps the content in a column in the middle of the screen. **Full width** stretches it across the whole screen.
- **Font:** Montserrat, included with the plugin. Nothing is loaded from Google or other outside services.
- **Your own tweaks:** add CSS under **Appearance → Customize → Additional CSS**. Every element of the plugin has a class starting with `clanfront-`. For example, to make the homepage headline smaller:

```css
.clanfront-hero-title { font-size: 40px !important; }
```

- **Bigger changes:** the design lives in `assets/style.css` and the page layouts in the `templates/` folder.

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## 11. Troubleshooting

| Problem | Fix |
|---|---|
| A member, match or gallery page says "not found" | Go to **Settings → Permalinks** and click **Save Changes** once. |
| A match doesn't show up | Check its date. Matches without a date stay hidden. |
| A page is white, with your theme's sidebar | It isn't using the plugin's layout. Open it under **Pages**, set **Template** to the matching **Clanfront** template (Homepage, About, Join us, Rules, Game servers or Page) and click **Update**. |
| Applications don't arrive by email | Check **Send applications to** in Settings. They are always saved under **Clanfront → Applications**, even if email fails. Many hosts need an SMTP plugin to send reliably. |
| The Discord widget is empty | In Discord, turn on **Server Settings → Widget → Enable Server Widget**. |
| "Live now" or Twitch videos never show | Click **Test Twitch connection** at the bottom of **Settings**. It checks your keys and every channel and says what is wrong. |

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## 12. Updating and removing

- **Update:** WordPress offers updates under **Dashboard → Updates** like any other plugin. If you installed from a zip, upload the newer zip via **Plugins → Add New Plugin → Upload Plugin** and choose **Replace current with uploaded**. Your content and settings stay.
- **Deactivate or delete:** your members, matches, applications and settings stay in the database. Reactivating brings them back and never creates duplicates.

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*Clanfront is free software, licensed under the GPL v2 or later. Share it, change it, use it for your own clan. If it helps you, you can support it with a coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/graefield*