Installation & Setup

Instructions for installing Pushly via the Wordpress plugin

If your website utilizes Wordpress you can skip the manual steps and install Pushly via the Wordpress plugin directory.

Step 1: Create Your WordPress API Key

If you want to send notifications directly from the WordPress plugin you will need to create a WordPress API Key within the platform. You can skip this section if you do not want to create notifications directly from WordPress.

Navigate to the Domain Settings section of the Pushly platform and click the Integrations tab. Within this tab you will see a Content Management Systems section that contains a WordPress card.

Click the New API Key button and wait for the key to be displayed on the screen. Once displayed, click the key to copy it your clipboard and store it for use in Step 3.

Step 2: Install the Plugin

Log in to your Wordpress Admin with a user that has access to install new plugins and navigate to the plugins directory. Click the Add New button to be taken to a list of available plugins to install.

On the Add Plugin page search for Pushly in the search box and then click the Install Now button on the Pushly plugin card.

Once the plugin is installed the Install Now button will change to an Activate button. Click this button again to complete the installation process and then move to Step 2 to complete set up of the plugin.

Step 3: Configure the Plugin

After completing Step 1 and activating the plugin a new menu item labeled Pushly will be available in the sidebar menu. Click this menu item to visit the Pushly configuration page where you can configure the behavior of the plugin.

The following configuration options are available:

• SDK Key: Retrieve the SDK Key from the Domain Settings section of the platform and enter it in this text box. Your account manager can also provide you with your SDK Key.

• Send Notifications for New Posts: Turn on this switch to allow notifications to be created directly from WordPress when a new post is created. After enabling this switch, a new Pushly section will show in the Post Editor sidebar that contains options related to sending notifications.

• Automatic Sending: Turn on this switch to automatically check the Send Notifications checkbox when creating a new post in Wordpress. When the Send Notifications box is checked a notification will be created for the post when it is published.

• API Key: Enter the WordPress API Key generated in Step 1 in this text box.

• Advanced:

  • Disable SDK Initialization: When this box is checked the Pushly SDK will not automatically run on your site; Existing subscribers can still receive notifications.

After setting your configuration options Save the form. Once the form has been saved, visitors to your site will begin seeing the notification permission dialog. If you configured notification sending then your WordPress users will also see the notification sending options when creating a WordPress post.

If you are not being prompted to opt-in to notifications after completing these steps ensure you have at least 1 active prompt within the Prompts section of the Pushly platform.

Troubleshooting

Service Worker Blocked (403 Forbidden)

Some WordPress hosting environments use NGINX in a way that blocks PHP execution inside the wp-content/plugins/ directory. When this happens, the Pushly service worker returns a 403 Forbidden error and push notifications will not work.

How to Check

Visit the following URL in your browser (replace yourdomain.com with your site's domain):

https://yourdomain.com/wp-content/plugins/pushly/assets/js/pushly-sdk-worker.js.php

If you see a 403 error or a blank page instead of JavaScript content, your server is blocking PHP execution for this file.

Why This Happens

WordPress sites commonly run behind NGINX in several configurations:

• NGINX as a reverse proxy in front of Apache — NGINX handles static files and may block PHP in plugin directories

• NGINX with PHP-FPM (no Apache) — common on managed hosts like Kinsta, Flywheel, WP Engine, and Cloudways. Security rules often restrict PHP execution to specific paths

• NGINX caching layers or CDNs — may block requests to .php files in unexpected paths

Fix: Add an NGINX Exception

If you have access to your NGINX configuration, add the following inside your site's server block:

location = /wp-content/plugins/pushly/assets/js/pushly-sdk-worker.js.php {
    include fastcgi_params;
    fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php-fpm.sock;
    fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
}

The fastcgi_pass path may differ depending on your PHP version and host. Common alternatives:

• unix:/var/run/php/php8.1-fpm.sock

• 127.0.0.1:9000

After adding the rule, reload NGINX:

sudo nginx -t && sudo systemctl reload nginx

Fix: Contact Your Hosting Provider

If you don't have direct access to NGINX configuration (common with managed WordPress hosts), contact your hosting provider and ask them to:

Allow PHP execution for the file at /wp-content/plugins/pushly/assets/js/pushly-sdk-worker.js.php. This file serves the Pushly push notification service worker and needs to return JavaScript content with the correct headers.

Most managed hosts can add a specific exception for this path without compromising their security rules.

Verifying the Fix

After applying the fix, visit the service worker URL again. You should see a single line of JavaScript starting with importScripts(. If you see this, the service worker is working correctly.