Serge Popup Control for Telegram

This plugin is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Telegram. "Telegram" is used only to describe the messaging service it can optionally connect to. Your website needs a quick announcement - a sale, a closed day, new opening hours, an event? With Serge Popup Control for Telegram you open Telegram on your phone, type a title and a short text, and the popup is live on your website within seconds. Just as easy to switch off again. No laptop, no wp-admin login, no page builder. Why use it?

• Update your site from anywhere - on the train, in the shop, on the couch. If you can send a chat message, you can change your popup.
• Fast - a popup is just a title and a text. Two fields, one tap.
• Auto-off date - after saving, reply with a date (e.g. 01.12.27) and the popup switches itself off that evening. No more forgotten Black Friday banners.
• Switch off instantly - one tap on "Disable Popup" in Telegram.
• Simple for non-technical people - great for small businesses, clubs, restaurants, shops and freelancers who want to change their message without touching WordPress.
• Prefer wp-admin? Popups can also be created, enabled, disabled and deleted in the "Popup Control" menu. That part works without Telegram and without any account, and is free forever.

How it works

1. Install and activate the plugin.
2. Open "Popup Control" -> "Telegram Connection" and send /connect to the Telegram bot.
3. Paste the pairing code from Telegram into the plugin page, tick the consent checkbox and confirm.
4. In Telegram, tap "🔘 Popup", enter title and text, done.

Video tutorials

• Step 1: Register your Telegram bot and connect it to the plugin
• Step 2: Create and manage your popup in Telegram

Try it free, then pay what a coffee costs Telegram control is free for the first 30 days, no strings attached. If it makes your life easier, keep it for €2.49 per month - about one coffee. Subscribing happens in Telegram via the "💳 Abo" button (secure checkout by Stripe), and you can cancel at any time in the same place. If you decide not to continue, only the Telegram remote control pauses; your popups and everything in wp-admin keep working exactly as before. For developers

• A REST API (/wp-json/popup-control/v1/popups) manages the same popups programmatically.
• Authentication via WordPress cookie + nonce + the manage_popup_control capability (used by the admin UI), or a Bearer token created by the Telegram pairing flow.
• Popups are stored in dedicated database tables, not as posts, so they never show up in your blog content.

Privacy Nothing is sent anywhere until you tick the consent checkbox on the "Telegram Connection" page. See "External services" below and the in-plugin "Privacy & Data" page (Popup Control -> Privacy & Data) for exactly what is stored, why, for how long and how to have it deleted.

1.3.10

• Added plugin icon and banner to the WordPress.org plugin page.

1.3.9

• Added a plugin screenshot to the WordPress.org plugin page.

1.3.8

• Added links to two video tutorials (Telegram bot setup and pairing, and everyday use in Telegram) to the plugin description.

1.3.7

• Rewrote the plugin description to focus on the benefits of controlling popups via Telegram, with a clearer free-trial and pricing explanation.
• Updated tags and short description.

1.3.6

• Renamed to "Serge Popup Control for Telegram" (slug and text domain serge-popup-control-telegram) to avoid the restricted term "plugin" in name and slug.

1.3.5

• Renamed to "Serge Popup Control for Telegram" with new slug and text domain serge-popup-control-telegram (WordPress.org review).
• Added "External services" section (backend, Telegram, Stripe) with Terms/Privacy links.
• The "not connected" admin notice now appears only on this plugin's own screens and is dismissible.
• Updated Plugin URI and Author headers.

1.3.4

• Text Domain changed to serge-popup-control-telegram to match the plugin directory slug (required by WordPress.org automated scan).

1.3.3

• Fixed the remaining two Plugin Check warnings in TokenAuthenticator::authenticate(): the previous single-line phpcs:ignore comment no longer covered the actual $wpdb->prepare() call after an earlier edit shifted line numbers, so it was replaced with a phpcs:disable/phpcs:enable block that reliably covers the whole statement, and the (statically undetectable, dynamic-count) ReplacementsWrongNumber false-positive is now explicitly suppressed too.

1.3.2

• Resolved all Plugin Check warnings: dynamic SQL table names now use $wpdb->prepare()'s %i identifier placeholder (requires WordPress 6.2+, see "Requires at least" above) instead of raw string interpolation; removed the discouraged load_plugin_textdomain() call (WordPress.org auto-loads translations for hosted plugins); $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] is now unslashed and sanitized before use; shortened the readme's short description to fit the 150-character limit; documented remaining findings (direct queries against this plugin's own custom tables, and read-only display flags read from $_GET) as reviewed, intentional false-positives via inline phpcs:ignore comments with justification.

1.3.1

• Fixed Plugin Check findings: missing translators comment, an unescaped output value, removed hidden .gitkeep files, and updated "Tested up to" to the current WordPress version.

1.3.0

• Added a "New Popup" button on the All Popups admin page: a simple title + description form (mirroring the Telegram Mini App's own minimal editor) that lets popups be created directly in wp-admin, without needing Telegram.
• Added a "Delete" row action on the All Popups admin page to permanently remove a popup.

1.2.1

• readme.txt / plugin description / connect-page consent checkbox now clearly disclose that Telegram-based popup management uses an external, third-party AWS backend that is free for 30 days and then costs €2.49/month (cancellable anytime), per WordPress.org's external-service transparency guidelines.

1.2.0

• Telegram now shows a permanent "🔘 Popup" / "💳 Abo" menu after connecting - no chat commands needed for everyday use. "🔘 Popup" opens a Telegram Mini App form (title + description); "💳 Abo" opens the Stripe payment link or the Stripe customer portal depending on the current plan.

1.1.0

• Added /popup disable - immediately disables (never deletes) the Telegram bot's managed popup, via the new POST /popups/disable-telegram-popup REST endpoint.

1.0.0

• Replaced the generic API token page with a Telegram-initiated pairing flow: the admin sends /connect to the Telegram bot, which generates a one-time pairing code; the admin pastes that code (plus the AWS API URL and consent) into wp-admin, which calls the AWS /connections/confirm endpoint and, on success, stores the connection as already active - reusing the pairing code as the Bearer token for POST /popups.

0.1.0

• Initial scaffold: popup data model (custom tables), POST /popups REST endpoint, admin UI to create/save popups, dual authentication (cookie+capability / Bearer token).