Installation & Activation
Get TableCrafter running in minutes. This guide covers system requirements, installing from the WordPress.org directory or a ZIP file, what happens on activation, and where the plugin's settings and tools live in your admin.
Requirements
Before installing, confirm your site meets the minimums declared in the plugin header. TableCrafter ships a hard PHP guard: on a server running PHP below 8.0, the plugin halts and shows an admin notice rather than loading, so it is safe to upgrade PHP first.
| Requirement | Minimum | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| WordPress | 5.0+ | 5.0 is required for the native Gutenberg block. The [tablecrafter] shortcode works on classic themes back to WordPress 3.0. |
| PHP | 8.0+ | PHP 7.x is not supported. Older releases enforced this strictly in v3.5.2. |
| Tested up to | WordPress 7.0 | Verified compatible with the current WordPress release line. |
| License | GPLv2 or later | Free, open-source plugin. |
If you see a notice reading "TableCrafter Error: This plugin requires PHP 8.0 or higher," your host is running an unsupported PHP version. Upgrade PHP from your hosting panel (or contact your host) before continuing.
Method 1 — Install from the WordPress.org Directory (Recommended)
The fastest path. WordPress handles the download, install, and future update notifications for you.
- In your WordPress admin, go to Plugins → Add New.
- Search for TableCrafter.
- Click Install Now on the TableCrafter – Data to Beautiful Tables card.
- When the button changes to Activate, click it to activate the plugin.
Method 2 — Manual Install from a ZIP File
Use this when you have a ZIP downloaded from WordPress.org or from the project's GitHub repository.
- Download the TableCrafter ZIP file to your computer.
- Go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin.
- Click Choose File, select the ZIP, then click Install Now.
- After the upload completes, click Activate Plugin.
Prefer not to use the uploader? Unzip the package and copy the tablecrafter-wp-data-tables folder into wp-content/plugins/ via SFTP, then activate it from the Plugins screen.
What Happens on Activation
Activation is intentionally lightweight. TableCrafter does not create custom database tables or store your data in WordPress — it fetches data from your sources on demand and caches it temporarily. On activation the plugin:
- Registers the
[tablecrafter]shortcode and thetablecrafter/data-tableGutenberg block. - Schedules an hourly background cache-refresh event (
tc_refresher_cron) so tables stay fresh without slowing page loads. - Sets a one-time redirect flag so your first visit lands on the Welcome screen.
Because of that flag, immediately after activating you are redirected once to the interactive Welcome screen, where one-click demos let you see a live, searchable, sortable table in seconds. (The redirect is skipped during AJAX requests and on network-admin screens.)
Zero database impact: TableCrafter is a viewer, not a data store. Deactivating or removing it never bloats your database with table content.
Where the Settings Live
After activation, a top-level TableCrafter menu item (with a table icon) appears in your WordPress admin sidebar. It requires the manage_options capability, so administrators can reach it. The menu has two pages:
| Admin Page | What you'll find |
|---|---|
| TableCrafter | The main dashboard: the Visual Shortcode Builder, a live preview area, Quick Start demo datasets, and the one-click Copy Shortcode tool. |
| Welcome | The onboarding screen with interactive demos and quick tips. This is where the post-activation redirect sends you. |
The main page is also your visual configuration surface: enter a data-source URL (or upload a CSV/JSON file, or paste a public Google Sheet link), set the data root, rows per page, and included/excluded columns, toggle Search / Filters / Export, click Preview Table, then copy the generated shortcode into any post or page.
TableCrafter stores almost nothing as persistent options — configuration lives in each shortcode or block instance, not in a global settings record. The exception is connection secrets such as a saved Airtable token, which are encrypted before being written to the options table.
Verify Your Install
Confirm everything is working before you build real tables:
- Open TableCrafter in the admin sidebar.
- Click any Quick Start Demo (for example, "Product Inventory (JSON)") and confirm a table renders in the Live Preview pane.
- Drop a shortcode onto a draft page to verify front-end rendering:
[tablecrafter source="https://api.example.com/data.json" search="true" per_page="10"]If the table appears with working search and pagination, your installation is complete.
Updating & Uninstalling
When installed from the WordPress.org directory, TableCrafter updates through the standard Plugins screen and Dashboard → Updates — no manual steps required. To remove it, deactivate and delete from the Plugins screen; the bundled uninstall.php cleanup routine runs on deletion to tidy up after itself.
Updating from a pre-3.5.6 version? The 3.5.6 release fixes export integrity so Excel and PDF downloads produce genuine .xlsx (OOXML) and valid PDF files. If you use exports, this is a recommended update.
Next Steps
With TableCrafter installed and verified, head to quick-start.html to build your first table, or jump straight to the shortcode-reference.html for the full [tablecrafter] attribute list.