Install Core Bookings and Activate Your License

Getting Core Bookings running takes two steps: install the plugin ZIP like any other premium plugin, then activate your license so WordPress can deliver updates. Check the requirements first, because the plugin refuses to activate on a server that can’t run it safely.

Check the Requirements

• WordPress: 6.9 or later.
• PHP: 8.3 or later, with the Sodium extension. Sodium encrypts saved credentials and private links. Without it, activation stops with “Core Bookings requires the Sodium PHP extension.”
• Database: MySQL or MariaDB with InnoDB tables. The plugin checks the table engine during install and stops if InnoDB isn’t available.
• HTTPS: needed on any live site. Payment webhooks and calendar push notifications rely on it.
• Multisite: supported per site. Activate the plugin on each site separately. Network activation is blocked.

Install the Plugin

1. Download the Core Bookings ZIP from your account on gauravtiwari.org after purchase. Your license key is in the same account.
2. In WordPress, go to Plugins → Add Plugin → Upload Plugin, choose the ZIP and click Install Now.
3. Click Activate. A new Bookings menu appears in the admin sidebar.

On activation, the plugin creates its database tables (including the tables for every module, so switching a module on later never runs a migration), gives administrators full booking permissions, sets the currency to USD, and schedules its background workers to run every minute.

WordPress cron only runs when someone visits the site. On a quiet site, reminders and payment checks can run late, so add a real server cron task. Setup Checks and Operations shows whether the worker is running on time.

Activate Your License

Only administrators can open the license screen. Go to Bookings → Settings → License.

1. Paste your key into License key.
2. Click Activate license. You’ll see “License activated.”
3. The screen now shows Status, the last four characters of the License, your Plan and Valid until.

After that, Core Bookings updates show up in Dashboard → Updates and on the Plugins screen like any other plugin. Click Check license any time to refresh the status, or Disconnect license to free this site’s activation.

Don’t have a key yet? The screen links to Buy a Core Bookings license, which opens the product page.

What Your License Controls

• A valid license gets plugin updates. Every module is included, so there’s nothing extra to unlock.
• If a license expires or goes inactive, booking keeps working. Customers can still book, and you keep full access to your records. You just stop getting updates.
• Activating sends your license key, site address, plugin version, WordPress version and PHP version to gauravtiwari.org. No license request happens before you activate.
• The key is stored encrypted. Screens and notices only ever show its last four characters.
• One site holds one license at a time. To switch keys, disconnect the current license first.

Staging Copies, Moves and Multisite

The license is tied to the site address it was activated on. When you clone a site to staging or move it to a new domain, the copy won’t use the original activation. Its Status shows Reconnect required.

1. On the copy, click Remove local license copy.
2. Paste the key again and click Activate license for the new address.
3. Manage the old site’s activation from your purchase account if you no longer need it.

The same thing happens if the site’s encryption key changes. To avoid that, define a random CORE_BOOKINGS_KEY of at least 32 characters in wp-config.php before you save any credentials, and keep it unchanged. Otherwise the plugin uses your WordPress salts, and rotating them makes saved credentials unreadable.

On multisite, each subsite activates its own license against its own address. Activating one subsite doesn’t activate the others.

Good to Know

• If activation fails with “The license request was rejected”, check the key, its validity and whether you have site activations left.
• A failed disconnect or a network error keeps your saved license, so you can simply try again.
• Deactivating the plugin keeps all your data. The same screen holds Data retention and uninstall, covered in Data, Privacy and Uninstall.
• Moving bookings to another site? Use Import, Export and Moving Sites. Exports never include license details.