Automation Theme

The Automation theme is a custom WordPress theme that powers the content management and automation workflows for Man In America. It provides a comprehensive admin interface for managing podcasts, broadcasts, guests, and automated publishing to multiple platforms.

Repository Location

The Automation theme source code is located in the automation repository: AmericanMedia/automation

Overview

Purpose

The Automation theme transforms WordPress into a podcast production control center:

Podcast Management — Create and manage podcast episodes with rich metadata
Livestream Publishing — One-click publishing to Rumble, YouTube, Boxcast, Restream
AI Content Generation — Generate descriptions, summaries, and social posts
Social Media Automation — Automated posting to Telegram, Twitter, Facebook
Guest Management — Track guest information and booking pipeline
Sync & Scraping — Fetch metadata from Rumble episodes automatically

Theme Structure

wp-content/themes/automation/
├── style.css                    # Theme metadata
├── functions.php                # Main theme file
├── index.php                    # Template fallback
├── assets/
│   └── js/
│       └── podcast-sync-actions.js
└── includes/
    ├── simple_html_dom.php      # HTML parsing library
    ├── catalog.php              # Podcast sync & metadata
    ├── live.php                 # Livestream status checking
    ├── api-podcasts.php         # REST API endpoints
    ├── dropbox.php              # Dropbox integration
    ├── transistor.php           # Transistor podcast hosting
    ├── post-types/              # Custom post types
    │   ├── post-types.php
    │   ├── broadcast.php
    │   └── guest.php
    ├── admin/                   # Admin tools & UI
    │   ├── admin-tools.php
    │   ├── css/
    │   └── js/
    └── automation/              # Core automation system
        ├── core/                # Framework files
        ├── handlers/            # Step execution
        ├── steps/               # Platform integrations
        ├── buttons/             # Action buttons
        ├── boxcast/             # Boxcast-specific
        ├── prompts/             # AI prompt templates
        └── ui/                  # Flow tracker UI

Custom Post Types

Podcast

The primary content type for managing episodes.

Field	Type	Description
`title`	string	Episode title
`content`	text	Episode teaser/description
`stream_date`	date	Scheduled stream date
`stream_time`	time	Scheduled stream time
`stream_visibility`	select	public/private/unlisted
`automation_mode`	select	production/development
`rumble_url`	url	Rumble video URL
`rumble_embed`	url	Rumble embed URL
`rumble_stream_url`	url	RTMP stream URL
`rumble_stream_key`	string	RTMP stream key
`youtube_url`	url	YouTube video URL
`restream_id`	string	Restream event ID
`show_notes`	textarea	Full show notes

Broadcast

Pre-production content before becoming a podcast.

Field	Type	Description
`boxcast_id`	string	Boxcast broadcast ID
`boxcast_status`	string	Processing status
`boxcast_mp4_url`	url	Download URL for video
`boxcast_m4a_url`	url	Download URL for audio
`boxcast_poster_url`	url	Thumbnail URL

Guest

Guest information and booking.

Field	Type	Description
`title`	string	Guest name
`guest_bio`	textarea	Guest biography
`thumbnail`	image	Guest photo

Automation System

Core Components

The automation system is built around a step-based workflow:

Step Registration

Steps are registered using a declarative API:

php

register_automation_step('rumble', "rumble_setup", [
    'meta_field_inputs' => [ 
        'visibility' => "stream_visibility",
        'stream_date' => "stream_date",
        'stream_time' => "stream_time",
    ],
    'delete_button_meta_key' => 'rumble_embed',
    'post_meta_updates' => [...],
    'response_fields' => ['rumble_url', 'rumble_embed', 'rumble_stream_url', 'rumble_stream_key'],
    'extra_fields' => function($post_id, $post) {
        return [
            'title' => $post->post_title,
            'featured_image' => get_the_post_thumbnail_url($post_id, 'full'),
            'content' => $post->post_content
        ];
    },
    'cascade_create_steps' => ['generate_shortlink', 'boxcast_integration'],
    'disable_if' => function($post_id) { /* ... */ },
    'embed_renderer' => function($post_id) { /* ... */ },
]);

Available Steps

Step	Endpoint	Description
`rumble_setup`	`/rumble-create`	Create Rumble livestream
`boxcast_integration`	`/boxcast-update-integration`	Update Boxcast RTMP
`generate_shortlink`	`/shortlink`	Create short.io link
`telegram_post`	`/telegram`	Post to Telegram
`twitter_post`	`/ayrshare-create`	Post to Twitter/X
`facebook_post`	`/ayrshare-create`	Post to Facebook
`restream_setup`	`/restream-create`	Create Restream event
`youtube_setup`	`/youtube-create`	Create YouTube Live

Flow Tracker UI

The Flow Tracker is an admin metabox showing automation status:

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Automation Flow Tracker                                       │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ 👁 Rumble Setup        [Success]  ▶️ 🗑 ☑                      │
│ 👁 Boxcast Integration [Success]  ▶️ 🗑 ☑                      │
│    Generate Shortlink  [Pending]  ▶️    ☑                      │
│    Telegram Post       [Pending]  ▶️    ☑                      │
│    Restream Setup      [Pending]  ▶️    ☑                      │
│    YouTube Setup       [Pending]  ▶️    ☑                      │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Features:

Status badges — Pending, Success, Failed
Run button — Execute or re-run individual steps
Delete button — Delete platform content (when applicable)
Toggle switches — Enable/disable steps for batch run
Embed preview — View platform embeds inline

Webhook Buttons

Action buttons are registered dynamically:

php

register_dynamic_webhook_button([
    'post_type'         => 'podcast',
    'button_id'         => 'create-livestreams',
    'button_label'      => 'Publish Livestreams',
    'button_location'   => 'post_submitbox_misc_actions',
    'processing_label'  => '⏳ Publishing...',
    'button_class'      => 'button button-primary',
    'webhook_action'    => 'create_livestream',
    'prepare_payload'   => function($data) { /* ... */ },
    'handle_response'   => function($payload, $post_id) { /* ... */ },
]);

Button Types

Button	Description
Publish Livestreams	Run all enabled automation steps
Generate AI Summary	Generate description via OpenAI
Headlines	Generate headline variations
Short Summary	Create short teaser
All Social Posts	Generate all social content
Facebook Post	Generate Facebook-specific post
Telegram Post	Generate Telegram message
Twitter Post	Generate Twitter/X post
Convert to Podcast	Convert broadcast to podcast CPT

AI Integration

The theme integrates with OpenAI for content generation:

php

register_dynamic_webhook_button([
    'button_id'         => 'generate-ai-description',
    'button_label'      => 'Generate AI Summary',
    'target_url'        => 'https://api.openai.com/v1/chat/completions',
    'api_key'           => OPENAI_API_KEY,
    'prepare_payload'   => function ($data) {
        $prompt = "Write a short, hard-hitting show description...";
        return [
            'model' => 'gpt-4',
            'messages' => [
                ['role' => 'user', 'content' => $prompt],
            ],
            'temperature' => 0.7,
        ];
    },
]);

Prompt Templates

Stored in includes/automation/prompts/:

File	Purpose
`universal.txt`	General episode description
`teaser.txt`	Episode teaser format
`short-teaser.txt`	Short social format
`facebook-post.txt`	Facebook-specific format
`instructions.txt`	Style guidelines

Boxcast Integration

The theme has deep Boxcast integration for broadcast management:

includes/automation/boxcast/
├── boxcast-core.php      # Core loader
├── acf-hooks.php         # ACF field hooks
├── ajax.php              # AJAX handlers
├── enqueue.php           # Script loading
├── iframe-ui.php         # Embed rendering
├── api/
│   └── api.php           # API client
└── js/                   # Frontend scripts

Features

Status polling — Track upload/processing status
Download URLs — Fetch MP4/M4A download links
Integration updates — Update RTMP credentials
Iframe preview — Embed broadcasts in admin

Podcast Sync

The catalog.php file handles Rumble episode synchronization:

Manual Sync

Sync button in podcast list view triggers:

Fetch episode data from Rumble via X Server
Update post meta (title, description, views, duration)
Update post date based on Rumble publish date
Extract video resolutions

Scheduled Sync

Cron job runs hourly to fetch latest Rumble episodes:

php

add_action('mia_fetch_rumble_latest_episodes', 'mia_fetch_rumble_latest_episodes_job');

Creates new podcast posts for episodes not yet tracked.

Livestream Status

The live.php file checks stream status via Browserless:

php

function update_stream_status_in_db() {
    // Uses Browserless.io to scrape Rumble livestream status
    // Returns: Live, Starting Soon, Ended, Offline
}

REST API

Podcasts Endpoint

GET /wp-json/automation/v1/podcasts?limit=10

Returns:

json

{
  "success": true,
  "count": 10,
  "data": [
    {
      "id": 123,
      "title": "Episode Title",
      "date": "2026-02-05T10:00:00-05:00",
      "link": "https://example.com/podcast/episode-title",
      "content": "Episode description...",
      "featured_image": "https://example.com/image.jpg",
      "rumble_url": "https://rumble.com/...",
      "rumble_embed": "https://rumble.com/embed/...",
      "bunny_id": "abc123"
    }
  ]
}

Plugin: Stream Status Bar

A companion plugin for frontend livestream status:

wp-content/plugins/stream-status-bar/
├── stream-status-bar.php    # Plugin main file
├── stream-status-bar.js     # Frontend script
└── stream-status-bar.css    # Styles

Shortcode

[stream_status_bar]

Displays current livestream status with countdown timer.

Environment Configuration

Required constants in wp-config.php:

php

define('OPENAI_API_KEY', 'sk-...');
define('X_SERVER_URL', 'http://x-server:3000');
define('BOXCAST_YOUTUBE_INTEGRATION_ID', 't8i39wflb8ugjrrcytpe');

Integration with X Server

The theme communicates with X Server for platform automation:

php

// Example: Create Rumble livestream
wp_remote_post(X_SERVER_URL . '/rumble-create', [
    'headers' => ['Content-Type' => 'application/json'],
    'body' => json_encode([
        'title' => $post->post_title,
        'content' => $post->post_content,
        'featured_image' => get_the_post_thumbnail_url($post_id, 'full'),
        'visibility' => 'public',
        'stream_date' => '2026-02-05',
        'stream_time' => '10:00'
    ])
]);

X Server — Platform automation server
Publishing Workflow — End-to-end publishing
Bridge API — CRM orchestration layer

Automation Theme ​

Overview ​

Purpose ​

Theme Structure ​

Custom Post Types ​

Podcast ​

Broadcast ​

Guest ​

Automation System ​

Core Components ​

Step Registration ​

Available Steps ​

Flow Tracker UI ​

Webhook Buttons ​

Button Types ​

AI Integration ​

Prompt Templates ​

Boxcast Integration ​

Features ​

Podcast Sync ​

Manual Sync ​

Scheduled Sync ​

Livestream Status ​

REST API ​

Podcasts Endpoint ​

Plugin: Stream Status Bar ​

Shortcode ​

Environment Configuration ​

Integration with X Server ​

Related ​