Getting Started

Cookie Compliance adds a consent banner to your site, enforces choices at runtime, and records decisions for audit. You install the Cookie Compliance for WordPress plugin (or add a manual snippet), complete the onboarding flow, and verify that non-essential services stay paused until visitors choose.

Step 1 — Install and connect (WordPress)

1. Install and activate the Cookie Compliance for WordPress plugin from the WordPress plugin directory.
2. On activation, the WelcomeModal opens automatically. Follow the three-step flow:
   • Choose Protection — pick Banner Only (“I just want a banner”), Free (“For small sites”) or Professional (“Ensure full compliance”).
   • Confirm — review the liability and compliance summary.
   • Create Account — register or sign in to connect your site to the Cookie Compliance platform.
3. Once connected, open the plugin via the Compliance top-level menu in WordPress admin (it is not under Settings). The admin opens with four tabs:
   • Overview — your status at a glance: six boxes (Banner, Script blocking, Google Consent Mode, Meta & Microsoft, GPC signal, Visit limit), the last 7 days of consents, and a Next steps list.
   • Cookie Consent — the Your banner panel (engine; Standard or Compact style on the New engine), the Laws, languages & signals card (including the Consent Signals panel for Google, Meta, Microsoft, GPC and Do Not Track), setting cards, privacy policy link, custom scripts, and technical settings.
   • Privacy Consent — choose which forms record privacy (form) consent.
   • Consent Logs — consent log viewer, Form Consent records, and CSV export (Pro plan).

Troubleshooting: still showing Pending/Inactive?

If statuses still show Pending/Inactive, open the Cookie Compliance dashboard at app.hu-manity.co, go to Integrations, copy your App ID and App Secret Key, paste them into the plugin’s App ID and App Secret Key fields, and click Save and Connect.

Step 1 (alternative) — Create your property in the portal first

If you prefer to configure your domain before installing the plugin:

1. Sign in to the Cookie Compliance dashboard and Add domain.
2. Open Configuration and set the essentials you want live on day one:
   • Access-level names (Private, Balanced, Personalized) on Configuration → Content
   • Purpose Categories (Basic Operations, Site Optimization, Content Personalization, Ad Personalization) — assign providers on Autoblocking
   • Languages on Languages in the left menu (English is provided; add domain languages and fill their strings)
   • Default consent level and Duration on Configuration → Behavior
   • Geolocation on Configuration → Laws if you vary the starting posture by region
   • Update consent and the Privacy Policy link on Configuration → Behavior
   • GPC support on Configuration → Consent Signals
3. A domain you add in the portal is published and set to Active as soon as you create it. Click Publish Now in Configuration to publish the changes you made above.

A domain that is already published and Active keeps “Pending/Inactive” states away when you connect the site; publish your edits before you connect so the plugin pulls the finished configuration.

Step 2 — Connect your site (manual implementation)

For non-WordPress platforms, go to Integrations in the portal, copy the generated snippet and paste it at the very top of <head> — inline init first, then the loader from our CDN. Keep both before any tag manager, analytics, or ad pixels.

<!-- Cookie Compliance: inline init -->
<script>
  var huOptions = {
    "appID": "YOUR_APP_ID",
    "currentLanguage": "en",
    "blocking": true,
    "globalCookie": false
  };
</script>

<!-- Cookie Compliance: loader. Copy the exact URL from your Integrations snippet; it may contain /v2/ -->
<script src="https://cdn.hu-manity.co/hu-banner.min.js"></script>

Step 3 — Verify the banner and enforcement

Load the site as an anonymous visitor (logged out or in a clean session).

You should see:

• The banner on first visit in the expected language.
• No non-essential requests before a choice.
• After selecting Private, only Basic Operations run.
• After selecting Balanced or Personalized, only the purposes you mapped for that level run.
• The Update consent icon available if you enabled it.

In Consent Logs (WordPress admin tab or portal), confirm a new Cookie Consent entry with the selected Access Level and the purpose switches at that moment. Use Export CSV (Pro plan) or a Proof of Cookie Consent report when you need evidence.

Configure what visitors actually see

On a connected site, banner copy is edited in the Admin Portal; the WordPress plugin only displays it. (An unconnected Banner Only site edits its message and button text in the plugin under Cookie Consent → Banner Design.)

1. Open app.hu-manity.co and go to Configuration → Content.
2. Edit Consent Heading, Consent Message, the button labels, and the Private, Balanced, and Personalized level names.
3. Click Publish Now. On a WordPress site, open the plugin and click Pull latest settings so the site picks the change up immediately.

Access Levels & Purposes

Decide what Balanced should allow (for example, “measurement only” vs “measurement + on-site personalization”) and set the Purpose Categories to match. The banner shows clear labels; Autoblocking and integrations enforce the mapping.

Languages

English ships complete. Add every language you serve in Languages, fill the text strings (banner title/description, buttons, Access Level labels, Purpose names/descriptions, policy links, duration labels), and click Save & Publish. The banner falls back to English for any missing text. WordPress sites select the language from the page’s locale and work with WPML, Polylang, and TranslatePress.

Geolocation

Use Managed or Manual Geolocation to set regional defaults such as Banner Display, Update consent, Autoblocking on/off per zone, and policy links. These are starting rules; the visitor’s choice decides what actually runs.

Consent Modes

Enable the consent modes you use—Google, Meta (Facebook), Microsoft—in the WordPress admin Cookie Consent tab (Laws, languages & signals → Consent signals), or via the portal at Configuration → Consent Signals. Tags stay constrained before consent and expand only after visitors accept the relevant purposes.

GPC support

If your policy honors Global Privacy Control, enable it in the Cookie Consent tab (Laws, languages & signals → Consent signals). Sessions start protected: sale/sharing-related purposes (typically Ad Personalization) stay off until a visitor explicitly opts in.

Common “Getting Started” issues (and fast fixes)

Status is Pending/Inactive → Publish in the portal, then return to the WordPress admin; if needed, paste the correct App ID and App Secret Key from portal Integrations and click Save and Connect.

Banner doesn’t appear → Ensure the inline init and loader sit first in <head>; disable aggressive JS optimization for our scripts; verify Banner Display = On for the visitor’s zone.

Vendors fire before consent → Review Provider patterns in Autoblocking (portal) and confirm they map to the right Purpose Categories; keep our scripts ahead of GTM/analytics.

Language mismatch → Add that language and strings in the portal; publish; in WP, click Pull latest settings in the domain card; clear site/CDN caches.