=== TheReader.AI – Automated News Feeds, AI Content & SEO Booster ===
Contributors: candominds
Tags: news, ai, automation, seo, news aggregator
Requires at least: 5.0
Tested up to: 6.9
Requires PHP: 7.4
Stable tag: 1.1.1
License: GPL-2.0-or-later
License URI: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html

Automated news feed integration. Sync curated news summaries and structured SEO metadata from the TheReader.AI service to your WordPress site.

== Description ==

**TheReader.AI** is a news curation and automation tool that connects your WordPress site to the TheReader.AI cloud service. It allows site owners to display curated news headlines and AI-generated summaries tailored to specific industries or custom niche topics.

### 💡 Service Tiers
The plugin requires an API key to connect to the TheReader.AI service. We offer two levels of access:
* **Standard Mode (Free):** Fetch summarized news from general categories (e.g., Technology, Sports, Business). This is available at no cost after generating a free API key.
* **AI Custom News (Premium):** Provides targeted news curation for specific niches or custom prompts (e.g., "Real Estate trends in Bangalore"). This tier requires a paid subscription to cover the high-resource AI processing costs.

### 🚀 Core Features:
* **Context-Aware Summaries:** Our service processes full-length articles into concise bullet points relevant to your selected niche or category.
* **Source Transparency:** Every news card includes the original publisher's name and a direct link to the source article for full attribution.
* **Structured Data:** Automatically injects JSON-LD `NewsArticle` schema to signal content freshness to search engines.
* **Automated Refresh:** Uses WP-Cron to update your feed automatically based on your preferred frequency.

### 🔒 Privacy & Service Disclosure
This plugin is "Service-ware" and requires a connection to the TheReader.AI API.
* **External Service:** TheReader.AI (https://thereader.ai)
* **Functionality:** The external service handles global news monitoring, niche filtering, and AI summarization.
* **Data Transmission:** The plugin sends your API key and niche configuration (categories or custom prompt) to our servers to retrieve relevant data.
* **Privacy:** No personal user data or WordPress database information is shared with the external service.
* [Terms of Service](https://thereader.ai/terms) | [Privacy Policy](https://thereader.ai/privacy-policy)

== Installation ==

1. Upload the plugin folder to the `/wp-content/plugins/` directory.
2. Activate the plugin via the **Plugins** menu.
3. **Get your API Key:** Visit [TheReader.AI](https://thereader.ai/api-integration) to register or log in.
4. Navigate to **TheReader.AI** in your WordPress admin sidebar.
5. Enter your API key and click **Verify**.
6. Select a **Standard Category** (Free) or enter a **Custom Niche** (Premium).
7. Use the `[thereader_news]` shortcode on any page or post to display the feed.

== Frequently Asked Questions ==

= Is there a cost to use this plugin? =
The plugin itself and the "Standard Mode" (general category news) are free to use after registering for an API key. The "AI Custom News" feature, which provides hyper-targeted niche curation, requires a paid subscription.

= Why does "AI Custom News" cost money? =
Unlike general categories, custom niche requests require our servers to perform real-time AI filtering and summarization on a per-request basis across 50,000+ sources, which involves significant computing costs.

= Where do I get my API key? =
You can generate both free and premium keys at [thereader.ai/api-integration](https://thereader.ai/api-integration).

== Screenshots ==

1. The administrative settings dashboard showing the selection between Standard and Custom modes.
2. Example of a premium 'Niche' news feed with custom AI summaries.
3. Example of a free 'Technology' category news grid.
4. The auto-sync status and shortcode instructions.

== Changelog ==

= 1.1.1 =
* Maintenance: Verified sync workflow and stabilized plugin action links.

= 1.1.0 =
* UI Enhancement: Added convenient 'Settings' and 'Go Premium' quick links directly to the Plugins page action row.

= 1.0.9 =
* Feature: Automatically purge frontend cache mechanisms (LiteSpeed, WP Rocket, Elementor, W3, SG Optimizer, etc.) after a successful news sync so that the new headlines are immediately visible to site visitors, even on heavily cached sites.

= 1.0.8 =
* Bugfix: Fixed an issue where WP-Cron schedules might drop due to third-party conflict.
* Feature: Added Last Sync Time and Status logging to the admin dashboard for easier debugging.

= 1.0.7 =
* Security: Implemented nonce verification and input sanitization.
* Compliance: Renamed functions and options with tread_ prefix.
* Feature: Distinguished between Free (Standard) and Premium (Custom Niche) service tiers.
* Feature: Enhanced JSON-LD metadata injection.
* Documentation: Updated Service Disclosure per Guideline 6.