Install the Memberside plugin

The Memberside plugin is what your app talks to. Without it on your site, the builder cannot connect and no screen has anything to show. Install it before you try to connect an app.

What it adds

• A REST API under the memberside/v1 namespace, plus memberside/v2 for the activity wall.
• A Memberside menu in the WordPress admin sidebar, with four screens: Dashboard, REST API, Services and API Keys.
• Nothing on the front end. The plugin adds no shortcodes, no blocks and no pages, and your site looks exactly as it did before.

Install it

1. Download the plugin .zip from your Memberside account.
2. In WordPress, go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin.
3. Choose the .zip and select Install Now.
4. Select Activate Plugin.

A Memberside entry appears in the admin sidebar. Open it and you should see the Dashboard with your site’s detected plugins listed.

Installing and activating the Memberside plugin

record → src/assets/media/install-plugin.mp4

Installing and activating the Memberside plugin

Requirements

WordPress	6.0 or newer
PHP	7.4 or newer
HTTPS	Required. Application passwords are refused over plain HTTP.
Permalinks	Anything other than Plain. The REST API needs pretty permalinks.

The plugin runs on its own. Ultimate Member is not required for it to activate — the WordPress-core screens (Posts, Page, Default Login, Default Register) work without it — but most of the feature catalogue is built from Ultimate Member or BuddyPress, so in practice you will have one of them.

Version 2.0.0 changed the namespace

The plugin was previously called um-rest-api and served um/v1. Version 2.0.0 renamed it to memberside and moved to memberside/v1 with no alias. If you have an app that was built against the old namespace, it needs rebuilding and resubmitting to the stores. Any older documentation you find describing um/v1 routes is out of date.

Keeping it current

The Dashboard checks your other plugins against a tested-version range and warns when one is older than the minimum Memberside supports, or newer than anything it has been tested with. Neither warning blocks you — they tell you where to look first when a screen behaves oddly.

When it does not work

Symptom	Cause	Fix
No Memberside menu after activating	Activation failed silently, usually a PHP version below 7.4	Check Tools → Site Health → Info → Server for the PHP version
The builder says Ultimate Member REST API not found	The plugin is inactive, or you connected a different site than the one you installed it on	Confirm the plugin is active, and check the site URL for a typo or a www mismatch
Endpoints return 404 even with the plugin active	Permalinks are set to Plain	Go to Settings → Permalinks and choose any other option

Next

Enable the endpoints you need. Nothing is exposed until you do.