emergencymode.news

Code storage for customizations, plugins and theme work related to the Emergency Mode / EMFN WordPress Newspack instance.

Overview

This repository holds custom code that extends and customizes the Newspack WordPress platform powering emergencymode.news. It is organized to reflect how WordPress loads and applies customizations, making it easy to deploy files to the correct locations on the server.

Repository Structure

emergencymode.news/
├── .devcontainer/           # VS Code dev container config (not deployed to WordPress)
│   ├── devcontainer.json    # Container image, extensions, settings, post-create hook
│   └── setup.sh             # Post-create script: installs uv + Python dependencies
│
├── notebooks/               # Python notebooks for data analysis (uv-based)
│   ├── US_disaster_risk_analysis.ipynb   # Generates per-US-state NRI risk CSVs
│   ├── CA-MX_disaster_risk_analysis.ipynb # Research: CA+MX data gaps (no output yet)
│   ├── README.md                          # Notebooks documentation
│   └── cache/                             # Cached source data downloads
│
├── plugins/
│   └── emfn-behavior-plugin/                   # Custom front-end behavior plugin
│       ├── emfn-behavior-plugin.php            # Plugin entry point + header
│       ├── readme.txt
│       ├── includes/
│       │   └── class-emfn-behavior-plugin.php  # Singleton; enqueues assets + wp_localize_script
│       ├── assets/
│       │   ├── css/
│       │   │   └── emfn-behavior-plugin.css    # Site style overrides + component styles
│       │   ├── js/
│       │   │   └── emfn-behavior-plugin.js     # Geolocation, NRI risk lookup, form wiring
│       │   ├── data/
│       │   │   ├── {ST}.csv                    # Per-state NRI risk scores (e.g. AL.csv)
│       │   │   └── readme.txt                  # Data directory documentation
│       │   └── html-templates/
│       │       ├── gravityForms-...-body.html  # HTML for Gravity Forms HTML field
│       │       └── readme.txt
│       └── languages/
│
└── tmp/                                        # Scratch files; not deployed

emfn-behavior-plugin

The primary active plugin. Responsibilities:

• Site style overrides – CSS targeting Newspack theme components, Gravity Forms and custom UI elements.
• Geolocation + risk mapping – On Gravity Forms address input, resolves lat/lng via Google Places v2, looks up county FIPS via the FCC Area API, fetches a per-state NRI CSV from assets/data/ and surfaces likely hazards to the user ranked by NRI risk score.
• NRI data – Per-state CSVs (assets/data/{ST}.csv) contain FEMA National Risk Index composite risk scores (0–100) for 18 hazard types across all counties. Scores ≥ 50 (configurable via riskThreshold) are shown. See assets/data/readme.txt for full schema.
• HTML templates – Copy/paste snippets for Gravity Forms HTML fields used in the Action Pack Assessment form.

window.emfnData.dataUrl is injected by wp_localize_script and points to the plugin's assets/data/ directory on the server.

Deploying Changes

Deployment to the Newspack staging and production environments is handled manually by Newspack Support staff. To prepare a plugin update:

1. Commit changes to main.
2. Provide the updated plugin folder to Newspack Support for installation via Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin or direct server copy.

Repo path	WordPress server path
plugins/<plugin-name>/	wp-content/plugins/<plugin-name>/

.devcontainer/ and notebooks/ are not deployed to WordPress.

Data Analysis Notebooks

The notebooks/ directory contains Python notebooks for data journalism and analysis work. These are managed with uv and are not deployed to the WordPress server.

Getting Started with Notebooks

1. Install uv (if not already installed):

   pip install uv

2. Install dependencies:

   uv sync

3. Start JupyterLab:

   uv run jupyter lab

4. Open a notebook: Navigate to notebooks/ and open the desired .ipynb file

Available Notebooks

• US_disaster_risk_analysis.ipynb: Downloads FEMA NRI data and generates per-state CSV files (assets/data/{ST}.csv) for US states + DC
• CA-MX_disaster_risk_analysis.ipynb: Research notebook demonstrating the data-source and client-side lookup gap for Canada and Mexico (ThinkHazard + FCC API live calls; no output files yet)

See notebooks/README.md for detailed documentation on each notebook.

Newspack Customization Notes

• Hooks and filters for Newspack-specific behavior live in the plugin's includes/class-emfn-behavior-plugin.php.
• Newspack Plugin documentation: https://github.com/Automattic/newspack-plugin
• Newspack Blocks documentation: https://github.com/Automattic/newspack-blocks

Development Notes

• WordPress version and plugin dependencies are managed on the hosted Newspack environment; this repo stores only custom code.
• Follow WordPress coding standards: https://developer.wordpress.org/coding-standards/
• Prefix all custom functions, classes and hooks with emfn_ to avoid conflicts.