Publish a Federated Article

Overview

Publish a federated article so followers on other Fediverse servers receive your Joomla content automatically. This lets editors keep using the normal Joomla article workflow while extending the site’s reach beyond Joomla itself.

You need this procedure once the package is installed, the workers are configured, and the author already has a local actor. Without the actor mapping and worker processing, the article still publishes inside Joomla, but nothing is delivered to remote followers. After you finish, the article should generate delivery work and begin moving through the outbound queue.

Before you begin

Required plugins are enabled:
- System - Fediverse
- Content - Fediverse
- Task - Fediverse
The author has a local actor.
Scheduler tasks are active, especially fediverse.delivery_worker.
If the site uses editorial opt-out rules, confirm the article, category, and user are allowed to federate.

Steps

Open Content -> Articles.
Create a new article or edit an existing one.
Set the article author to the Joomla user mapped to the local actor.
- Author - This must be the Joomla user whose local actor should publish the article. If the wrong author is selected, the wrong actor is used or no actor is found at all.
Review the article opening and any attached image from a Fediverse reader’s point of view.
- Make the first paragraph understandable on its own, because many remote readers only see a short excerpt or the opening lines first.
- If the article uses an intro image or full image, open Joomla’s Images and Links tab and add meaningful alt text before you rely on that image in federation.
Review the Fediverse tab in the editor when the default article output needs adjustment.
- The guidance note in this tab reminds you that remote Fediverse servers may show the same article differently.
- Use intro text - Leave this enabled when the Joomla intro text already works as the standalone federated post text. Turn it off only when the federated version needs a different opening.
- Fediverse excerpt - This appears only when Use intro text is set to No. Use it when the normal Joomla intro assumes too much local page context or is too long for a good first federated impression.
- Article image - Choose Do not federate an image, Use intro image, or Use full article image. Only expose an image when it adds useful context and already has good alt text in Joomla.
- Hashtags - Choose No hashtags, Use hashtags from article text, Use Joomla tags as hashtags, or Use both article text and Joomla tags. Article-text hashtags are collected from the full article and only missing ones are added after the chosen federated text.
- Include article link - Keep this enabled when remote readers should have a clear route back to the full Joomla article.
Review the Joomla publish state and save the article.
Wait for the delivery worker to process the outbound work.
Open Components -> Fediverse -> Deliveries.
Confirm the article appears in the delivery queue and begins progressing through delivery.

Check your result

A new outbound delivery entry exists for the article publish or update.
Followers of the actor receive the federated post.
Future updates to the same article also create outbound delivery work.

Troubleshooting

No delivery is created at all

Likely cause: The selected article author does not have a local actor, or that actor is disabled.
Solution: Confirm the article author has a local actor in Components -> Fediverse -> Actors and that the actor is enabled.

The article stays queued and is never delivered

Likely cause: The delivery worker is disabled or the scheduler is not running.
Solution: Check the Fediverse worker options and the fediverse.delivery_worker scheduler task, then republish or update the article if needed.

Only some followers receive the article

Likely cause: Delivery failures occurred for specific remote recipients or servers.
Solution: Review the Deliveries view for error details and retry behavior before assuming the article was not published.