EDITS.WS

Tag: plugins

  • Gutenberg 15.0 Introduces “Sticky” Position Block Support, Adds “Paste Styles” Option

    Gutenberg 15.0 was released this week with some exciting new features for working with blocks and an improved UI for managing controls in the inspector panel. This release marks the end of the block inspector tabs experiment, which is now stabilized in the plugin.

    Users will notice that some blocks will now have separate tabs in the inspector for displaying settings and design controls, and optionally a list view tab that is included in the “off canvas navigation editor” experiment. Taking the block inspector tabs out of experimentation paves the way for the Navigation block’s off-canvas editor to become the default experience.

    image credit: Gutenberg 15.0 release post

    Version 15.0 introduces a new “paste styles” feature that works in a similar way to the “paste” or “paint” formatting function in Microsoft Word or Google Docs. Users can click on any block, select “Copy block” from the menu in the block settings panel and then paste those styles onto another block using the “Paste Styles” menu item.

    When using this feature, users may have to give the browser additional permissions in order to read from the clipboard. If permissions are denied, Gutenberg will display a warning snackbar to notify the user.

    Another major feature in this release is the ability for users to give blocks “sticky” positioning on the page. This will keep the block in the viewport even when scrolling down the page. The sticky/fixed positioning sticks the block to the top of the direct parent block. It can be previewed on the frontend and equally as well inside the editor.

    video credit: Follow-up tasks for Sticky positioning

    Gutenberg contributors concluded that although sticky positioning will be valuable for headers, footers, and creative instances, it is not likely to be used frequently. For this reason, it is de-emphasized in the UI. This is the first iteration of the sticky positioning feature, and contributors are tracking a list of follow-up tasks to improve it.

    A few other important changes in this release include the following:

    • Edit block style variations from global styles (46343)
    • Constrain image sizing to the width of the container (45775)
    • Allow resizing the Site Editor’s sidebar and frame (46903)
    • Activate copy/cut shortcut in the site editor (45752)

    If you want to take advantage of these new features before they land in WordPress core, you will need to have the Gutenberg plugin installed. Check out the 15.0 release post to visually explore the highlights with more videos and links to all the pull requests for the release.

  • 16 Best WordPress Frameworks to Design Themes

    Some popular frameworks for WordPress include:

    1. Genesis by StudioPress

    2. Divi by Elegant Themes

    3. Astra by Brainstorm Force

    4. OceanWP

    5. Beaver Builder

    6. Elementor

    7. Gantry

    8. Unyson

    9. Avada by ThemeFusion

    10. X Theme by Themeco

    11. Bridge by Qode Interactive

    12. Salient by ThemeNectar

    13. Flatsome by UX-Themes

    14. The7 by Dream-Theme

    15. Total by WPExplorer

    16. Schema by MyThemeShop

    These frameworks offer a variety of features, such as built-in page builders, advanced theme options, and pre-designed templates. It’s important to research each framework and compare its features to your project’s needs before making a decision. It’s also worth noting that many frameworks offer both a free and a paid version, so you can try out the framework before making a financial commitment.

  • How to Hide Site Title and Tagline in WordPress

    To hide the Site Title and Tagline on a WordPress website, you can use the following methods:

    1. Using CSS: Add the following code to your theme’s style.css file to hide the Site Title and Tagline:

    .site-title, .site-description {
    display: none;
}

    2. Using a plugin: There are several plugins available in the WordPress repository that allow you to hide the Site Title and Tagline, such as “Hide Title and Tagline” or “Remove Title and Tagline”.

    3. Using the Customizer: You can also hide the Site Title and Tagline from the Customizer. Go to Appearance > Customize > Site Identity and uncheck the “Display Site Title and Tagline” option.

    4. Using code: add this code to your child theme functions.php file or using custom plugin:

    function remove_site_title_tagline(){
    remove_action( 'storefront_header', 'storefront_site_branding', 20 );
}
add_action( 'init', 'remove_site_title_tagline' );

    Please make sure to backup your website before making any changes.

  • Best Analytics Plugins for WordPress

    There are several popular analytics plugins for WordPress, including:

    1. Google Analytics for WordPress: This plugin allows you to easily add your Google Analytics tracking code to your website and view important stats within your WordPress dashboard.

    2. MonsterInsights: This plugin is a popular choice for adding Google Analytics to your website, and it also includes additional features like ecommerce tracking, event tracking, and custom dimension tracking.

    3. Jetpack: This plugin includes a variety of features, including analytics and website stats, which can be accessed via the WordPress dashboard.

    4. WP-Statistics: This plugin provides detailed website analytics and statistics, including page views, visitors, and search engine referrals.

    5. Matomo: This is an open-source analytics platform that you can host on your own server, and then use the plugin to integrate it with your WordPress site.

    These are just a few options, and the best one for you will depend on your specific needs and preferences. It’s worth trying out a few different ones to see which one works best for you.

  • How to Change Fonts in WordPress

    To change fonts in WordPress, you can use a plugin such as “Easy Google Fonts” or “Custom Fonts”. Both of these plugins allow you to easily change the fonts used on your website.

    1. Install and activate the plugin on your WordPress site.

    2. Go to Appearance > Customize in the WordPress dashboard.

    3. Locate the font options in the Customizer and select the desired font for your site.

    4. Save your changes.

    Alternatively, you can also change the font directly by editing the CSS of your theme.

    1. Go to Appearance > Editor.

    2. Locate the CSS file you want to edit.

    3. Add the code to change the font.

    4. Save your changes.

    You can also use CSS class and id to change font for specific elements.

  • WordPress Performance Team Working Towards Unbundling Performance Lab Plugin

    WordPress’ Performance Team met this week with the express purpose of responding to Matt Mullenweg’s recent request to stop adding functionality to the Performance Lab plugin which could otherwise work as a standalone plugin.

    At the end of December 2022, the Performance Team published instructions for how to test the new SQLite implementation, which was bundled into the Performance Lab plugin as a module. Mullenweg commented on the post, indicating he saw the SQLite functionality as better suited to becoming a standalone community plugin:

    Can we please make this its own community plugin, hopefully to become a canonical one, and stop putting additional things like this into Performance Lab — it feels like we’re stuffing things into PL unnecessarily.

    In mid-October I have requested that we stop this unnecessary bundling before with @tweetythierry around WebP, which was put into Performance Lab, so it is disappointing that another large function like SQLite was bundled into Performance Lab plugin.

    In an effort to galvanize a base of testers for upcoming performance features, the Performance Team has leaned towards bundling new performance-related functionality into the plugin. Although they are already developed as self-contained modules so they can be easily extracted as individual plugins, the concern is that their visibility would be greatly reduced. The Performance Lab plugin has more than 30,000 active installs. Any standalone plugin would take time to build up to a user base, whereas functionality added to Performance Lab has an instant audience.

    “Agreed that there are definitely valid use cases for stand alone plugins, remaining mindful of some of the advantages of a single hub plugin such as development/maintenance, adoption, promotion, developer onboarding/contribution etc. which the Performance Lab facilitates well today as a central performance focus community hub plugin,” Performance Team contributor Thierry Muller said in response to the unbundling request.

    Muller outlined three different options contributors discussed in this week’s Performance Team meeting:

    • Option 1: Keep PL as is, but additionally deploy modules as individual plugins
    • Option 2: Make PL a “wrapper” focused on central infrastructure and recommendation of individual plugins
    • Option 3: Deprecate PL completely in favor of individual plugins

    Option 3 seems to be the least attractive to those who participated in this week’s discussion, as it introduces more hurdles for discoverability. Performance Team contributor Felix Arntz noted that one benefit of option 1 is the plugin would continue to work as-is for the 30K people who currently have it installed and that option 2 “would require a complex migration that users likely would not understand.”

    WordPress developer Jonny Harris suggested that having each functionality in its own plugin helps with testing but also asked what defines a module.

    “Would the current Site Health checks all be together, for example?” Harris asked. “SQLite and WebP are clearly their own modules, but what about smaller things?”

    Arntz suggested contributors continue the discussion regarding the scope of how the current modules could be distributed as plugins. He suggested every module could become its own plugin where some modules become standalone plugins and others would be grouped together into a few “topic specific” plugins.

    Contributors are discussing the different approaches in more detail on a GitHub issue and will be voting on the best approach. The vote will be open until Friday, January 20, 2023.

  • Awesome Motive Acquires Duplicator Plugin

    Awesome Motive’s product suite of nearly 20 commercial plugins has expanded to include a backup plugin. The company announced its acquisition of Duplicator today, a 12-year-old freemium product with more than 1.5 million users.

    In addition to the backup utility, the plugin enables users to migrate, copy, move, or clone a site from one location to another. Commercial licenses range from $49/year to $299.50/year.

    Snapcreek co-founders Bob Riley and Cory Lamle, creators of Duplicator, will be moving on to pursue other endeavors but the rest of the team will continue to work on the product at Awesome Motive led by John Turner.

    This is the first WordPress business acquisition of 2023, and it’s a major one as 1.5 million users are changing hands to rely on a new company. Users can expect no pricing changes but some have already expressed concern about having to put up with Awesome Motive’s trademark aggressive marketing that litters the WordPress admin with ads and upsells.

    In the co-founders’ farewell post, they assured users that Awesome Motive will continue working on their prior roadmap.

    “We have shared our extensive feature wishlist, and we know that with Awesome Motive’s resources and experience that wishlist will become a reality much faster,” Riley said.

    “As we pass the baton, Cory and I want to say thank you to everyone who has supported us on this journey. We are extremely grateful to be able to play a small part in the amazing WordPress ecosystem.”

  • How To Minimize CPU Usage in WordPress

    There are a few ways you can try to minimize CPU usage in WordPress:

    1. Optimize your website’s code and reduce the number of HTTP requests it makes. This can be done by combining and minifying JavaScript and CSS files, and optimizing images.

    2. Use a caching plugin to cache your website’s pages and posts. This can significantly reduce the load on your server by reducing the number of PHP requests that need to be processed.

    3. Use a content delivery network (CDN) to offload static files, such as images, to a network of servers around the world. This can reduce the load on your server and improve website performance for users.

    4. Optimize your database by regularly cleaning it up and removing unnecessary data.

    5. Use a lightweight theme that is optimized for performance. Avoid using themes with lots of features and unnecessary code.

    6. Limit the number of plugins you use on your website. Each plugin can add additional load to your server, so only use the ones that are absolutely necessary.

    7. Consider upgrading your hosting plan to one with more resources, such as more CPU and memory, if your website is receiving a lot of traffic.

    If you continue to experience high CPU usage, it may be worth considering hiring a WordPress developer to help identify and fix any issues with your website.

  • New CF7 Blocks Plugin Brings Blocks to Contact Form 7

    WordPress developer Munir Kamal has released a new plugin called CF7 Blocks that does exactly what it says in the name. It brings blocks to one of WordPress’ most beloved plugins, which has kept the same familiar interface and has not yet adopted the block editor.

    The Contact Form 7 plugin was created by WordPress developer Takayuki Miyoshi, who has devotedly kept it updated for the past 15 years. His stalwart commitment to keeping it free forever is one of the reasons it has grown to more than 5 million active installs. The developer community has built hundreds of integrations and extensions for CF7 because users found it easy to build forms with its simple interface.

    Contact Form 7 interface

    CF7 users currently edit forms in the plugin’s dedicated interface. The plugin also includes a block, so users can return to the block editor and select a form to embed.

    The new CF7 Blocks plugin makes it possible to edit CF7 forms using WordPress’ default editor, instead of having to mess with shortcodes and HTML. It still has its own dedicated Contact form editing page, except with the ability to customize fields as blocks. New forms will use the block interface and old ones can still be edited using CF7’s default HTML editor.

    CF7 Blocks offers a more intuitive experience with pre-made form templates that will automatically insert the necessary blocks so users don’t have to start from scratch.

    In the block settings, users can easily customize the text of the labels, enter a value for placeholders, toggle the label on or off, mark fields as required, customize dimensions, and more. Fields can easily be dragged and dropped for re-ordering, a feature that is especially useful with lengthier, more complex forms.

    One handy feature is that form fields can easily be transformed into other fields with the click of a button, making it easy to customize a form when the pre-set templates aren’t exactly what is needed.

    In the same tradition of Contact Form 7, CF7 Blocks is available for free in the WordPress plugin directory. The plugin also has its own website where users can subscribe to get updates and find out what’s coming soon. Kamal said users can expect more fields to be added to the plugin in future releases beyond the standard fields that come with Contact Form 7. Design options for visually styling and customizing forms are another feature on the roadmap for CF7 Blocks.

  • How to Backup Your WooCommerce Store

    Backing up your WooCommerce store is important because it allows you to recover your store in the event of data loss or corruption. Here are the steps you can follow to backup your WooCommerce store:

    1. Backup your WordPress database:

    Your WordPress database contains all of your store’s data, including product information, customer information, and order history. You can use a plugin like WP-DB-Backup to create a database backup.

    2. Backup your WordPress files:

    Your WordPress files include your theme, plugins, and media files. You can use a plugin like UpdraftPlus to backup your files.

    3. Store your backups in a safe location:

    It’s important to store your backups in a safe location, such as on a separate hard drive or in the cloud. This way, you’ll be able to access your backups in the event that your server fails.

    4. Schedule regular backups:

    It’s a good idea to set up a schedule for creating backups. This way, you can ensure that your store’s data is regularly backed up and protected.

    I hope this helps!