{"id":3167,"date":"2018-04-23T18:00:03","date_gmt":"2018-04-23T10:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/slc4u.org\/learning\/?p=3167"},"modified":"2018-04-23T18:00:03","modified_gmt":"2018-04-23T10:00:03","slug":"learning-to-work-with-wordpress-plugins-add-ons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/slc4u.org\/wp-new\/2018\/04\/23\/learning-to-work-with-wordpress-plugins-add-ons\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning to work with WordPress plugins & add-ons"},"content":{"rendered":"

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When this blog was hosted under WordPress.com with a domain name registration using the \u201cfree hosting\u201d package (which is no longer available to new registrants), the decision to update plugins was not provided to subscribers. WordPress.com takes the responsibility to update\/upgrade plugins and solves any technical issues that might appear. All themes and plugins offered under WordPress.com are \u201ctried and tested\u201d. <\/span><\/p>\n

This makes life relatively easy for the subscribers, with one big major drawback. The themes and plugins available under the \u201cfree hosting\u201d being pathetically few in numbers and provide only a plain, \u201cvanilla\u201d version of WordPress. <\/span><\/p>\n

[In fact, the \u201cfree hosting\u201d \u00a0is not really free if you want to use your own domain e.g. theplantcloner.com<\/a> as you have to pay for the registration of the domain as well as the \u201credirection\u201d of the \u201cfree hosted\u201d site to your domain name. This came to US$18 for my package, unfortunately, this package is no longer available.]<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

If you want features, you got to pay a lot more!<\/span><\/h3>\n

Only if you pay for the \u201cBusiness\u201d package (at US$25 per month) then you can install any plugin (I think these have to be pre-verified by WordPress.com as well). The other \u201ccheaper\u201d packages; \u201cPremium\u201d at US$8 per month and \u201cPersonal\u201d at US$4 per month only give you a better selection of themes.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Image Source: https:\/\/https:\/\/wordpress.com\/pricing\/<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thus it was not surprising that when I gained more confidence in working with the WordPress software I found the limitations of my \u201cfree hosting\u201d package not something I could live with. Hence the consolidation and relocation of this blog to a \u201cself-hosted\u201d WordPress site in Mar 2018. WordPress (under WordPress.org) is offered as an open source software.<\/span><\/p>\n

Plugins galore but which are the most suitable?<\/span><\/h3>\n

I installed a lot of plugins and test-run many more before settling with a core number of around 30 plus plugins. The most useful, as far as the design and customization of the look-and-feel of my site was concern were the page builder plugins. There are many different \u201cbrands\u201d of page builders. After trying and testing a few major page builders (you can identify these as \u201cmajor\u201d plugins by the number of downloads and reviews shown), I had settled down for the free version of Elementor<\/a>. The reason was clear, other page builders (the free versions) might have more features and had downloaded more often, with better reviews, Elementor was the easiest to use.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Add-on” plugins are specially designed to expand the functionalities of the core features of page builders, some are specific for a brand of page builder, such as Elementor while some may be meant for another page builder brand, but some of its features may be compatible with Elementor. \u00a0I applied a few features, called \u201celements\u201d from these \u201cadd-ons\u201d to make my website and blog look more aesthetically pleasant. Page builders like Elementor also add a lot more functionalities at my disposal.<\/span><\/p>\n

Should I update the plugins?<\/span><\/h3>\n

When you self-host your website using WordPress, you will have to decide if you need to update your plugins and themes (as well as the core WordPress software) when these are available. Generally, the WordPress software itself will highlight which plugins need to be updated. You can also check the relevant plugin page under WordPress.org (right inside your WordPress software) for compatibility.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thus for \u201cstandalone\u201d plugins, I think if you go by the compatibility indicator, you are pretty safe in installing the update in most cases. However, if you have \u201cadd-ons\u201d to a key plugin such as Elementor, the end result may be very troubling, as I found out.<\/span><\/p>\n

Where is my Post Carousel? Where is my Modal Box?<\/span><\/h3>\n

I had installed three \u201cadd-ons\u201d for page builder, two of which were specifically meant for Elementor while the third, \u201cWidgets Bundle for Siteorigin<\/a>\u201d was meant for another page builder named Siteorigin<\/a>. Somehow the widgets from \u201cWidget Bundle\u201c worked well with Elementor as well as the native WordPress editor. <\/span><\/p>\n

The attractiveness of \u201cWidget Bundle\u201d was that many of its elements were installed as widgets. Widgets are small additional features that you can apply to almost anywhere in your website whereas most of the page builder\u2019s add-on features are only available within the confine of the plugin. Thus if you are not editing a post or a page using the page builder\u2019s interface, these additional features are not available.<\/span><\/p>\n

One particular widget, \u201cPost Carousel\u201d from \u201cWidget Bundle\u201d was very useful. It allowed me to put a random selection of my blog posts in a carousel at the front page of my website. However, one day, after doing the routine updating of plugins, I discovered to my horror that \u201cPost Carousel\u201d was missing from my front page. Mysteriously, \u201cWidget Bundle for Siteorigin\u201d too was missing from my list of plugins! I tried to re-install \u201cWidget Bundle\u201d but was informed that the folder for it was already in the system! I had to search, test and re-configure another, standalone plugin to return Post Carousel to my front page. But this plugin was not as features-rich as the one from “Widget Bundle”.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then the next shock came just a day before this piece was written. The Modal Box which came via \u201cPremium Addons for Elementor<\/a>\u201d went missing from my front page! A Modal Box is a box (text & image) that pops up when a page is loaded. I used it to welcome and inform my readers redirected from theplantcloner.com of how to find old articles. I resorted to using the \u201cAlert\u201d element, native to Elementor to replace the Modal Box. But \u201cAlert\u201d does not pop up when visitors come to the front page. \u201cAlert\u201d also does not come as a widget which would have allowed me to insert it near the top of the front page. Instead, I had to contend with putting the \u201cAlert\u201d box right at the bottom of the page (due to the design of my theme). Hardly an ideal location to carry a welcome message!<\/span><\/p>\n

Lessons learned \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n
    \n
  1. Not all updates bring better utility and functionality to your WordPress software.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. If you install \u201cadd-ons\u201d to a popular plugin, you will need to be aware of incompatibility of these add-ons upon an update of the core plugin.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. It is better to look for a standalone plugin (e.g. Post Carousel) to do what you want than to use a widget from one of the \u201cadd-ons\u201d.<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Elements from add-ons that are compatible with the core page builder such as Elementor at installation may be rendered useless upon upgrading (e.g \u201cWidget Bundles for Siteorigin\u201d was fully compatible with Elementor but when the latter was updated, problems arose!).<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. It is better to live with the native elements from a page builder.<\/span><\/li>\n
  6. You must check your website regularly to spot missing content due to plugin issues.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Due consideration must be given when applying plugins to WordPress software, especially when a plugin is an “add-on” to a core plugin for a page builder. Incompatibility after an update may render elements of an “add-on” not functioning & thus losing your content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[10,86,169,344,482,543],"class_list":["post-3167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-learning","tag-add-ons","tag-compatibility","tag-free-hosting","tag-plugins","tag-themes","tag-wordpress"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/slc4u.org\/wp-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/slc4u.org\/wp-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/slc4u.org\/wp-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slc4u.org\/wp-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slc4u.org\/wp-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/slc4u.org\/wp-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slc4u.org\/wp-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/slc4u.org\/wp-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slc4u.org\/wp-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/slc4u.org\/wp-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}