It's Episode 515 - We have plugins for Blocks, Stopping Spam, Accessibility, Accounting, Scripts..., and ClassicPress Options. It's all coming up on WordPress Plugins A-Z!

Unconstrained Energy

Unconstrained Energy

It's Episode 515 – We have plugins for Blocks, Stopping Spam, Accessibility, Accounting, Scripts…, and ClassicPress Options. It's all coming up on WordPress Plugins A-Z!

Bloksy, A11y Kit, Disable WP Registration Page Spam, I Order Terms, Finpose – Accounting Plugin for WooCommerce, Flying Scripts by WP Speed Matters, Royal Elementor Addons ……. and ClassicPress options on Episode 515.

John's Intro:

We are now at 64 weeks the count goes on there is a plan, life keeps moving forward and the show must go on. Get out your popcorn sit back and enjoy.

With great appreciation for the No Agenda Show for their inspiration of ideas and the occasional stolen sound clip.

This is a value for value show and I look forward to everyone providing some value back.

Before I get started, you will want to hang around to the end of the show for our Q & A segment with Amber…. and to those listening on the podcast, you may want to check out the YouTube version which has some great discussions before the show starts…

Producer Credits:

Show Art:

Angel Lemus — http://www.koadigital.com

All the show notes can be found at: WPPluginsAtoZ.com

Ambers' Rant:

This is #23 of 52 episodes for 2021. Its Episode 515, and summer is well and truly working it's way into our daily lives! No more feeling like a zombie – except on those inevitable cloudy days. Though some of those cloudy days feel like a thunder – lightning storm is going to rear it's head, it never seems to here on the island. I wish we had more thunder – lightning storms here – I remember seeing an amazing one when I was in New Zealand, rolling in over the water. We never get weather like that here… ah well.

Despite us never really getting really cool thunder lightning storms here on the island though, we do get pretty good weather here – and I recommend you get out and take advantage of it while it lasts! Spend some time in the great outdoors with a friend, or even on your own; turn off that media and give yourself a break! No radio, no Internet, just relaxation of the mind and exorcise of the body!

If you can't make it outside for whatever reason, try just opening a window and turning off the media for about an hour every day. Read one of those books you likely got kicking around collecting dust! I'll bet you a beer it helps!

Rinse and repeat as often as needed.

We have some news from the world of WordPress for you today as well as some great plugins.

News this week:

-Anyone out there experience the internet going down this last Tuesday (June 8)? Here's an article as to why almost all of the internet went down on Tuesday. The culprit being pointed to is CDN's (Content Delivery networks and what they are here) supported by Fastly. Things only went down for about an hour, but for companies like Amazon and Dliveroo, that hour was rather costly – and it was disconcerting to the rest of us.
-MaAnna with Tips Tuesday – One of her topics this week caught my attention especially: Internet burning throws off speed testing – here she talks about how due to the worsening cyber security situation is affecting her ability to run the security tests on the various sites she works on.
-What's coming for Elementor in 2021? – many new and exciting things for Elementor! Mega Menu, Kits Library, Page Transitions – plus they are having a sale for their birthday!
-Automattic has announced Block Base as it's new Block Parent Theme –  The theme is based on the classic, block-editor-ready Blank Canvas project that Automattic launched in January. Until recently, this was actually called Blank Canvas Blocks.
-Jetpack deploys a forced update that happened even when your site had specifically turned off auto-updates. I'll bet that caused some issues…
-Nutmeg WordPress Theme – a great theme for a food or recipe blog! They have the free version, and have now released Nutmeg Plus for those interested!
-Original Dark Mode Developer relaunches plugin after the apparent ‘cash grab' of the new owners – it seems that the original developer did NOT like what the new owners did to his plugin. So he made a Dark Mode 2 to replace what was broken.
This is the extra news stuff that someone out there might find interesting. To read more, you can head on over to the show notes or newsletter and check it out! If you find something to add for next show, send me a link at amber@wppro.ca

The extras.

-Cyber Security Outlook for 2021 and Beyond – A great overview of the cyber security attacks that have gained momentum during the first part of 2021, and how things are looking for the second half of the year.
-Open invitation to contribute to the WordPress Block Pattern – If you are interested in adding your two cents, check this out!
-How hackers have manipulated twitters trending algorithm for years – Interesting read, rather enlightening if you are still learning about this stuff like me.
-Beginners guide to creating static sites – great basic ‘how to' for those who are interested in creating static sites, and who are both wanting to understand what they are, and wanting to know how to do it. (They even offer you the option to download the PDF for free so you can save it for later, when you have more time if you are in a wee bit of a rush right now.)
-Unreported Trojan stole up to 1.2 TB of personal data before it was caught. Security experts from NordLocker, along with third-party researchers analyzed 3.25m computers running Windows 10 infected with this. This article has a compilation of what they consider the best malware protections, firewalls, and enpoint protections to look into.
-SurveyMonkey rebrands as Momentive for those of you who use Surveymonkey. They are also planning on taking on Qualtrics in experience management software. This doesn't mean huge change for SurveyMonkey users, though they will be charging per response as Momentive, which appears to be a bit different from what they did beforehand – and they are planning on expanding.
-Looking to change to Linux? Check this article on how to choose the right Linux distribution first.

The hall of shame via Automattic:
transparency.automattic.com/tag/hall-of-shame/

Matt's Famous Quotes
https://www.idrlabs.com/quotes/matt-mullenweg.php

Donor – Support the show

This Show will not work without you, the producers, as it is a Value for Value model, meaning if you're getting any value out of it then give some value back and help the show out.

Start by subscribing to the newsletter for additional information and get out there round them up and rope them all in, belly up to the bar and enjoy. Spread the word about WP Plugins A to Z and catch it live every Thursday at noon PST on my YouTube Channel.

Show Producers

We'd like to acknowledge all the producers who have supported the show in the various ways over the last week.

This weeks show Art Work comes from:

Angel Lemus — http://www.koadigital.com

Check out all out art work at https://wppluginsatoz.com/show-art-submitted/

This week's Executive Producer/'s are:

A big thank you to all the Producers who came in under $50 and to those who have set up weekly subscriptions they will remain anonymous and I thank you very much.

All these small subscriptions really help the show out.

A big thank you to those who have hired me because of the Podcast, thank you that is as good as donating to the show.

You can Support the Show by:

Yes, I am pimping out my daughter here, if you want to see her very pretty mug in the live stream it is now up to a $500 donation and until it happens that price will continue to go up… At the rate it is going she will never be live. Someone may want to start a Go Fund Me to make her mug live.

Donating money to help the show Donations of $50 and over are credited with an Executive Producer Credit in the Show Notes, and their note is read out on the show.
Submitting art work at the WP Plugins Art generator,
Submit articles news and information
Submit plugin suggestions for reviews
You can also create a monthly donation at Patreon
Or something I may not have thought of.

If you would like to send something to WP Plugins A to Z you can send to the following address:

WP Plugins A to Z
C/O John Overall
20-754 E Fairview Rd.
Victoria, BC V9A 5T9
Canada

Off we go into the meat and potatoes, Into the depths of plugin depravity…..

ClassicPress Options

ClassicPress is a fast growing fork of WordPress that is starting to come into its own. ClassicPress is focused on Business Websites, runs fast and is looking pretty good. There are a few plugins specifically for ClassicPress and all plugins for WordPress 4.9.9 work well on it. I do believe it has a future.

One thing I am looking forward to in the ClassicPress World is the expansion of the number of ClassicPress specific plugins and their own repository. Currently there are not a lot of ClassicPress specific plugins but I do know it is going to grow and I'll have to expand this segment then. Who knows, it could take over the whole show.

This week for ClassicPress I have:

General info:

Codepotent leaving the ClassicPress system
https://forums.classicpress.net/t/can-you-adopt-a-code-potent-plugin/3194

ClassicPress Plugins

ClassicPress directory update
https://forums.classicpress.net/t/classicpress-directory-update/3197

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Just a note for my ClassicPress listeners please send me info to help keep the ClassicPress section full.

Random Links to ClassicPress supporters

ClassicPress Resources:

For some up to date news on ClassicPress check out the ClassicPress Blog.

“Must Have” Plugins List
https://forums.classicpress.net/t/must-have-plugins-list/1163

To find a listing of ClassicPress specific plugins check out this link https://forums.classicpress.net/t/plugins-built-specifically-for-classicpress/1011?u=codepotent there is currently 37 42 49 50 52 55 57 58 plugins here and growing. I look forward to the day they have their own repository. I can still recall WP when it had a small repository.

CodePotent's plugin directory
https://codepotent.com/classicpress/plugins/

WordPress Plugins

Are you looking for some great newly released plugins check this link
https://wordpress.org/plugins/browse/new/

John's Plugin

Sent in by Oz Arslan

Finpose – Accounting Plugin for WooCommerce

https://finpose.com
https://codecanyon.net/item/finpose-accounting-and-financial-tracking-for-woocommerce/25270100

What he says:

Finpose is a plugin for WooCommerce that provides all the features you need to cover all the accounting bases of your operation. With Finpose, you’ll be able to track costs, acquisition spending, and expenses. Not to mention you’ll also be able to get an overview of the taxes of your store.

If your e-commerce store is small or medium, Finpose is the right accounting tool for you and it’s one of the best ones you’ll find on the market. Bigger and more complex e-commerce businesses will require something more, such as dedicated accounting software. But for smaller businesses, this plugin will do the trick.

Using Finpose will allow you to access all the financial information you need to stay on top of your accounting tasks. You will be able to track costs, expenses, sales, shipping, taxes, and accounts. You’ll also get full reports and uncover metrics like ROI or AOV, which is extremely useful.

Finpose is integrated with WooCommerce, which means it will automatically retrieve tax data for the sales you make, which you’ll be able to check on the taxes page. It will also retrieve tax data from all your spendings. You’ll receive monthly taxes payable and receivable reports so you can record the taxes you’ve paid. Not to mention the automatic calculations will let you know what your yearly tax balance is.

What I say:

This is a pretty nice plugin once installed. It gives you access to all kinds of reports that you will need for managing your inventory, taxes and money flows. It has pretty readable reports and gives lots of information. You can use it to track expenses and more.

Rating 5 Dragons.

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Amber's Plugin

A11y Kit

https://wordpress.org/plugins/a11y-kit/

Version:1.1.0
Requires:4.9 or higher
Compatible up to:5.8.10
Released:02 June 2021
Downloads:919
Last Updated:03 January 2022
Ratings:
3
(3 star out of 5)

The Lowdown:

Really awesome plugin designed for people with disabilities in mind – though for people who spend a lot of time on the computer, this is equally useful.

This is a CSS thing, you need to add in the CSS class to your menu. If you don't have a menu, and you just turn this plugin on, it makes everything a really pretty purple and black. Looks great – but no useful buttons.

This is designed to give your users the option to do the following:

  • make the font 30x larger
  • change to dark mode
  • have high contrast
  • low or high saturation
  • change font to comic sans or arial
  • space out the letters for easier reading

This is a great set up, each option can be turned on or off through the menu. There is a ‘normal' setting as well.
Very useful, and I think it's a great idea!

Each setting has it's own code that you will need to put into the Menu's CSS. If you want everything, just put it all in. They give you everything you need to get this working properly, and I really like it.

Totally free to use, and it works well!

Rating 5 Dragons

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Charlies's plugin

Bloksy

https://creativethemes.com/blocksy/

Blocksy is one of the best free themes for WordPress. Not only is it lightning fast, which keeps Google happy, but it offers a lot of features that you can normally only find in a paid version of a theme. As a member of the Brizy Community I know how much people love Blocksy as it works fluently with, not only Brizy, but Gutenberg, Elementor and Beaver Builder. The Global colour palette makes full site colour adjustments as simple as a few clicks. The header and footer builder allows you to build creative menus by easy drag and drop. To make building a site even simpler there is a great selection of “usable” starter sites, which are both stylish and professional. The “Pro” version of Blocksy takes your web design to the next level. The header and footer gets even more powerful with multiple conditions, a mega menu and some very useful blocks, such as search box and language switcher. It also brings further enhancements to your WooCommerce store, and lots of special extras like Local Google fonts and their Advanced blog module. I have been so impressed with Blocksy that I am seriously thinking of buying their Agency Lifetime Licence.

Rating 5 Dragons

John's plugin

I Order Terms

https://wordpress.org/plugins/i-order-terms/

Version:1.5.0
Requires:3.5 or higher
Compatible up to:5.2.21
Released:24 December 2013
Downloads:16784
Last Updated:02 July 2019
Ratings:
5
(5 star out of 5)

The Lowdown:

This is a pretty useful plugin that will allow you to create a filter you can place on an archive page that will allow your visitors to sort though the posts by category. It does require some coding be applied and is not simple plugin and play but it can be of great use to those who are doing custom work to a webpage.

Rating 4 Dragons.

——————————–

Amber's plugin

Royal Elementor Addons

https://wordpress.org/plugins/royal-elementor-addons/

Version:1.3.987
Requires:5.0 or higher
Compatible up to:6.6.2
Released:07 June 2021
Downloads:7222537
Last Updated:04 October 2024
Ratings:
4.8
(4.8 star out of 5)

The Lowdown:

This is a brand new plugin, and I think it's pretty awesome! The widgets work amazingly, and the amount you get in the free version is great!

I also really like the settings they give you – you can choose which widgets you want to actually be activated in the settings; say you didn't have WooCommerce on your site, you can turn all of the WooCommerce off. And if you only needed one of the widgets out of the choices, you can turn everything except for the one you need off. You can turn any of them back on whenever you want.

They also give you an option to create your own templates, and make it possible to fill in all information for things like MailChimp in the settings of plugin rather than the page you are working on so that when you go to use the widget in your page making, everything is already in there. The same goes for preferences in designs and patterns for particular widgets.

VERY useful!
If not for the pro version, I would give this a 5!

Rating 4 Dragons

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Charlies's plugin

https://wordpress.org/plugins/flying-scripts/

Version:1.2.3
Requires:4.5 or higher
Compatible up to:6.6.2
Released:06 February 2020
Downloads:202648
Last Updated:26 August 2024
Ratings:
5
(5 star out of 5)

Flying Scripts delay the execution of JavaScript until there is no user activity. You can specify keywords to include JavaScripts to be delayed. There is also a timeout which executes JavaScript when there is no user activity.

Why should I use this plugin?

JavaScript is very resource-heavy. By delaying the execution of non-critical JavaScript (that are not needed for the initial render), you’re prioritizing and giving more resources to critical JavaScript files. This way you will reduce render time, time to interactive, first CPU idle, max Potential input delay etc. This will also reduce initial payload to browsers by reducing the no. of requests.

Rating 5 Dragons

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Random links for plugins

WordPress plugins crafted from love and experience
https://codeat.co/

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This show is brought to you by:

John Overall.com WordPress & Web Services

Finding quality WordPress and ClassicPress hosting and support can be a challenge, well you can drop that stress by contacting JohnOverall.com web services. I can help you eliminate your WordPress stress and ClassicPress needs. Solving your ClassicPress or WordPress Emergency issues or doing the more day to day items such as finding that perfect plugin, helping you move to a new hosting provider or even providing Quality WordPress hosting.

With 20+ yrs Exp. on-line and over 10 years dedicated to WordPress, and ClassicPress from its inception. JohnOverall.com provides all your web service needs from hosting to WordPress and ClassicPress development, repairs and WP Malware Removal.

Visit my website JohnOverall.com, Call 818-850-7729 or send an email to john@wppro.ca

Enter The Contest to Win!!:

Contests Powered by Simple Giveaways who kindly provides us with the premium version for our contests.

Steve Goodtime & Brant Matthews created a new jingle for us for contests.

I do want to thank Charlie for coming to the aid of the show and getting our contests all organized. I also want to thank all the developers again for supporting our show with their plugin donations! Please check them out.

Short note about participating in the contests folks. Remember we go to great efforts to get these licenses and look for more participation from you the producers.

Welcome back to our contests!
Our newest giveaway to enter is for one of three lifetime licenses for Blocksy!

Blocksy is a blazing fast and lightweight WordPress theme built with the latest web technologies. It was built with the Gutenberg editor in mind and has a lot of options that makes it extendable and customizable. You can easily create any type of website, such as business agency, shop, corporate, education, restaurant, blog, portfolio, landing page and so on. It works like a charm with popular WordPress page builders, including Elementor, Beaver Builder, Visual Composer and Brizy.

For this contest, creativethemeshq, the creators of Blocksy, have generously donated three lifetime versions of Blocksy for you to enter to win!!

1st Place – Agency Lifetime, valued at $299 with unlimited licenses
2nd Place – Professional Lifetime, valued at $199 with 5 sites license
3rd Place – Personal Lifetime, valued at $149 with 1 site license

The Pro version has so many added features and abilities you have to check out with more on the way! Features such as:

  • Custom code snippits
  • Several font options
  • Header and footer functions
  • WooCommerce features such as
    • Single product layout
    • Gallery slider
    • Quick view mode

And more on the way!

This contest will be open to enter starting June 10th. Check out our contest page then for all the details and to enter for your chance to win!!

Visit http://WPPluginsAtoZ.com/contests for more info.

For all developers who would like to support the show. You can donate a premium license to be used in a future contest, please go to WPPluginsAtoZ.com/PluginContest

The plugins we covered were:

John’s Plugins: Finpose – Accounting Plugin for WooCommerce – 5
Amber's Plugins: Royal Elementor Addons – 4, A11y Kit – 5
Charlie's Plugins: Bloksy – 4, Flying Scripts by WP Speed Matters – 5

Matt's Famous Quotes
https://www.idrlabs.com/quotes/matt-mullenweg.php

Reminders / Commercial / Promotions:

Next Week:

No meetup planned at the moment but you can keep tabs on this at https://wppluginsatoz.com/meetup

If you're not getting enough of us, you can join us for the new Podcast and Live Stream of The Rogues Tavern **Shooting the Shit at The Rogues Tavern** Tuesday evening's at 8 pm PDT, check us out there TheRoguesTavern.com/live

Would you like to be on an interview show? Simply connect at https://wppluginsatoz.com/interview

If you have suggestions on plugins you would like to have reviewed please submit them on the website at https://wppluginsatoz.com/submit-plugin-review/

****Q & A Time with Amber ——– Catch this info on our YouTube Channel*****

Questions and Answers –

*** Note if you have questions you would like asked, send them to Amber at WPPro.ca she will get them into this segment. ****

Going to ask your opinions about some things today.

  • What do you think is going on with the uptake in cyber security issues we have been seeing?
  • On Tuesday, we lost a lot of the Internet. This was due to CDN's (Content Delivery Networks) supported by Fastly. It appears to have been a malfunction within their own system as they solved it within an hour – Do you think due to the amount of people trying to access these sites these days has anything to do with the issue?
  • I've noticed a lot of problems over the past few months with things on the ‘net. Things like debit machines, my own Internet at home. What's on my mind here is a mixture of too many people trying to use the Internet at the same time, hackers attacking the providers and causing the bandwidth to be taken up fighting them rather than allowing it to supply the customers. Am I at all on the right track with these thoughts?

Closing out this Episode

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