Total Theme v 5.8

Release Date: May 28, 2023
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View Release Notes

🔥 WPBakery Slim Mode 🔥

There is a new Theme Panel option named "WPBakery Slim Mode" which can be enabled to remove redundant or what we consider to be "useless" elements from WPBakery, hide dynamic elements when editing standard posts/pages and remove the WPBakery Grid Builder post type. When enabled the theme will also remove the default WPBakery js_composer.min.css file and load a custom CSS file with only the core CSS needed (about 94% smaller).

This functionality can also be selectively enabled/disabled via the "totaltheme\integration\wpbakery\slim_mode\is_enabled" filter. For example if there is a specific element you were using but it's only on one or a few pages you can use the filter to disable slim mode on those pages.

Please keep in mind that this is technically a micro-optimization so you don't have to go around and try updating all your sites to use this new setting. But if you do enable it on an existing site you will need to browse around to make sure your site wasn't using any of the removed elements.

  • Added New WPBakery “Slim Mode” option added to the Theme Panel.
  • Added New Option added to the Dynamic Templates to select a template type for organization (Part, Header, Footer, Single, Archive, Search Results, Error 404). Tagging your dynamic templates makes it easier when selecting templates in the Customizer, Header Builder, Footer Builder or Post Types Unlimited because the fields will display templates based on the setting instead of all templates, but it’s 100% optional. Support for bulk/quick editing your template type has been added to make the process easier!
  • Added New “Template Part” element for inserting dynamic templates marked as “Parts” into pages.
  • Added Top bar added to the admin Theme Panel sub pages to make it more obvious when you are on a Total admin page and moved page descriptions into the “help” tab so they aren’t always visible.
  • Added “Help” tab to the Theme Panel page with useful links to the docs, changelog, themeforest, etc.
  • Added New 14 “Overlay” card styles added.
  • Added New Customizer tab at Global Styles > Preset Font Sizes where you can change the default theme utility font sizes (sm, md, lg, xl, 2xl…etc) which are used in the theme design but can also be applied in the page builder this way if you use the preset font sizes across the site you can control them globally rather then using fixed sizes across your builder elements.
  • Added New “Steps” element added for use with WPBakery.
  • Added New “Tribe Events Data” element which can be used to display event data such as start date, end date, formatted date, event cost, location, etc.
  • Added New Customizer option added under Header > Logo for adding a custom logo link if you want your logo to go somewhere different then the homepage.
  • Added New Customizer option added to Global Styles > Other to control the default bottom margin for p tags.
  • Added You can now link to the current post author archive via the Theme Button element.
  • Added New dynamic variable added – {{card_running_count}} – which can be used to display the current card number.
  • Added Code has been added to fix layout issues with the multisite wp-activate.php and wp-signup.php templates and to fix issues with WPBakery shortcodes not loading on these pages.
  • Added New “Query Type” options added to the Post Cards element: Related by Taxonomy, Posts by Author or Current Staff Member, Custom Field, WooCommerce Related and WooCommerce Upsells.
  • Added You can now display posts via the Post Cards element that have been assigned via the ACF Post Object or Relationship fields using the new Custom Field Query Type.
  • Added You can now display related posts via the Post Cards without having to create your own query string, simply select the Related by Taxonomy Query Type then select the post type and taxonomy to pull related items from.
  • Added The Bottom Margin option has been added the to the Flex Container and Grid Container elements for consistency.
  • Added Options added to the Toggle Group element to remove the first top border and last bottom border.
  • Added Options added to the Icon Box, Teaser Box and Feature Box elements so you can toggle lazy loading on/off for the image as well as select a custom fetch priority.
  • Added New Blog 22 and Blog List 22 card styles.
  • Added New “Image Cover” option added to the Image Banner element which can be used to stretch the image when adding a Minimum Height to the Image Banner and enabling the “Use Image Tag” option.
  • Added New Option added to the “Image Banner” so you can now apply the link to the button only and not the whole element.
  • Added New Option added to the “Custom Field” element to automatically add P tags to the output.
  • Added New Customizer options added to the Header > Mobile Menu tab so you can choose between the default angle style icon or a plus/minus icon for the dropdown toggle icon and set a custom size for it.
  • Added New “Image Hover Speed” option added to the Post Cards element.
  • Added New “Height” option added to the Image element which can be useful when creating custom cards to set your images to a fixed height regardless of their dimensions/cropping.
  • Added More styling options added to the Contact Form element.
  • Added New theme.json file added to control Gutenberg styles rather then having to add them via style.css.
  • Added New option added to define your video “Poster Image” when assigning self hosted video backgrounds.
  • Added New Customizer option added to enable a “Slide Down” animation for the header search replace.
  • Added When Selecting a dynamic template in the customizer the theme will display a notice if the template is blank. Previously the theme would fallback to the default theme template which could cause some confusion.
  • Added New options added to the Search Bar element for adding an aria label and enabling the role=”search” attribute.
  • Updated WPBakery Page Builder & Slider Revolution plugins.
  • Updated Various code updated to take advantage of newer PHP 8.0 functions and fully qualified function calls.
  • Updated PHP version requirement to 7.4 to be consistent with WordPress.
  • Updated The WPBakery Template widget has been renamed to “Template” as you can now select Dynamic Templates and render Elementor based templates.
  • Updated You can now enter a custom font size for the Post Cards title font size option.
  • Updated Images displayed via the theme’s on-the-fly cropping now include the decoding=”async” attribute to be consistent with WordPress thumbnails to help speed up the site.
  • Updated You can now select dynamic templates for the Custom 404 page as well as set the page layout and enable/disable the page header title.
  • Updated The Heading element has been updated to include a “Link Type” setting so you have greater control over the heading link.
  • Updated The List Item, Font Icon & Heading elements have been updated to include an “Alternative Character” option for the icon in case you want to display a custom character or icon via a shortcode or dymamic variable.
  • Updated You can now use the Shortcode element inside the Flex & Grid containers.
  • Updated You can now select a link type ACF custom field for the theme button text field.
  • Updated You can now select “Custom Field” or “Featured Image” for the Image Source field in the Icon Box element.
  • Updated When using the Icon Box element and showing an image with the “Resize Image” option disabled you can now select the “Image Fit” style (None or Cover).
  • Updated The Post Cards element has been updated so when linking to a lightbox image or modal dialog the links added to the cards will include a role=”button” and an aria-label=”” attribute to alert screen readers for better accessibility.
  • Updated The Lighbox dialog now includes an aria-label attribute for accessibility reasons.
  • Updated The javascript used for the Menu Widget accordion is now loaded in its own file and only if needed.
  • Updated The back to top and local scroll links have been updated to change “focus” on click to prevent accessibility issues.
  • Updated Improved the javascript for the Header Min-Max font size option.
  • Updated When using the Redirection option for terms (categories, tags, custom taxonomies) the theme now hooks into the “term_link” filter to modify the links on the front-end to swap the default url for the redirected one. This way links will go straight to the custom redirection rather than running a 301 redirect.
  • Updated The [polylang_switcher] shortcode has been updated to use theme utility classes and now uses flex styles instead of floats.
  • Updated The Button element will no longer fallback to a # symbol for the href. If there isn’t a defined link the button will simply not show anymore. This is to prevent issues when using the button with dynamic links.
  • Updated Theme element “Callback Function” fields now display a select dropdown to select from your whitelisted callback functions so you don’t have to remember them.
  • Updated Users with the editor role can now access dynamic templates and custom cards via the “Tools” admin panel tab (these can’t be added under a Theme Panel tab because WordPress will block access to the cpt).
  • Updated You can now use min() and max() CSS functions when entering custom font sizes for theme elements.
  • Updated Renamed the “Section Templates” to “Patterns” to be consistent with WordPress naming convensions.
  • Updated Tweaked the design a bit for the Customizer unit selector so it’s easier to see (the little “px” select that shows up on certain fields).
  • Updated Renamed the “Font Icon” element to just “Icon” and updated the Custom Size option to allow you to enter responsive sizes.
  • Updated The Header Aside fields have been updated to support dynamic variables.
  • Updated The CSS used to target the “pre” tag has been updated so that it does not affect the Gutenberg “Verse” block.
  • Updated The Contact Form element has been updated so that the Custom Subject field allows for dynamic variables.
  • Updated The “Header Replace” search style has been modified so it now works with the Transparent Header.
  • Updated When enabling animations for your header menu dropdowns the animation will now also be added to the search and cart dropdowns for consistency.
  • Updated The “Auto Lightbox” function has been updated to work with webP image formats.
  • Updated When using the UberMenu plugin if a menu is registered to the header menu the theme will automatically disable the theme’s mobile menu so it can display the UberMenu mobile menu and hide the Customizer menu settings.
  • Updated The “Header Aside” field in the Customizer now accepts Gutenberg block code.
  • Updated The Custom Actions Panel will now parse blocks if you wanted to insert Gutenberg content.
  • Updated The Button typography settings now correctly target Gutenberg buttons as well.
  • Updated Italian translations thanks to Manuele from brainybyte.it
  • Fixed The Button element was not parsing dynamic values for the URL field.
  • Fixed Not being able to change your blog columns when selecting a custom card style in the Customizer for the blog.
  • Fixed When using the centered header logo the logo was showing in the mobile menu when loading the site in a desktop then shrinking the browser width to mobile size.
  • Fixed The https://totalwptheme.com/docs/changelog/5-8-0/ shortcode was returning the post title instead.
  • Fixed When selecting a custom card on a per category/tag basis for WooCommerce the option wasn’t working.
  • Fixed The CSS used for the WPBakery stretched rows was not taking into consideration the site “Frame Border” when enabled via the Customizer.
  • Fixed The Product 2 Card style was not property closing the link element and could cause weird layout issues.
  • Fixed The “Text Width” option in the Image Banner element was not working correctly when the “Use Image Tag” option was  enabled.
  • Fixed The Border Color option was not working for the Icon Box element when selecting the “Top Icon with Outline” style.
  • Fixed Various theme and total theme core functions were updated for PHP 8.2 to fix deprecated notices.
  • Fixed The Custom Field element was not parsing shortcodes inserted in the custom field.
  • Fixed Custom Access functions were not showing up in the WPBakery page builder when editing sections and rows.
  • Fixed There were some layout issues when using the “Inner Column Gap” option on rows and then adding inner rows.
  • Fixed When using preset card styles with a link around the whole card and enabling videos it would cause the card layout to break.
  • Fixed The Shortcode element was not parsing dynamic variables.
  • Fixed The minimum width option was not working when using Superfish dropdowns for the header menu dropdowns.
  • Fixed The Contact Form element was displaying the word “undefined” for the email subject when a custom subject was not added to the element.
  • Fixed The CSS stretched rows for WPBakery were not working correctly when used with the Header & Footer Builder when the page had a sidebar.
  • Fixed When enabling “Show in Rest” for the theme’s Portfolio, Staff and Testimonial post types it was not allowing you to set the category or tag when editing a post.
  • Fixed Disabling the “Enable Single Post?” option under the Testimonials settings was not working.
  • Fixed Dynamic Templates were not rendering property when using Elementor as your page builder.
  • Fixed When adding the Post Cards element to a dynamic template with the “Auto Query” type selected while using Elementor the element was not showing any sample posts.
  • Fixed When selecting a custom template for the Post Cards modal link if the template was created with Elementor it was not rendering correctly.
  • Fixed When using sliders inside Toggle elements the sliders were not properly rendered.
  • Removed The top bar social links no longer include the title attribute because it causes a “Redundant title text” error when testing for accessibility.
  • Removed The option under Theme Panel > Custom 404 to redirect all 404 errors to the homepage has been removed. This was a popular thing to do in the past but its no longer recommend and actually a bad idea for SEO reasons.
  • Removed The “dashes” added to the mobile menu sub-items has been removed for a cleaner more modern look.

Changes

  • Added - New CSS variables added for the image hover styles so you can modify things without having to override theme styles.
  • Added - New responsive utility classes for left/right auto margins added.
  • Added - New "wpex-print-hidden" classname that can be used to hide any element from printing and updated the theme to use this new class instead of targeting elements with CSS.
  • Added - New hook "totaltheme/theme_builder/do_{$location}" makes it possible to override any theme area with custom content as an alternative to using the older wpex_{$location}_template_id filter which required returning a template ID.
  • Added - A new custom event has been added named "vcexAfterAjaxSuccess" which is triggered on the window object whenever a successful ajax filter is rendered.
  • Added - New "Update URI" header tag added to the style.css file which was introduced in WP 6.1 to prevent WordPress from checking WordPress.org for theme updates.
  • Updated - The WPEX_Card class now stores the current class object so it can be accessed publicly via WPEX_Card::instance()
  • Added - New utility classes added for use with creating hover affects on cards wpex-card-hover-reveal, wpex-card-hover-reveal--up, wpex-card-hover-reveal--down, wpex-card-hover-reveal--left, wpex-card-hover-reveal--right
  • Added - 60px spacing has been added to the utility classes for margins/paddings.
  • Updated - Various elements that support local scroll links have been updated so if the user didn't add a # symbol it will be added for them.
  • Updated - The heading and list item elements were updated to make use of newer methods for adding inline styles.
  • Updated - Added new classes to heading elements (vcex-heading-icon, vcex-heading-side-border)
  • Updated - The Custom Field element now uses the get_field function rather than the acf shortcode to get the field value which is faster and prevents issues with ajax.
  • Updated - As an extra precaution the theme's shortcodes will not be registered if the website is currently running an ajax request and the "parse-media-shortcode" action.
  • Updated - The Theme Button element has been updated to use the vcex_get_shortcode_onclick_attributes() function so that the link functionality is consistent with other elements such as the Image, Heading and Icon Box. This also removes the need for a "Lightbox" tab when adding lightbox images and slims things down.
  • Updated - When using the keyboard to close lightbox elements the theme will return the focus to the trigger to prevent accessibility issues.
  • Updated - The Navigation Bar element has been updated to hide the alignment option when using the expanded or spaced out layouts to prevent issues/confusion.
  • Updated - Sanitization functions for Total elements inline CSS has been optimized to use newer PHP 8.0 str_ends_with() and str_starts_with() functions instead of strpos().
  • Updated - Optimized the Image Banner element to remove the custom z-index values and changed how the link is added so it's positioned absolutely allowing easier control over the inner elements and slimmer code.
  • Updated - Elements that have options to apply a link to the whole container (feature box, icon box, etc) used to add the link around the element which caused extra bloat - the theme will now turn the element itself into a link to slim down the HTML and prevent extra checks. This also makes it easier to apply custom CSS tweaks to these elements.
  • Updated - The Icon Box has been updated to use auto margins for the Alignment option when entering a custom Max Width rather than floats which slims down the code and prevents the need for clearing floats.
  • Updated - Theme elements that support a taxonomy field have been updated so when editing the element via WPBakery it will display a dropdown of taxonomies rather than making you search for the taxonomy you want to use.
  • Updated - Updating namespaced files to use fully-qualified function calls.
  • Updated - The Animated Text element now adds an inner span always and it has the classname "vcex-typed-text-inner".
  • Updated - Added unique classnames to the before spans of the Animated Text element.
  • Updated - Various CSS has been optimized to use the newer :where() and :is() pseudo classes to slim things down.
  • Updated - Various elements (video backgrounds, parallax backgrounds, modern menu widget, etc) have been updated to use utility classes to slim down the CSS - this is part of a long ongoing process.
  • Updated - The CSS utility classes used to target the padding and margin (all sides) have been separated from the CSS used to target individual sides this way you can apply a padding or margin to the whole element then reset it for a specific side if wanted. For example you can now do "wpex-m-30 wpex-ml-0" so it will add a 30px margin to the whole element and then remove it from the left side.
  • Updated - Video and Audio elements will no longer display in cards for password protected posts.
  • Updated - Shadow utility classes are now responsive.
  • Updated - The theme now adds the classname "wpex-card-featured" to the featured card so it's easier to target with CSS.
  • Updated - Renamed the vcex_image_before_after.php template file to vcex_image_ba.php to keep consistency and prevent added checks.
  • Updated - The hr element has been updated to use a background and 1px height instead of a border for the design to make it easier to style for Gutenberg without added CSS.
  • Updated - More elements have been updated to use theme utility classes instead of their own CSS.
  • Updated - Elements with the classname "wpex-menu-extra" will now be excluded when generating the mobile menus rather then hidden with CSS to prevent extra bloat.
  • Updated - The dropdown toggle for mobile menu sub-items has been moved into a span outside of the link element to prevent accessibility issues.
  • Updated - Custom Actions will now parse dynamic variables.
  • Updated - The "Header Replace" search form has been moved from the "wpex_hook_header_inner" hook to the "wpex_hook_header_bottom" hook so it can work with the transparent header and to allow for some customizations not previously possible while boxed in.
  • Updated - The "Header Replace" searchform styles have been updated to use a flex container for positioning the close button instead of absolute position which slims down the CSS a bit and allows for easier modifications.
  • Updated - Lowered the z-index for the overlay-header class to prevent issues when trying to edit rows in the WPBakery front-end editor that are directly under the header.
  • Updated - The theme now adds the classname "header-search-is-open" when opening the header search (dropdown, replace or overlay) so you can target other elements with CSS if needed.
  • Updated - Optimized the code used to change focus on mobile menus and header search to prevent the focus outlines from showing in Safari.
  • Updated - Added unique classnames to the social share buttons for easier targeting with Google Tag Manager.
  • Updated - The "total.min.js" file has been renamed to "core.min.js"
  • Updated - The theme no longer targets the generic "button" element with CSS as that was causing some conflicts with Gutenberg and 3rd party plugins - the theme now targets only buttons with the submit and reset types using the modern :where pseudo-class - this also allows for the use of theme CSS utility classes with buttons and slimmer CSS for button resets.
  • Updated - The Hidden overflows applied to the html, body and outer-wrap elements has been modified to check for overflow:clip; support so if the browser supports it it will use clip instead of hidden. This is to allow for CSS sticky to work in modern browsers.
  • Updated - The "wpex-unstyled-button" utility class has been updated because it no longer needs to target the button element. This makes the CSS less specific which allows the use of other utility classes together with this class without conflicts.
  • Updated - When enabling the product search for the theme's header search function the theme used to call the WooCommerce get_product_search_form() function the theme no longer does this for consistency and instead modifies the searchform.php file accordingly.
  • Updated - The way links are added to the Icon Box heading has been updated to match the Teaser element for consistency and to slim down CSS.
  • Updated - The Newsletter & Search Bar elements have been updated so they take on the default input styling as defined in the Customizer for consistency.
  • Fixed - When using the Post Cards load more button for the pagination if you were not scrolled down the page would potentially "jump".
  • Fixed - Debug warnings when enabling accordion style tabs for WooCommerce have been fixed.
  • Fixed - The code for the header menu search form was being added to the source code even if it was disabled.
  • Fixed - Fixed design issues with the WooCommerce Filter by Rating widget.
  • Removed - The lighter background added to sub-menu dropdowns in the mobile menu has been removed for a cleaner look.
  • Removed - The "wpex_singular_template_supported_post_types" filter has been deprecated.
  • Removed - The "wpex_vc_remove_elements" filter has been deprecated.

New Hooks

totaltheme/theme_builder/do_{$location}totaltheme/page/header/is_enabledtotaltheme/page/header/breakpointtotaltheme/page/header/styletotaltheme/page/header/has_titletotaltheme/page/header/has_subheadingtotaltheme/page/header/subheadingtotaltheme/header/menu/is_enabledtotaltheme/header/menu/is_customtotaltheme/integration/wpbakery/slim_mode\is_enabledtotaltheme/integration/gutenberg/remove_core_styles/enabledtotaltheme/integration/wpbakery/video_backgrounds/video_attributestotalthemecore/dynamic_templates/template_typestotaltheme/integration/wpbakery/full_width/is_enabledtotaltheme/integrations/{$integration}/is_enabled
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