Day: August 26, 2020 | The Blog Pros

August 26, 2020

Atomic Blocks Rebranded to Genesis Blocks, Migration Path to New Plugin Coming Soon

StudioPress, which was acquired by WP Engine in 2018, is rebranding its popular Atomic Blocks plugin to Genesis Blocks. WP Engine also acquired Atomic Blocks in 2018, growing the plugin’s user base from 3,000 active installs to more than 60,000 over the past two years. The purpose of rebranding is to more tightly align the block collection with the Genesis brand.

“We decided to elevate the Genesis brand to be the parent brand for all of our block and theme products moving forward,” WP Engine VP of web strategy David Vogelpohl said. “While we could have changed the title of the Atomic Blocks plugin, we wanted the slug to represent the Genesis brand so we decided to create a new plugin to achieve that outcome.”

Unfortunately, in order to get the preferred slug for the plugin, WP Engine has to create a new plugin, instead of renaming the existing one. The company is creating a migration tool to move the plugin’s 60k users over to Genesis Blocks.

“Based on initial prototypes, the migration path will be automated for most users of the plugin,” Vogelpohl said. “We believe that migration technology will be available at the end of our next two-week sprint (starting next week), but we aren’t able to commit to a date until more work has been completed.”

The new Genesis Blocks plugin will now be explicitly developed in support of StudioPress themes and the Genesis Pro package. This doesn’t mean the blocks cannot be used with other themes. Rather, it’s more clear to users that the collection is designed to look best with WP Engine’s products.

Genesis Blocks contains the same 22 free blocks found in its predecessor but can be upgraded via a Genesis Pro subscription to add more blocks, full page layouts, and pre-built sections. The subscription also includes access to advanced block-level user permissions as well as support for the Genesis Framework and its commercial child themes.

Moving forward, all new features will be added to the new Genesis Blocks plugin, while support for Atomic Blocks gets scaled back to security releases and updates necessary for compatibility with WordPress.

“In time, it will be deprecated, but only after enough users have migrated over,” Vogelpohl said. “We don’t have a date for that yet and any future decisions will be based on the percentage of people who have migrated and the effects of that decision on the users who have not migrated at that time. It’s important for us to make decisions that are respectful of the users of any of our products and the sites they manage. We will clearly communicate future plans and dates for deprecation, but for now, users of Atomic Blocks will have plenty of time to migrate. We will continue to update Atomic Blocks for security releases and functionality relative to updates in WordPress until the plugin is officially wound down.”

When WP Engine acquired StudioPress and the Genesis Framework, the company said it planned to integrate it tightly into the the WP Engine Digital Experience Platform so it performs better there than anywhere else. It’s an interesting trend among WordPress hosting companies, similar to GoDaddy’s acquisition of CoBlocks and Themebeans, where the company is gradually refining its product acquisitions to provide its own flavor or “experience” of WordPress.

WP Engine also plans to rebrand the Block Lab plugin as Genesis Custom Blocks. The plugin will also have a similar migration path for its 8,000 active installs. WP Engine’s goal with the rebranding effort is to make page building with the block editor more streamlined, as well as an extension of its current product lines.

“Genesis Blocks will play a big role in how we deliver value under Full Site Editing in the future, so this is the first step in helping the Genesis community and anyone in WordPress build better sites faster with the block editor,” Vogelpohl said.

August 26, 2020

GrammaTech Launches Tool for API Usage Error Detection

GrammaTech, a provider of software application security testing solutions, today announced it has released Swap Detector an open-source checker that detects API usage errors. The tool, developed as part of a research project sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) Static Tool Analysis Modernization Project (STAMP), improves application security testing for DevOps.

August 26, 2020

How to Send HTML Emails with Gmail

This tutorial describes how you can easily send HTML emails in Gmail without using any extensions. You can format your Gmail messages to include tables, buttons, custom fonts, social media icons, wrap images around text, and more. A little knowledge of HTML and CSS will come handy but it is not a pre-requisite.

The built-in WYSIWYG editor of Gmail offers basic formatting options - you can make text bold, create lists, change font colors - but that’s pretty much it. There’s no option to insert custom HTML into the message body that is required to send rich emails though Gmail.

Write HTML Emails Directly in Gmail

Let’s start with some basic examples and then we move on to more advanced example where you’ll learn how to send email newsletters that were created separately inside MailChimp.

Insert Buttons in Gmail

This HTML snippet creates a beautiful call-to-action button with a blue background, slightly rounded edges and rendered in the popular Roboto font.

<a
  href="https://digitalinspiration.com/"
  style="background-color:#1a73e8; padding:10px 20px;
         color: white; text-decoration:none; font-size:15px;
         font-family:Roboto,sans-serif; border-radius:5px;
         display:block; margin:20px 0; width: 120px"
  >Explore our work
</a>

We cannot copy-paste this HTML directly into the email editor of Gmail but with the magic of Chrome Dev Tools, we can. Let’s see how:

Open gmail.com and compose a new email message. Add an emoji in the message body to be replaced with the HTML button. Right-click the emoji in the Gmail editor and choose Inspect.

This opens the Developer tools in the bottom half of the browser. Select the <img> tag that contains the emoji, right-click and choose Editor HTML. Replace the selected content with the button HTML and click anywhere outside the dev tools window.

You’ll now see a beautiful HTML button rendered in your email message with all the CSS styles and formatting. Watch the video for a more detailed tutorial.

Insert HTML Tables in Gmail

In the next example, we will embed an HTML table in the Gmail editor. Unlike our button above that had all styles inlined, the CSS of the table is contained in a separate stylesheet.

Therefore, prior to pasting the pasting the table HTML into Gmail, we need to “inline” the styles else the formatting will be ignored by Gmail. This can be easily done through Juice - simply paste the HTML and CSS in the input box and it will inline all the CSS styles in the HTML tags that is compatible with Gmail.

Send Email Newsletters with Gmail

Until now we have seen examples of adding basic HTML blocks inside Gmail but wouldn’t it be nice if we could send professional and responsive email newsletters through Gmail?

If you are new, the term responsive essentially means that the styles change automatically based on the device of the user. So if someone is viewing the email on a mobile phone, they would see a different layout than a person who has opened your email on a desktop computer.

You can use MailChimp or any other email template designer to create the newsletter. The only requirement is that the tool should have an option to download the designs as an HTML file.

You can feed this HTML file into Juice to inline the CSS styles and then insert the transformed HTML into Gmail using the emoji trick. The draft email newsletter can also be used as a template for sending personalized emails with Mail Merge.

August 26, 2020

WordPress Should Bump PHP Support on a Transparent and Predictable Schedule

Juliette Reinders Folmer released a proposal for WordPress to drop old PHP version support on a fixed schedule. She wrote the proposal after Matt Mullenweg, WordPress co-founder and project lead, reached out to discuss solutions. This was after he closed a Trac ticket last week that sought to drop support for PHP 5.6 and bump the minimum version to 7.1 for the next major WordPress release this year.

The proposal lays out a position that many in the WordPress community could get behind. It is a clear-cut, transparent path for the platform’s future PHP support.

Folmer essentially put forward two roadmaps in the proposal. The first roadmap decides at what stage WordPress would drop support for a particular PHP version. The platform would remove support for a PHP minor release that is more than five years old each December. This would coincide with whatever major release of WordPress is upcoming. The following schedule lays out the minimum-supported PHP version each year:

December 2020 – PHP 7.1
December 2021 – PHP 7.2
December 2022 – PHP 7.3
December 2023 – PHP 7.4
December 2024 – PHP 8.0

The second part of the proposal creates a rolling schedule for backporting security updates to WordPress. Currently, WordPress releases security updates all the way back to the version 3.7 branch. If adopted, Folmer’s recommendation would support only the previous four years of WordPress releases.

Such a change would mean that when WordPress 5.6 is released in December 2020, the WordPress project would be committed to backporting security fixes as far back as WordPress 4.7, released in December 2016.

Folmer also proposes backporting PHP upgrade notices from the site health project to the currently-supported older versions of WordPress. This measure would inform users of PHP version issues before they make the jump to a newer version of WordPress.

The overlap of bumping the minimum PHP support into the future and backporting security fixes gives users a potentially huge window of nine years in which they could stay on whatever version of PHP they are currently on. Nine years may seem like a lifetime on the web with its constantly-changing technology, and it was a point of contention from some people in the comments of the post. However, it is a plan of action, something the WordPress community has not had the pleasure of experiencing with regards to PHP support. Developers will undoubtedly argue over the dates and versions, but that is secondary to actually having a predictable timeline.

A fixed version bump schedule is welcome. It puts everyone from developers to end-users to web hosts on the same page. This level of transparency is necessary if we ever intend to move forward without rehashing the same arguments.

The system of waiting around to see when a specific PHP version’s usage stats drop below a certain percentage just muddies things. The result is typically a long-winded argument that does not move the needle. Each side picks its stats. Each side digs its heels in. And each side has plenty of good points to make. Ultimately, everyone wants the same thing — to move the entire project forward and use up-to-date tools. However, they always disagree on how we get there. Eventually, the minimum PHP version gets bumped and the community gears up for the next round. It leaves us in a constant state of tug of war between those who want quicker advancement and those who do not want to leave users behind.

The truth is that no one is ever completely right in these arguments. There is no roadmap to follow. We have no guiding principle other than “this has what’s been done before.”

WordPress needs to set clear expectations.

This is not just a problem with the minimum PHP version — many want a more-detailed roadmap for the entire project. However, minimum PHP support is one problematic area that we could have a solution for, and Folmer has carved out a path. We need only follow it.

August 26, 2020

Financial APIs Continue to See Big Growth

Editor's note: Be sure to check out our research on the overall growth of Web APIs since 2005. At the time of writing, this is the most recent data we have, but check the research page to see if we have a more updated article. We will be continually updating the overall growth chart with other charts getting updated on a less frequent basis.

August 26, 2020

#281: Collection Reordering

Show Description

We’ve got a big update coming for Collections! Stephen and Marie are on to give you a sneak peek at reordering and more of what’s coming soon for the Collections feature on CodePen.

Time Jumps

01:42 What is a Collection on CodePen?
07:12 Updates to Collections
09:51 Creating new positions for items in a Collection
13:24 Sponsor: ScoutAPM
15:08 How does the sorting and re-ordering work?
24:32 Update to list views

Sponsor: Scout APM

Scout APM is performance monitoring that helps developers streamline troubleshooting and get back to coding faster. With tracing logic that ties bottlenecks to source code, Scout helps you quickly pinpoint and resolve N+1 queries, memory bloat, and other abnormalities in real time before your customers ever see them. Scout’s package is easy to install and safe to run alongside your existing APM library, which means you’re less than 4 minutes away from actionable performance insight. Start your free 14-day trial today at scoutapm.com/codepen, no credit card required, and Scout will donate $5 to the open source project of your choice when you deploy.

Show Links

CodePen Links

The post #281: Collection Reordering appeared first on CodePen Blog.

August 26, 2020

Automotive Titling Corporation Launches Granular Fees API

Automotive Titling Corporation (ATC), title and registration data solution provider, has launched its ATC Granular Fees (AGF) API. The API provides users the ability to calculate tax rates, taxable value calculations, local flat taxes, and registration fees at a granular level. By “granular”, ATC means the level of detail that mirrors DMV receipts.

August 26, 2020

Kubernetes Cluster Management: Size and Resources

If you try to run a resource-hungry application, especially on a cluster which has autoscaling enabled, at some point this happens:

For the first time, it may look bad, especially if you see dozens of evicted pods in kubectl get, and you only wanted to run 5 pods. With all that claims, that you can run containers without worries about the orchestration, as Kubernetes does all of that for you, you may find it overwhelming.

Well, this is true to some extent, but the answer is – it depends, and it all boils down to a crucial topic associated with Kubernetes cluster management. Let’s dive into the problem.

August 26, 2020

Grafana Analysis and Visualization with CA APM

Introduction

A Grafana is a multi-platform open-source analytical and visualization tool that consists of multiple individual panels arranged in a grid. It turns your time-series database (TSDB) data into beautiful graphs and visualizations. The panels interact with configured data sources, AWS CloudWatch, Prometheus, MySQL, InfluxDB, SQL Server, etc.

Setup Grafana:

Refer to the instructions for your OS in the Installation section for instructions.
Open your web browser and go to http://localhost:3000/
On the login page, type admin for the username and password.

CA APM monitors the performance of applications and lets IT managers diagnose bottlenecks and other problems, it has capabilities to spot anomalies earlier, predict behavior, and enable automatic corrective actions.

August 26, 2020

Ultimate Tutorial about Microsoft Graph APIs

What is Microsoft Graph?

In this article, we’ll talk about Microsoft Graph APIs and will show you a quick preview of the essential features. This technology is growing too fast so some existing features may not be longer available at the time of reading and surely new features will be added to it after the time of writing.

Microsoft Graph API – formerly known as Office 365 unified API - is the new service-oriented architecture owned by Microsoft to allow developers to access a vast amount of data from the Microsoft cloud platforms. Microsoft web API is essentially designed to collaborate with Office 365 and some other services hosted on the MS Azure cloud platform.

August 26, 2020

Top 50 jQuery Gallery & Image Sliders for 2020

Since usually the best galleries are created in jQuery, we’ve mainly focused on jQuery type sliders, but there are a few simple CSS galleries as well. This collection has been organized into five main categories so you can easy switch to your preferred section. Before we start, we wanted to tell you that it’s up to you to go for a free or premium solution for your jQuery gallery or slider.

Web Designer Toolbox: Unlimited Downloads Starting at $16.50/Month

We did find quite a few free quality image solutions, that you will enjoy. Of course, with premium resources – there were some galleries that simply blew us away.

Table of Contents

Just go through the collection and find the best image solution for your needs. If it’s a personal project, surely you will not want to spend any money. But on other hand, if it’s a freelance job, maybe it’s worth spending a little money to really leave an impact on your client and save lots of time at the same time!

I guess what I am suggesting is to always look at how much time it takes for you to modify, install, or setup a free solution. If you aren’t as skilled or it’s time consuming – definitely look into pre-made code and inexpensive but high-quality tools like these.

jQuery Image Slideshows

Below you will find all the best jQuery slideshows. Usually slideshows are used on top of the website to present the most important parts in the most fashionable way.

1. AviaSlider

AviaSlider is a very flexible and easy to use image slideshow plug-in built with jQuery. It has a set of really unique transitions that I have not seen anywhere else, as well as some basic transitions.

It comes with an image pre-loader so the slider starts working only when images are loaded and ready to be presented. No clumsy animations with half loaded images.

To see how it works live, here is a demo preview.

2. Jssorr (Free)

Jssor Slider is a touch swipe image slideshow with 360+ JavaScript slideshow effects. When you touch Jssor Slider, it will freeze the animation and swipe slides to the direction that your finger moves to.

There are more than 360 different effects, you can check all of them here. My own favourite slideshow effects are the simple fade and carousel slider.

3. S3Slider (Free)

S3Slider a jQuery Slideshow with three different features and displaying sides. You can easily adjust the size of the slider and delay the change speed. Oh, and it comes with a really good documentation, too.

4. Camera Slideshow (Free)

Camera slideshow is a jQuery plugin, that can also be used as a WordPress plugin.

It comes with 33 build-in themes, but you can be creative too, because slideshow has a CSS file included, where you can customize the parts you want.

You can easily implement HTML objects, videos, and captions. One downside is that this slideshow is based on a project called Diapo, that is no longer supported. But still, it has been tested on all major browsers.

Check the live demo here.

5. Sequence JS (Free)

Sequence JS is a JavaScript slideshow based on a CSS framework. It’s meant to be used for creating sliders, banners, presentations and other step-based applications.

If free pre-built themes aren’t enough for you, check out their own theme shop. You can also simply order your custom-made theme. But as I look at it, you really do get all you need in the free version, plus there are quite a bit free themes available.

6. jQuery Banner Rotator / Slideshow

This is a jQuery banner rotator plugin featuring multiple transitions. The thumbnails and buttons allow for easy navigation for your banners/ads. The banner rotator is also re-sizeable and configurable through the plugin parameters.

7. Slide JS (Free)

Slide JS is a jQuery plugin that is responsive, has touch support, easy setup, and CSS3 transitions. It’s great to be displayed as a starting page of your website, and it is free. It also has full documentation, check the live preview on their home page.

8. Slideshow 2 (Free)

Slideshow 2 is a JavaScript class for Mootools 1.2 to stream and animate the presentation of images on your website. Please visit their website for a full feature list.

9. JavaScript TinySlideshow (Free)

This dynamic JavaScript slideshow is a lightweight (5kb) and free image gallery / slideshow script.

You can easily set it to auto-display the images, set the scroll speed, thumbnail opacity or to disable thumbnail slider. I wanted to include it in this collection because it is so lightweight. Click here to download this slideshow and see a live preview.

jQuery Image Galleries

In this section you will find Image Galleries. They are best suitable for portfolios, but can also be used in blogs. So let’s dig in.

10. Galleria

Galleria is a JavaScript Image Gallery. It’s built so that it simplifies your process of creating a beautiful image gallery. You don’t have to be a programming expert to use it. Just a few lines of code, add some pictures, and you’re done.

Galleria has a lot of great tools, which you can use to create your own image gallery. Galleria, you can see in the screenshot, is the free version, which you can customize as you want.

However, if you want to get any of Galleria other designs, you will need to pay for them, find more on their store. These themes are in price range between $9 and $29.

11. Sideways

Sideways Image Gallery is a jQuery plugin with added CSS3 styling. The Gallery is responsive and features full-screen images with different modes and custom scrollbars. It is a modern and eye catching image gallery.

This one is the most suitable for photography portfolio showcasing, because it can really give the right credit to their work.

As if it wasn’t good enough, it’s also free to use. Check out the live preview here.

12. Visual Lightbox

VisualLightBox is a free wizard jQuery program that helps you easily generate web photo galleries. It is based on famous LightBox2 script. In a few clicks you can create breathtaking galleries without writing a single line of code.

On their website they offer a lot of templates, that can be used for variety of purposes. It is the most suitable for travel agencies, adventure blogs, and work portfolio websites.

13. TripTracker

The TripTracker slideshow is a lightweight JavaScript image viewer with an animated slideshow feature. It does exactly what it says that it does. There are no extra options, it is a simple photo viewer. Very suitable for articles.

Click here to try it out.

14. NoobSlide

NoobSlide has 8 different examples of how to view your images using MooTools. Unfortunately, there isn’t any documentation, but it is a very easy to use gallery and worth checking out.It can be used as a showcase on a travel blog or even a portfolio.

15. PrettyPhoto

Pretty Photo is a jQuery Lightbox clone. Pretty similar to original Lightbox with few added features and full documentation. It is easy to setup and very flexible.

This plugin supports videos, Ajax, and iframes. It can be used for single photos or galleries. Galleries can also have mixed content. It is very suitable for different types of blogs.

For a demo and download, visit them here.

16. Unite Gallery

Unite Gallery is a modern gallery that uses jQuery. It is modular designed, with customization in mind. You can also create your own theme with ease.

This gallery is fully responsive. It offers 9 different skins and is fully documented. You can download it for WordPress, Drupal, PrestaShop, OpenCart and Joomla.

This gallery is suitable for photography showcases or Restaurant menus. It is free to use, as it is released under the MIT license. All in all, it’s a great addition to the image-packed websites.

You can see it in action here.

17. Auto Generating Gallery

Auto Generating Gallery doesn’t actually take the pictures for you, but it’s pretty smart just the same. This gallery won’t even create the thumbnails for you. What it DOES, is build itself dynamically from your directory of images. So when you want to add new photos, you simply drop the new photo and thumbnail in the directory and you are done! Removing photos just means removing the photos from the image directory. This gallery use PHP for it’s web wizardry. You can find a complete tutorial and demo here.

18. HighSlide JS

Highslide JS is an open source JavaScript software, offering a Web 2.0 approach to pop-up windows. It streamlines the use of thumbnail images and HTML pop-ups on web pages. You can use it asa thumbnail viewer or scrolling HTML content holder.

A live preview of its functionality can be found here.

19. Flat-styled Polaroid gallery

Polaroid gallery is available as a jQuery plugin. It takes the vintage look of Polaroid pictures to the next level.

Strengths of Polaroid Gallery include that it is designed with responsive and flat design in mind. Polaroid Gallery also offers shuffle transition and content holders if you need it. The images can flip and show the back as well.

This gallery is a good choice for travelers or bloggers who want to show off their last adventure.

Make sure to see it in action here.

jQuery Image Sliders

This section is dedicated to all the best and most beautiful sliders, both premium and free. They do a similar job as the Slideshows, but can emphasize content holders.

20. Touch Enabled RoyalSlider

Royal Slider is a jQuery image gallery and more. This slider can be used as an image slider, slideshow, HTML content slider, gallery, banner rotator, video gallery carousel, or just as a presentation. Options are limitless. This full-featured slider is also available as a WordPress plugin.

It has built-in animated captions, supports touch for mobile devices, and is fully responsive. This is a must have jQuery image slider. Check out the live preview here.

21. LayerSlider

LayerSlider is a premium WordPress plugin for creating beautiful image galleries, content sliders, and amazing slideshows with unbelievable effects.

LayerSlider comes with 13 built-in skins. It has more than 200 2D and 3D slide transitions and 3 types of navigation. LayerSlider also offers support for mobile devices and multiple layouts.

You can add any content, from images, text, custom HTML, YouTube video, and Vimeo video to HTML5 self-hosted multimedia content.

By allowing you to build semantic markup with custom attributes that search engines can index easily, it is also SEO friendly.

See it for yourself here.

22. UnoSlider

UnoSlider is a image slider that comes as a WordPress and jQuery plugin. It has unlimited transition animations.

This image slider is fully responsive and is also compatible with older browsers. Layers are very well animated with lots of customization options. Setup and use are simple.

UnoSlider features more than 30 animation options, per-slide options and is easy to theme. This slider is also equipped with public API, image pre-loader, and has the ability to hold multiple sliders on one page. HTML content can be shown as well. Choose from 12 pre built themes and more than 40 transitions options.

You can see a demo of this amazing image slider here.

23. Master Slider

Master Slider is a high value and quality-designed image and content slider. It is available as a jQuery and WordPress plugin. And it also has a free version.

This slider has everything that you need to build eye catching image and content sliders. It’s fully responsive and can work on any screen or any device. You can choose from 6 different interactive transitions and 25 pre-built templates.

This slider offers touch swipe navigation, animated layers, thumbnails, and tabs. Master Slider is also equipped with smart preloading of images.

24. Wow Slider

Wow slider is actually a slider for non-coders. It offers a drag and drop menu, that you use to create an image slider for your website.

In the core Wow slider is a jQuery image slider, but it can also operate without jQuery. It can be as light as you want it to be.

The drag and drop creator can generate using an HTML page, or WordPress or Joomla plugin. You can choose from 25 different transitions and it’s free to use.

Main features are:

Fully responsive
Highly customisable
Touch swipe navigation
All browser support
SEO friendly

These are just a few main characteristics. For a full list and live demo check their website.

25. Slider Revolution

Slider Revolution is a responsive and full-width slider with must-see-effects and SEO friendliness built-in. See the heaps of custom transitions and animations for each object on the page! Customize this slider with their convenient drag & drop back-end to suit your needs.

This plugin features tons of unique transition effects, an image pre-loader, video embedding, auto-play that stops on user interaction and lots of easy to set up options to create your own effects. Slider Revolution can be purchased as a WordPress, Drupal, PrestaShop, Magento OpenCart and jQuery plugin.

Worried about coding skills? Slider Revolution has Video Support which is easy to follow. No advance coding skills required, easy as cooking bacon. Ah…what am I saying? Just check for yourself.

26. Accordion Slider

Accordion Slider is a fully responsive jQuery based slider. It’s available also as a WordPress plugin. There is almost nothing you can’t do with it.

Accordion Slider comes with animated layers and smooth animations. You don’t have to compromise with the design, as the slider has touch support for the best possible user experience.

Pagination on this slider is unique, because you can set the number of panels visible per page. The layout is fully customizable.

Because it has a lazy loading feature, the images can be loaded only when they are viewed. You can also set high-resolution images to be loaded only on high PPI screens, as it has support for Retina screens.

Some additional features are available for the WordPress plugin.

27. Fotorama image slider

Fotorama image slider is simple but at the same time very powerful. You can use it for jQuery or for WordPress and Ruby on Rails . To help you setp Fotorama, they also have a video tutorial.

It is a simple way to show your pictures or images, but powerful enough to blow you away. It’s free to use. Check it out here.

28. All in One Slider

All in One slider is a jQuery slider and comes with five different ways to help you create a beautiful Banner rotator, Thumbnails Banner, Banner with Playlist, Content Slider, and Carousel.

It’s an advanced slider, that allows you to create powerful slides with animated text and HTML tags. This is a powerful tool that provides you with everything you need in development of a website to show your products or images.

All in One slider is fully responsive and touch screen supporting image slider. All in One slider offers 16 different transitions and animated text. Supports all major browsers and is a award winning product.

See it for your self. Here is a live preview.

29. Blueberry Image Slider

Blueberry image slider is a jQuery plugin, that was developed specifically for responsive web design. Blueberry image slider is an open-source project, based on a 1140px grid system from cssgrid.net. It’s simple and at the same time an excellent free option.

I’m sure you will like it as much as I do. Check the live preview and download option here.

30. RhinoSlider

RhinoSlider is a jQuery slider that comes with the possibility of customising your version before downloading. This can significantly decrease time spent on setting it up. You can of course download the whole package, but I think the best way is to use the generator.

It is very flexible and offers a lot of options on callbacks and callbefores. You can set it on auto-play or make it stop on hover. Captions are also available and are customisable.

Check for yourselves on their website. It is a great free tool.

31. Slippry

Slippry image slider is a jQuery plugin that uses CSS3 transitions and HTML5 elements. It can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be.

Because the CSS and Sass files are included, you can let your imagination free and style it as you want it. Slippry does its job best at the top of the home page. With captions it can serve as good presentation of a company.

Dont believe us, check it out here for full documentation and a live demo.

32. Un Slider

Unslider is a very simple slider that is based on jQuery. It’s very small but powerful. You can change everything, so it works and feels like you want.

Unslider is really the simplest slider I have come across. You really don’t have to be an expert to use this one. Just add a few lines of code, put in images and you have a slick slider for your website or blog.

Their whole site is a one big demo for this slider.

33. Unleash 3

Unleash 3 is another jQuery accordion slider on our list. It’s one of the best there is. You have a lot of options and settings to choose from. You can add captions and controls with different styles or add any other content with multiple CSS3 animations.

Main properties are:

Fully responsive
Full screen mode
Ability to choose a slide when page is loaded
Step by step documentation
Touch support
Video support

34. MightySlider

Mighty Slider is everything you need to create an amazing one-directional slider. Mighty Slider can be used as a banner rotator, video gallery, presentation and basic slider. All of this is possible because of a very powerful API. Mighty Slider gives you total control over layout and design.

35. Fullscreen Slit slider

Fullscreen Slit Slider is a jQuery plugin and uses CCS3 animations. Slider can stretch across the whole viewport or be used as slider inside of other context.

Fullscreen Slit Slider is fully responsive and has some unique split screen transitions. With captions it is a great way of representing your cause to the visitors.

Check it out in action. I am sure you will be amazed of what this free slider can do.

jQuery Portfolio, News & Tour Sliders

This section is dedicated to sliders that are particularly designed to showcase portfolios, news, and tours.

36. jQuery Carousel Evolution

jQuery Carousel Evolution is an easy and low cost way to create an eye catching product or team presentation. Yes it’s a premium slider, but it delivers a great value for it’s money.

jQuery Carousel Evolution is a powerful slider that uses HTML markup. It offers 9 different styles for sliders. This slider also supports YouTube and Vimeo video implementation. All major browsers are also supported.

You can check the demo here.

37. Cube Portfolio – Responsive jQuery Grid Plugin

Cube Portfolio is a very cool jQuery plugin with tons of animations. It offers custom captions and plays well with your current HTML and CSS code.

Cube Portfolio provides 30+ options, that gives you complete layout and design control. Slider has fully responsive design and is fully customizable. It uses CSS3 animations and you can choose from 19 starter pack templates. Cube Portfolio is also equipped with a filtering system.

It is best used for vertical sliders, portfolio projects, team members presentation, photography showcasing, or other mosaic grids. Usage is limitless. Cube Portfolio is also available as a WordPress plugin.

Check live preview here.

38. Slideme

This jQuery plugin is great for the top of the website, to present your work or say more about you.

Slideme has got full documentation and a tutorial how to set up your slider, for every type of device individually. Design is fully responsive with CSS3 animations. It is easy to setup and provides a public API.

Slideme is free to use and definitely worth a look. Check out the demo here.

39. PgwSlider

Pgw slider is a jQuery slider,\ that is designed for showcasing your images. This slider is fully responsive. It is lightweight and all-browser compatible. Pgw slider is also SEO friendly.

This slider is very suitable for news or blogging websites as it can show your most recent post or articles.

For full features and a demo slider click here.

40. All Around Content Slider

All Around slider is a multi purpose jQuery slider. You can use it as a carousel or slider. It also supports video. All Around slider offers 6 pre built themes or layouts and ton of options.

Slider is equipped with a drag and move circles option and infinite loop. Besides that, it’s fully responsive with mobile support. Every single image can be magnified and can contain a description, too.

All Around slider is best used as a product showcase or team presentation.

Check live preview here.

41. Lens Slider

Lens Slider is an open-source project and so, fully customisable. Slider uses very simple HTML markup of an unordered list. Images are shown as you can see in the screenshot. No other option is available. Lens Slider is also available as a WordPress plugin and free to use.

The most suitable usage would be for products, services, or ateam presentation.

Check it out here.

42. Gridder

Gridder is an awesome slider for showcasing your work. Gridder kind of mimics Google image search. To view the larger picture you click on a thumbnail and it expands. This is a great way to show a large number of images at the same time.

Gridder is available as a jQuery or Ajax thumbnail previewer. It is an awesome free solution for your next portfolio project.

For jQuery live preview check here. If you want Ajax click here.

43. Barack Slideshow 0.3

Barack Slideshow is an elegant, lightweight slideshow written in JavaScript. This slideshow can operate with vertical, horizontal, and irregular lists. The images are preloaded with MooTool Assets. To keep your code clean, you should check the CSS code. This means changing some parts if needed.

Barack Slideshow can be used as a portfolio showcase, product list, or even for listing your clients.

Here you can find a demo and test different options.

44. jQZoom Evolution

JQ Zoom Evolution

JQZoom is a JavaScript image magnifier, built on top of the popular jQuery JavaScript framework. jQZoom is a great and really easy to use script to magnify parts of your image.

This image magnifier is the most suitable for online stores and restaurants menus.

Find the documentation and demo here.

45. Multimedia Portfolio 2

Multimedia Portfolio 2 is a jQuery plugin that can automatically detect the extension of each media file and apply the appropriate player. It supports images and videos. Multimedia Portfolio uses simple HTML markup and it’s easy to use.

This slider is best suitable for showcasing products, services, and even news.

Check out their demo.

46. jQuery Virtual Tour

jQuery Virtual tour is an extension of the simple panorama viewer. This jQuery virtual tour allows you to transform some panoramic views into a virtual tour! It’s a great plugin that is worth looking at.

You can find a demo and download options here.

47.jQuery Vertical News Slider

jQuery Vertical News slider is very useful for websites that want to show some news or marketing campaigns on their sites. It’s responsive and uses CSS3 animations. Vertical News slider also allows you to fully customise the style of the slider.

Check out the live preview here.

48. Multi Item Slider

This gallery is also a tutorial on how to create it on your own. Multi item jQuery gallery was inspired by Apple slider, that shows multiple products at once. It’s fully responsive with a flat design with a variety of effects.

Multi item jQuery gallery is very suitable for online stores for showcasing their products. It comes with simple navigation, as seen in the screenshot. The navigation is intuitive for changing between a variety of categories.

For a live preview click here.

CSS Based Galleries

We have come to our last section, where you will find the best pure CSS Based Galleries. They may not be as popular but are sure worth a try. See it for yourselves.

49. HoverBox Image Gallery

HoverBox Image Gallery is basically a super light-weight (8kb) roll-over photo gallery that uses nothing but CSS. For faster loading it only uses one image for thumbnail and roll-over preview. All major browsers are supported. HoverBox Image Gallery is free to use for your own projects.

It is best used as a photography showcasing for photographers, any type of portfolio and restaurant menus.

Live preview here.

50. CSS Image slider with 3-D transitions

CSS image slider is an experimental project that also includes a full tutorial. For animation purposes it uses CSS and CSS3 techniques with the addition of 3-D effects on transitions. Intended usage is strictly as an image slider.

CSS image slider can be used for product and service showcasing. In my opinion it could do well also as an image slider in a full width article.

Check out the live preview.

51. CSS3 Animated Image Gallery

CSS3 animated image gallery uses CSS3 and HTML5 to render effects. The images zoom in when you hover over them. This enables a more detailed look. If you are interested, you can take a look at the tutorial and create it yourself. Otherwise you can just download the source code.

CSS3 animated image gallery it’s suitable for photography showcases.

52. Filtronio CSS3 Portfolio

Filtronio CSS3 portfolio is a great pure CSS and HTML5 gallery for showcasing your portfolio or even your products.

It’s simple but at the same time a very powerful and professional portfolio gallery. You can choose from 3 different themes. Filtronio CSS3 portfolio also offers animated layers and a category filter. Gallery is clean coded and easy to customize.

Check out the live demo here.

53. Pure CSS3 Image Gallery

This is a simple CSS3 image gallery that creates the effect of a pop up window when you click on the image. It’s suitable for showcasing portfolios on the websites. If you are interested, you can also follow the tutorial to make it by yourself.

Check out the live preview.

54. CSS Lightbox Image Gallery

This image gallery is another pure CSS gallery. It zooms out on images when they’re clicked. You can download the source code, or if you feel like it, go trough the tutorial..

CSS Lightbox image Gallery should be used on a non-scrollable website. However this can be overridden with a single line of JavaScript, that is included at the end of the tutorial. The most suitable usage would be a portfolio showcase.

55. Slidea

And here is a gem of this collection, Slidea. Slidea is a multi purpose content slider. This slider plugin was build on the jQuery, VelocityJS and Animus animation framework. With Slidea there are no animation limitations–you can so much awesomeness with it!

I can try to describe how cool it is, but just check the demo and you’ll understand why I like it so much!

Conclusion

I have to say I really enjoyed researching these plugins. We found amazing sliders that will, hopefully, help you to work on your next project more efficiently. There’s something for every situation here.

There are so many amazing sliders and slideshows that it’s hard to decide what to pinpoint. But in my opinion you should definitely check out Gridder slider, because it’s really amazing what it can do, especially for free, so it’s a win-win situation.

And you definitely should not forget Slidea. Yes it’s a premium slider, but it carries so much value it’s well worth the investment!

If you enjoyed our article, share it with your friends, and tell us if we missed your favorite slider.

Which is your favorite gallery plugin? We would love to hear your experiences!

Editor’s note: this article was last updated August 26, 2020.

August 26, 2020

LoveShackFancy’s Home Collection is Just as Dreamy as Their Clothes

If you’re a huge fan of dreamy, whimsical, and colorful clothes, LoveShackFancy is probably one of your favorite brands. They owe their huge popularity to beautiful floral design, but did you know...

Visit The Site For More...

August 26, 2020

Question What Is File Shredder And Why We Need This?

What is file shredder and does Windows 10 have a file shredder or we need to download some third party software?

August 26, 2020

How to Add Featured Posts in WordPress Sidebar

Do you want to add a featured posts section in the sidebar of your WordPress website?

Displaying your top content as featured posts in the sidebar can help you drive more traffic to your pillar articles.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily display featured posts in WordPress sidebar using multiple methods.

Why Add Featured Posts in WordPress Sidebar?

Sidebars are the non-content area of your website. Most users utilize this space by adding a email newsletter form, social media buttons, and / or displaying banner ads.

Another way you can utilize the sidebar is by displaying your top articles as featured posts. This helps you get more traffic to those articles, and you users are able to discover your best content without looking for it.

Here is how we feature our top articles on WPBeginner. This sidebar widget appears on all pages of our website.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to add featured posts in WordPress sidebar to boost your pageviews and user engagement.

Method 1. Featuring Posts in WordPress Sidebar

This method is pretty straight forward and does not require you to install any plugin on your website.

Simply go to Appearance » Widgets page and add a Text widget to your WordPress sidebar.

This widget comes with a visual editor equipped with a few formatting buttons at the top. You can simply add titles of the posts you want to feature as a bulleted list or plain text.

After that, select the post title and then click on the link button to add link to the blog post.

Once you are done, don’t forget to click on the ‘Save’ button to store your changes.

You can now visit your website to see your featured posts in action. This is how it looked on our demo site.

Method 2. Feature Posts in WordPress Sidebar using Menus

This method is a little indirect but gives you the ability to manage your featured posts more effectively.

Instead of adding the featured post list in a Text widget, we will create a navigation menu and then display it in the sidebar.

The advantage of this method is that you can easily add new posts without editing the widget, and you can reorganize the list with a drag & drop interface.

First, you need to visit the Appearance » Menus page and click on the ‘create a new menu’ link.

Next, you need to enter a name for your menu that helps you easily identify it whenever you need to add it somewhere. After that click on the ‘Create Menu’ button to continue.

WordPress will now create a new blank menu for you.

Now, you need to click on the ‘Posts’ tab from the left column to expand it. From here you need to select the posts you want to feature. You can find them under Recent, All, or use the search option to locate and select them.

After selecting the posts you want to add, click on the ‘Add to Menu’ button. Your posts will now appear in the right column and you can edit each one of their titles by clicking on it. You can also rearrange them by simply dragging them up or down.

Once you are satisfied, click on the ‘Save Menu’ button to store your changes.

Your menu is now ready to be used.

Adding Featured Posts Menu in Sidebar

Simply go to the Appearance » Widgets page and add the ‘Navigation Menu’ widget to your sidebar.

Next, you need to provide a title for your sidebar menu widget and then select the featured posts menu you created earlier from the dropdown menu.

Don’t forget to click on the Save button to store your widget settings. You can now visit your website to see your featured posts list in action.

Method 3. Adding Featured Posts in WordPress Using Gutenberg

A lot of users may want to display their feature posts inside a WordPress post or page. They may be using the page editor to create layouts for their homepage or their theme may not have a sidebar.

This method allows you to feature posts in your WordPress posts and pages.

Simply edit a WordPress post or page where you want to showcase your featured posts. On the post edit screen, click on the add new block button (+) at the top and then add the ‘List’ block to your content area.

Simply add the title of each blog post you want to feature as an item on the list. Then select the text and click on the link button in the toolbar to create a link to the article.

Once you are done, you can save your changes and update or publish the post. This is how it looked on our demo website.

Reuse The Feature Posts Block

One great feature of the block editor is that you can save block as ‘Reusable block’ and then add the same block in any posts or pages you want.

To make your feature posts block reusable, simply click on the three-dot menu icon in the block toolbar and select ‘Add to reusable blocks’.

Next, you’ll be asked to provide a name for your reusable block. Give it a name that helps you easily identify it later.

Click on the Save button to save your reusable block.

Now, whenever you are editing a post or page where you want to display the feature posts again. Simply click on the add new block button and look for your reusable block by typing its name.

You can also edit reusable blocks and it will automatically get updated everywhere. For more details, see our article on how to add reusable blocks in WordPress.

Method 4. Display Featured Posts in WordPress with Thumbnails

A simple plain list of links may often go by unnoticed by your users. Displaying thumbnails with your featured posts would help users notice them more easily.

To do that, we’ll be using a plugin to fetch and display a list of our featured posts along with thumbnails.

First, you need to install and activate the Display Posts plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

This plugin allows you to select and display any WordPress posts you want anywhere on your website. It uses shortcodes and allows you to build a custom query using a variety of parameters.

For instance, we’ll be using it to fetch and display the list of your featured posts along with thumbnail and excerpt.

Head over to Appearance » Widgets page and add a ‘Text’ widget to your sidebar. In the text area of the widget, simply add the following shortcode.

[display-posts id="1,1178,1177,1176,1174,1173,1016,1011," image_size="thumbnail" include_excerpt="true" excerpt_length="10"]

Don’t forget to replace the id values to match the IDs of posts that you want to feature.

Tip: See our article on how to locate the post IDs in WordPress.

Now click on the ‘Save’ button to store your widget settings.

You can now visit your website to see it in action. It may not look good out of the box so let’s add some CSS magic to clean it up a little.

Go to the Appearance » Customize page to launch theme customizer. From here click on the Additional CSS tab and you will see a box where you can add your custom CSS.

You can now copy and paste the following CSS to the custom CSS box on your website.

ul.display-posts-listing img { 
max-height:50px;
max-width:50px; 
float:left;
padding-right:4px;
}
ul.display-posts-listing li { 
margin-bottom:20px;
font-size:11px;
display:inline-block; 
}

You’ll see live preview of your changes applied on your WordPress blog. Feel free to modify the CSS to meet your requirements.

Once you are done, don’t forget to click on the Publish button at the top to store your custom CSS.

You can now visit your website to see your featured posts with thumbnail and excerpt.

We hope this article helped you learn how to easily feature posts in WordPress sidebar. You may also want to see our guide on the best email marketing services and best WordPress SEO plugins to grow your website traffic.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Add Featured Posts in WordPress Sidebar appeared first on WPBeginner.

August 26, 2020

What’s the Difference Between WiFi and The Internet?

Im sure youve heard of the Internet right? Duh. Well, simply put, its a big huge network thats changing humanity. Does that Jog your memory? Now the real question is this: do you know the difference between the Internet and your WiFi network? If you dont, stay calm and Ill explain. Ill do my best to put this into laymen's terms. There will be a few concepts introduced, but for the most part I teach in visual metaphors - so Ill do my best to help you understand.

If I can get you to remember one thing, its this: WiFi and the Internet are two completely separate beasts. If you can remember that moving forward, then half of my job is done.