Month: August 2020

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How To Completely Customize The WordPress Admin Area With Branda

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Branda gives you the power to white label WordPress, letting your brand flow from the front to the back-end of your site. In this guide, we’ll show you how to renovate your admin area with some of Branda’s most impressive features.

White labeling your WordPress site has never been easier. Branda splits every one of her features into easy to digest modules which can be activated and removed as necessary.

Branda lets you white label every Aspect of WordPress

No job is too big or small – you can customize anything from your color scheme and dashboard widgets, right down to the text labels on your login page, and the icons in your admin toolbar.

In this guide, we’ll show you not only how to completely white label the back-end of your WordPress installation using Branda, but also how to personalize and reorganize your tools and menus to ensure peak efficiency when working within your admin area.

We’ll be covering how to:

  1. Customize Your Login Screen
  2. Change the WordPress Logo
  3. Rework the Admin Bar
  4. Personalize Your Widgets
  5. Organize Your Admin Menu
  6. Add Text to Your Footer
  7. Text Replacement
  8. Change the Color Scheme

Read on to find out how Branda can help you put your own stamp on your WordPress admin.

1. Customize Your Login Screen

When customizing your WordPress admin, it makes sense to start at the first page you’ll always see – the login screen.

Branda can help you create a completely new login screen that will impress your clients and inject some personality into your WordPress back-end.

There are seven preset templates you can select, or you can create your own from scratch.

Screenshot of Branda's login screen templates.
Click ‘Start from scratch’ to create your own template.

If you start from scratch, the main changes will come in the form of your background and logo.

First up is the logo – you can either upload your own image, or import one from a URL.

Screenshot of the logo option where you can upload your own image.
You can also choose to completely hide the logo.

Once you’ve added your logo, you can choose a new background to complement it.

Screenshot of a custom login screen made using Branda and an image of some notepads.
Just make sure your background image is a minimum of 1024px wide.

You’re free to take it even further and edit or hide the labels, display a message, or add custom error messages.

Add custom messages for users when they log in.

A few tweaks and you can completely revamp your login section.

If you’re a developer working on a lot of sites, or if you’re trying to create a personalized experience for a new client, the ability to switch out the WordPress logo in the admin bar can make a lot of difference.

It can let you know at a quick glance which site you’re currently logged into and it can be the icing on a cake for a client that you’re trying to impress.

With Branda, it takes seconds to change the logo to something more personal.

This setting is found within Admin Area > Admin Bar.

As you can see below, it’s such a simple change but it takes white labeling WordPress to the next level.

Screenshot of the admin bar with a custom logo in it
It’s your site, so it makes sense to replace the WordPress logo with your own.

3. Rework the Admin Bar

If you find the admin bar more unsightly than useful, there are a couple of ways Branda can help you manage this.

You can remove the admin bar from your front-end if you want to quickly view your site without it getting in the way by heading to Admin Area > Admin Bar.

Screenshot of the options to set the toolbar visibility by user account.
Untick the boxes of the user roles you wish to hide the toolbar from on the front-end.

If you don’t want to hide the toolbar completely, you can customize the items it shows.

Start by choosing the items you wish to hide:

Screenshot of the various options you can hide from the toolbar.
Better still, you can apply these settings to specific user roles.

If you really dislike the toolbar, you can even go as far as removing all its links in the back-end:

Screenshot of a toolbar with all the items removed.
Branda can help your admin area go from ‘messy’ to ‘minimalist’ in just a few clicks.

If you’d prefer an admin bar that is practical and personalized to fit your needs, you can create this by adding custom items to it.

Screenshot of the option to add a custom admin bar item.
Just below the option to hide your items, you’ll find the option to add custom ones.

Once you click to add a custom item, you will need to select a title, icon and a link destination.

Screenshot of the the option to select a title and icon for a custom admin menu item.
There are tons of icons to choose from – you’ll be spoilt for choice.

Add a submenu if required, and set the visibility of your new menu item per user role.

Screenshot of a custom admin bar menu item with a submenu.
You can use these settings to easily navigate to your most important pages, as well as a host of other ideas.

4. Personalize Your Widgets

With all the standard widgets active, your dashboard can begin to look a bit cluttered.

If you head into Branda and to Widgets > Dashboard Widgets, you can hide any that you don’t use.

Screenshot of the widgets you can hide.
With all these options ticked, your dashboard will be completely free of widgets.

You can then begin to repopulate your dashboard with widgets that are more useful to you, as Branda has the option to create your own custom widgets.

Screenshot of the option to add a new text widget.
You can create your own unique widget and then choose which user roles will see it.

Widgets can contain notes, company updates, stock reminders – you have total freedom.

Screenshot of a custom widget showing some upcoming appointments.
They’re so quick and easy to update.

Your admin menu is the heart and soul of your WordPress admin area. If you want to customize the back-end of your site, it makes sense to tailor the admin menu to your needs.

Head to Admin Area > Admin Menu > Customize Admin Menu and you will be presented with a ton of options to help you get the most out of your admin menu.

First up, you can customize each item in your admin bar per user role and can opt to hide each item.

Screenshot of the option to edit your dashboard menu item.
You can also duplicate items from this menu.

When you click to edit one of the items, you are first offered the chance to rename it as well as change the CSS ID and class.

Screenshot of the option to change the ID and class of the menu item.
Click ‘submenu’ to change the name and IDs/classes of the submenu items.

If you scroll down a little further, you can choose a new icon from tons of presets.

Screenshot showing some of the icons Branda comes preloaded with,.
You can even upload your own icons.

Once you are satisfied with how your menu item looks, it’s time to decide what happens when you click on it.

Underneath the icons, you will find the option to change the link, as well choose whether or not it opens in a new tab.

Screenshot of the option to add a link to the custom menu item.
While you may not need to change the link on existing menu items, it’s handy if you create new ones.

Once you have amended your existing menu items to your taste, you can scroll to the bottom of the list to add your own custom items.

This is useful if you want shortcuts to external websites or areas of your site that take a while to navigate to.

You can add text or even media to the bottom right of your admin area.

This could be anything from an important message or update, to your company motto, or even just your site name.

Screenshot of custom admin footer text which says Kirstan's Blog, 2020.
You can also make the text a link.

It’s just another quick way to break out of WordPress’ usual template and add a bit of brand/personality to your admin area.

7. Text Replacement

A handy feature found within the utilities section of Branda allows you to replace words and phrases throughout your site.

This can be especially beneficial when it comes to white labeling your admin area.

You can control whether the rules are case sensitive, and whether they apply everywhere or just on your front or back-end.

Screenshot of the option to add a text replacement rule showing Howdy replaced with Welcome Back
Even apply it to specific themes or plugins using the text domain option.

Using this feature, you can easily change the ‘Howdy’ message on the right-hand side of your admin bar, to something more to your taste.

Screenshot of the admin bar showing a custom Howdy message which say Welcome Back.
You can add as many separate rules as you like.

8. Change Your Color Scheme

If you’re dedicated to truly whitelabeling and personalizing your site, then changing the color scheme should definitely be on your to-do list.

Branda comes loaded with 8 color schemes for you to choose from.

Screenshot of the preset color schemes which come with Branda.
You can set the theme for each user individually or apply to all.

If your plan is to match your admin area to your brand, you can extensively edit the color schemes to your exact requirements.

Below is just a taste of how many options you have to create your own scheme.

You can color each element of your admin area separately, and tweak things such as hover and focus color.

Screenshot of the admin area using the theme Ocean.
This is ‘Ocean’, one of Branda’s preset color schemes.

WordPress Who?

Branda has so many options for customization and white labeling that you can put the same love and care into the back-end of your site as you do the front. No longer will you have to gaze upon the WordPress logo or endure every site you work on looking exactly the same from the back-end. With Branda, you can truly make each site your own.

If you’re eager to find out what else Branda can do, check out the documentation for a complete run down and visit our roadmap to see what else she’s got in store. Better yet, get Branda installed and experience the power of personalizing WordPress with Branda for yourself.

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Warp SVG Online

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The warping is certainly the cool part here. Some fancy math literally transforms the path data to do the warping. But the UX detail work here is just as nice. Scrolling the page zooms in and out via a transform: scale() on the SVG wrapper (clever!). Likewise, holding the spacebar lets you pan around which is as simple as transform: translate() on another wrapper (smart!). To warp your own SVG files, you just drag-and-drop them on the page (easy!).

Direct Link to Article — Permalink

The post Warp SVG Online appeared first on CSS-Tricks.

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Random images from imagelist

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Trying to make a game where explosions randomly appear on the screen using visual studio. I figured out how to make a single picture change location on the screen. So, I wanted to make the illusion of an explosion using imagelist. When I try to do it I get an error on my visual studio when I try to use Location. Location is underlined and say the following "ImageList" does not contain a definition for "Location" and no accessible extension method "Location" accepting a first argument of type "ImageList" could be found (Are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?) I wanted to add more explosions on the screen .

 using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Linq.Expressions;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace random_image
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }
        int num = 0;
        void Randompics()
        {
            int a;
            Random rnd = new Random();
            a = rnd.Next(30, 450);
            boom.Location = new Point(500, a);
        }
        void Explosions()
        {
            /*
            int a;
            Random rnd = new Random();
            a = rnd.Next(30, 450);
            symbol.Location = new Point(500, a);
            */
            Random rnd = new Random();
            int a;
            int x = rnd.Next(0, 800);
            int y = rnd.Next(0, 500);
            imageList1.Location = new Point(x,y);
            boom.Image = imageList1.Images[num];
            if (num == imageList1.Images.Count - 1)
            {
                num = 0;
            }
            else
                num++;
        }
        private void timer1_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            Explosions();
            //Randompics();
        }
    }
}
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Some Useful Features of WooCommerce

Set Up Woocommerce

WooCommerce is the favorite WordPress plugin, made to transform WordPress into a competent e-commerce platform. The plugin contains many excellent features and capacities, but also, there are lots of things online vendors should know before launching a WooCommerce powered shop. WooCommerce is a superb alternative for companies and those who wish to start their very […]

The post Some Useful Features of WooCommerce appeared first on WPArena.

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Googlebot ignores robots.txt

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I'm noticing Googlebot is not respecting my robots.txt. I'm seeing Googlebot's user agent crawling pages that have been in my robots.txt file for many months. Some of them are showing up in GSC as "Indexed, though blocked by robots.txt" with Last crawled dates indicated as recent as yesterday.

Additionally, I'm seeing Googlebot crawl my robots.txt file a few times a day, and the URLs are definitely blocked per the Google robots.txt tester.

My robots.txt is in the following format:

Sitemap: ...

User-agent: *

# ...

Disallow: ...
Disallow: ...
etc. ~ 40 lines

# ...

Disallow: ...
Disallow: ...
etc. ~ 60 lines

# ...

Disallow: ...
Disallow: ...
etc. ~ 20 lines
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How to Drive Transactional Email Engagement for E-Commerce

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This post is originally published on Designmodo: How to Drive Transactional Email Engagement for E-Commerce

How to Drive Transactional Email Engagement for E-Commerce

Whatever meaningful action a user takes – creating an account, buying stuff, changing preferences, resetting a password – should result in a notification that the interaction was a success. This direct response is crucial for a good user experience. A …

For more information please contact Designmodo

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Remove or Improve – Is It Time to Get Rid of Your WordPress Admin Bar?

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Fed up with your WordPress admin bar getting in your way when viewing your site? Need a simple plugin to help you tweak it a little, or if your mind’s set on it, remove it completely? Read on for a roundup of the best.

Your admin bar may be full of useful options, but it can easily get to a point where it’s more of a nuisance than a help. When you’ve made changes to your site, you might want to go straight to the frontend and admire your new masterpiece without the top 32px being taken up by your admin bar.

While plugins are the answers to most WordPress questions, you can check out this tutorial if you’d rather go down the code route to remove or customize your admin bar.

You can also remove your admin bar within the WordPress settings by going to Users > Toolbar.

Screenshot from wordpress of the remove toolbar button.
Untick the box to remove the toolbar from your frontend.

Just bear in mind that this will only remove the bar from your own account. If you want to have control over the access for all user accounts, you’re better off sticking with a plugin.

In this article, I’ll show you a bunch of great plugins that will let you reposition your admin bar, change the links, take away some of its opacity, or if you’ll never make friends, remove it completely.

 

Option 1 – Personalize Your Admin Bar

  • Branda

    We can’t talk about anything to do with WordPress admin and not include our very own Branda. When it comes to the admin toolbar, she certainly has a few tricks up her sleeve.

    You can hide the admin bar from different user roles, and even choose to display certain elements of it to guests. You also have the option to hide specific elements from the admin bar, as well as add new ones.

    Screenshot of Branda's custom menu item options.
    Branda always has to take it one step further…

    There are tons of icons for you to choose from, and you can even enter custom URLs. This means that you can pack your admin bar full of useful links to streamline and speed up your admin duties.

    Using Branda, you can also change your admin bar logo as well as add your own custom CSS to tailor it exactly to your needs.

  • AG Custom Admin

    Now this little plugin is pretty powerful – there isn’t much it can’t do to your WordPress admin.

    In regards to your admin bar, you can remove elements such as the logo (which you can change if you’d prefer), the pending updates notification, your site name and the +New block. You can really make your admin bar as minimalist as you’d like, and even go as far as hiding it completely. The ‘howdy’ text as well as the logo link can also be changed.

    Whilst most of the customization options are purely practical, you can also change the colors across your entire admin dashboard and bar, as well as add custom CSS and JS if you fancy a few extra tweaks.

  • Toolbar Extras

    Toolbar Extras is packed full of, ahem, extras, to help your WordPress admin bar make your life easier. If you’re one of the 5 million + people who still rely on Elementor to build beautiful websites, then this little plugin will give you super-quick access to a bunch of useful tools, right from your admin bar.

    Screenshot of the menu in toolbar extras.

    There are extra options for customization such as the ability to customize the labels and icons, as well as change the welcome message in the top-right corner.

    Screenshot of the custom greeting menu.
    You can personalize the message to include the user’s name or display name.

    If you’re not an Elementor user, you can link this plugin with the default block editor, although you’ll be presented with fewer options.

  • Admin Page Spider

    It isn’t often that you stumble across a plugin that feels so normal and that you can’t believe it’s not actually part of WordPress itself.

    Admin Page Spider falls into this category. Such a simple change to the admin bar allows you to quickly access posts and pages to edit with just one click.

    You can select it to display either pages, posts, or both.

    This is all you can really do with the free version (you can upgrade to Pro for a ton more features) but it adds such a good boost of practicality to your admin bar, that you’ll never look back.

    Interested in Admin Page Spider?

    Download

  • Admin Bar Position

    Ever thought that your frontend would look so much better with the admin bar at the bottom?

    Make your dreams a reality with this tidy little plugin. All you have to do is install and activate and your admin bar will move straight to its new home at the bottom of your screen – it’s that simple!

    Interested in Admin Bar Position?

    Download

Option 2 – Hide Your Admin Bar

  • Auto Hide Admin Bar

    Often the simple plugins are the best – the ones where you can just install, activate, and voila…extra WP functionality!

    Auto Hide Admin Bar is one of these plugins – all you have to do is activate it and your admin bar will be neatly tucked away when viewing the frontend of your website. Just hover at the top of your page and it will reappear like magic.

    Interested in Auto Hide Admin Bar?

    Download

  • Remove Admin Bar

    Sometimes, a simple tweak is all you need. This plugin does literally what it says on the tin; once you activate it, your admin toolbar will no longer ruin the masterpiece of your site when visiting as a logged-in user.

    There are a fair few plugins in the WP repo which do the same thing, so feel free to take your pick. I’m including Remove Admin Bar in this list because I’ve tested it myself and can confirm it works like a charm!

  • Admin Bar & Dashboard Access Control

    If you don’t want to completely scrap the admin toolbar from the frontend view, you can display it based on the user’s role.

    Whilst this is actually super simple to do with a couple of lines of code, we understand that some users choose not to make edits to code which is completely fine (and why plugins exist!).

    Install this plugin if you want to have more control over who sees the admin bar.

    Interested in Admin Bar & Dashboard Access Control?

    Download

  • Admin Bar Disabler

    If you’re set on hiding your admin bar but need a plugin for this which is compatible with multisite, look no further than Admin Bar Disabler.

    It offers per-site and per-network options, as well as allowing you to set permissions based on user roles.

    Interested in Admin Bar Disabler?

    Download

  • Better Admin Bar

    Better Admin Bar is a very practical plugin that helps you have control over exactly how much your admin bar interferes with the rest of your screen.

    If you want to remove the bar completely, you can do just that. If you’d prefer to lower the opacity of the bar, only show it to admins, or only show it on hover, just take your pick.

Remove or Improve?

So you’ve seen both options: customize your admin bar and turn it into something useful and practical, or wave goodbye to it – now the choice is yours.

If reading this has inspired you to go in for a complete WordPress admin overhaul, you should probably check out Branda’s other features. She’s the original whitelabeling goddess and will help you completely transform your admin area.