We’re going to create an impressive transition effect between images that’s, dare I say, very simple to implement and apply to any site. We’ll be using the kampos library because it’s very good at doing exactly what we need. We’ll also explore a few possible ways to tweak the result so that you can make it unique for your needs and adjust it to the experience and impression you’re creating.
Take one look at the Awwwards Transitions collection and you’ll get a sense of how popular it is to do immersive effects, like turning one media item into another. Many of those examples use WebGL for the job. Another thing they have in common is the use of texture mapping for either a displacement or dissolve effect (or both).
To make these effects, you need the two media sources you want to transition from and to, plus one more that is the map, or a grid of values for each pixel, that determines when and how much the media flips from one image to the next. That map can be a ready-made image, or a <canvas> that’s drawn upon, say, noise. Using a dissolve transition effect by applying a noise as a map is definitely one of those things that can boost that immersive web experience. That’s what we’re after.
Setting up the scene
Before we can get to the heavy machinery, we need a simple DOM scene. Two images (or videos, if you prefer), and the minimum amount of JavaScript to make sure they’re loaded and ready for manipulation.
This will give us some minimal DOM to work with and display our scene. The stage is ready; now let’s invite in our main actors, the two images:
// Notify when our images are ready
function loadImage (src) {
return new Promise(resolve => {
const img = new Image();
img.onload = function () {
resolve(this);
};
img.src = src;
});
}
// Get the image URLs
const imageFromSrc = document.querySelector('#source-from').src;
const imageToSrc = document.querySelector('#source-to').dataset.src;
// Load images and keep their promises so we know when to start
const promisedImages = [
loadImage(imageFromSrc),
loadImage(imageToSrc)
];
Creating the dissolve map
The scene is set, the images are fetched — let’s make some magic! We’ll start by creating the effects we need. First, we create the dissolve map by creating some noise. We’ll use a Classic Perlin noise inside a turbulence effect which kind of stacks noise in different scales, one on top of the other, and renders it onto a <canvas> in grayscale:
Second, we set the initial parameters of the turbulence effect. These can be tweaked later for getting the specific desired visuals we might need per case:
// Depending of course on the size of the target canvas
const WIDTH = 854;
const HEIGHT = 480;
const CELL_FACTOR = 2;
const AMPLITUDE = CELL_FACTOR / WIDTH;
turbulence.frequency = {x: AMPLITUDE, y: AMPLITUDE};
turbulence.octaves = 1;
turbulence.isFractal = true;
This code gives us a nice liquid-like, or blobby, noise texture. The resulting transition looks like the first image is sinking into the second image. The CELL_FACTOR value can be increased to create a more dense texture with smaller blobs, while the octaves=1 is what’s keeping the noise blobby. Notice we also normalize the amplitude to at least the larger side of the media, so that texture is stretched nicely across our image.
Next we render the dissolve map. In order to be able to see what we got, we’ll use the canvas that’s already in the DOM, just for now:
We are going to pause here and examine how changing the parameters above affects the visual results. Now, let’s tweak some of the noise configurations to get something that’s more smoke-like, rather than liquid-like, say:
const CELL_FACTOR = 4; // instead of 2
And also this:
turbulence.octaves = 8; // instead of 1
Now we have a more a dense pattern with eight levels (instead of one) superimposed, giving much more detail:
Fantastic! Now back to the original values, and onto our main feature…
Notice the above value for high? This is important for getting that liquid-like results. The transition uses a step function to determine whether to show the first or second media. During that step, the transition is done smoothly so that we get soft edges rather than jagged ones. However, we keep the low edge of the step at 0.0 (the default). You can imagine a transition from 0.0 to 0.03 is very abrupt, resulting in a rapid change from one media to the next. Think of it as clipping.
On the other hand, if the range was 0.0 to 0.5, we’d get a wider range of “transparency,” or a mix of the two images — like we would get with partial opacity — and we’ll get a smoke-like or “cloudy” effect. We’ll try that one in just a moment.
Before we continue, we must remember to replace the canvas we got from the document with a new one we create off the DOM, like so:
And finally, get the images and play the transition:
Promise.all(promisedImages).then(([fromImage, toImage]) => {
hippo.setSource({media: fromImage, width, height});
dissolve.to = toImage;
hippo.play(time => {
// a sin() to play in a loop
dissolve.progress = Math.abs(Math.sin(time * 4e-4)); // multiply time by a factor to slow it down a bit
});
});
Sweet!
Special effects
OK, we got that blobby goodness. We can try playing a bit with the parameters to get a whole different result. For example, maybe something more smoke-like:
const CELL_FACTOR = 4;
turbulence.octaves = 8;
And for a smoother transition, we’ll raise the high edge of the transition’s step function:
dissolve.high = 0.3;
Now we have this:
Extra special effects
And, for our last plot twist, let’s also animate the noise itself! First, we need to make sure kampos will update the dissolve map texture on every frame, which is something it doesn’t do by default:
dissolve.textures[1].update = true;
Then, on each frame, we want to advance the turbulence time property, and redraw it. We’ll also slow down the transition so we can see the noise changing while the transition takes place:
hippo.play(time => {
turbulence.time = time * 2;
dissolveMap.draw();
// Notice that the time factor is smaller here
dissolve.progress = Math.abs(Math.sin(time * 2e-4));
});
And we get this:
That’s it!
Exit… stage right
This is just one example of what we can do with kampos for media transitions. It’s up to you now to mix the ingredients to get the most mileage out of it. Here are some ideas to get you going:
Transition between site/section backgrounds
Transition between backgrounds in an image carousel
Change background in reaction to either a click or hover
Remove a custom poster image from a video when it starts playing
Whatever you do, be sure to give us a shout about it in the comments.
This literal tech talk (YouTube video embedded in there) by Zach Leatherman is a good time. The talk is sprinkled with fun trickery, so I’m just taking notes on some on it here:
I have no idea how he pulled off the “bang on the keyboard and get perfect code” thing, but it reminds me of Jake Albaugh’s “Self-Coding” Pens.
Adding contenteditable on the <body> makes the whole page editable! Did you know document.designMode = "on" does the same thing in JavaScript? (More on making DevTools a design tool.)
There’s a short bit where the typing happens in two elements at once. CodePen supports that! Just CMD + click into the editor where you want another one to be, or make it part of a snippet.
System fonts are nice. I like how easy they are to invoke with system-ui. Firefox doesn’t seem to support that, so I guess we need the whole stack. I wonder how close we are to just needing that one value. Iain Bean has more on this in his “System fonts don’t have to be ugly” post.
box-decoration-break is a nice little touch for “inline headers.” The use of @supports here makes great sense as it’s not just that one property in use, but several. So, in a non-support situation, you’d want to apply none of it.
Slapping a <progress> in some <li> elements to compare rendering strategies is a neat way to get some perfect UI without even a line of CSS.
Making 11ty do syntax highlighting during the build process is very cool. I still use Prism.js on this site, which does a great job, but I do it client-side. I really like how this 11ty plugin is still Prism under the hood, but just happens when the page is built. I’d love to get this working here on this WordPress site, which I bet is possible since our code block in the block editor is a custom JavaScript build anyway.
In the first bullet point, I wrote that I had no idea how Zach did the “bang on the keyboard and get perfect code” but if you watch the bit about syntax highlighting and keep going, Zach shows it off and it’s a little mind spinning.
I think Zach’s overall point is strong: we should question any Single-Page-App-By-Default website building strategy.
As a spoonful of baby bear porridge here, I’d say I’m a fan of both static site generators and JavaScript frameworks. JavaScript frameworks offer some things that are flat-out good ideas for building digital products: components and state. Sometimes that means that client-side rendering is actually helpful for the interactivity and overall feel of the site, but it’s unfortunate when client-side rendering comes along for the ride by default instead of as a considered choice.
You are the owner of a hardware store and need to keep an inventory that can tell you
what different tools you have, how many of each you have on hand and the cost of
each one. Write a program that initializes the random-access file hardware.dat to
100 empty records, lets you input the data concerning each tool, enables you to list all
your tools, lets you delete a record for a tool that you no longer have and lets you
update any information in the file. The tool identification number should be the record
number.Need to make use of File Processing technique and code in C.
Use the following information to start your file:
If you’re looking for some of the best productivity apps for Mac, you’re in the right place! I have 20 excellent options for you to choose from. Each of these apps does a different thing, and each can be useful to you in many different ways. I, for instance, use and love all of them, and I couldn’t recommend them more!
After many weeks of collecting some interesting UI interaction shots, it’s now time to share it with you! Some super cool trends are emerging; from swirly motion to visual repetition and infinite depths, there’s lots to explore and draw inspiration from!
I really hope you get some fresh ideas from this set.
Do you want to add Amazon ads to your WordPress site?
Amazon ads can be a great way to make money online. Plus, they have a faster and simpler approval process compared to other ad networks.
In this article, we’ll show you how to add Amazon ads to your WordPress site, step by step.
What are Amazon Ads?
Amazon ads are display ads from the Amazon network. These ads operate similar to Google AdSense and other ad networks. However, these ads will display related products from Amazon.
You can add Amazon display ads throughout your content or at the end of your posts to encourage readers to click.
Native display ads will show relevant products to your visitors based on the content and their search history.
The setup process is very easy. All you need to do is add the code to your site once, and it’ll automatically display ads across your site. This means you earn more revenue without having to do any additional work.
There are 3 different types of native shopping ads you can add to your site:
Recommendation ads show products based on the content and user’s search history
Search ads let users search Amazon products directly from your website
Custom ads let you display your favorite products to your readers
Why Add Amazon Ads to WordPress?
Amazon ads have a much faster approval process, which means you can quickly start earning money with display ads and affiliate marketing.
Display advertising is one of the most popular ways WordPress blogs earn money.
However, a lot of advertising networks have strict approval processes, and it can take a while to get your site approved specially if you’re new.
Amazon ads can shortcut this waiting period. If you get approved by other networks in the future, then you can add these alongside your existing Amazon ads.
Depending on the type of site you have, these ads can convert pretty well too.
How to Add Amazon Ads to your WordPress Site
There are a handful of ways you can add Amazon ads to to your WordPress website.
Before you can ad Amazon ads to your site, you’ll need to join the Amazon.
Next, you’ll be asked to log in to your existing Amazon account using the email and password associated with that account.
If you don’t have an Amazon account, then go ahead and create one now.
After you’ve logged in to your account, you’ll need to add additional account information and answer questions about your website. Follow the instructions to complete your profile.
Once you’ve finished, your application will be reviewed by Amazon. The approval process is pretty fast and much more accessible than other networks like Google AdSense.
Create Your Amazon Ads Code
Before you can add Amazon ads to WordPress, you’ll need to create your Amazon ad code.
To do this, open up the Amazon Associates ad editor. Then, navigate to Product Linking » Native Shopping Ads.
After that, click on ‘Recommendation Ads’.
You can also create ‘Custom Ads’ or ‘Search Ads’, but for this tutorial we’ll focus on recommended product ads.
Here you’ll name your ad, choose your ad format, and select the product categories that products will display from.
You can also set a keyword fallback.
If there are no relevant products to display, then Amazon will pull a product related to that keyword.
You can also preview your ad on both desktop and mobile.
After you make your changes make sure to click ‘Save and View Ad Code’.
Then, you’ll need to copy the ad code and paste it into a text editor. You’ll need this code later to embed your ads into WordPress.
Now, you’re ready to add Amazon ads to your WordPress site.
Method 1. Add Amazon Native Display Ads in WordPress
Adding Amazon display ads to WordPress is pretty simple.
You’ll have a variety of different display options and ad types to choose from.
For example, let’s say you’re writing an article about how to improve your posture. You could include Amazon Native display ads at the end of your post that feature posture correctors and other mobility tools.
The easiest way to add Amazon Ads is by using a WordPress plugin.
We recommend using the WP Advanced Ads plugin. It’s easy to use and lets you quickly embed multiple ad types into your website, including Amazon ads.
Once the plugin is installed and activated, you’ll have a new menu item called ‘Advanced Ads’. Navigate to Advanced Ads » Ads and click ‘New Ad’.
Next, add your title and select ‘Plain Text and Code’, then click ‘Next’.
After that, paste your Amazon ad code that you created earlier.
Then, click ‘Next’.
On the next screen, you can choose to hide the ad from some users and pages. However, we’ll leave the default settings. After that, click ‘Next’.
Now, we’re going to choose where our Amazon ads will display. You have multiple options to choose from including, before, after, and within your content. You also have the option to display Amazon ads in your sidebar.
We’re going to select ‘After Content’. However, you can choose the option that works best for your site.
Once you select your display option, your ad will now be visible on the front end of your site.
Method 2. Add Amazon Affiliate Links in WordPress
Do you want to create an Amazon affiliate site? Affiliate websites operate a little differently than sites monetized by display ads alone.
With affiliate marketing, you’ll earn a commission whenever a visitor clicks on your link and purchases a product.
First thing you’ll need to do is install and activate the plugin. We’re going to use Pretty Links. However, you can choose Thirsty Affiliates as well. For more details, see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you’ll have a new menu item in your WordPress dashboard labeled Pretty Links.
Before you create an affiliate link in Pretty Links, you’ll need to go to your Amazon Associates dashboard and create a link. Once you’re in your dashboard, navigate to Product Linking » Product links.
Here you can search for the product that you want to create a link for.
Once you’ve found the product, click ‘Get Link’.
Next, you’ll need to copy the link code.
To do this, click the ‘Text Only’ navigation item, then click the ‘Short Link’ radio button.
This will bring up the affiliate link you need to copy.
Now, go back to your WordPress dashboard and navigate to Pretty Links » Add New.
Next, you’ll need to name your link, add your target URL, and create your link.
Your target URL is the link you copied from your Amazon Associates account. The ‘Pretty Link’ is the shortened URL you want to use instead.
Also, make sure you choose a 301 redirect. After you’ve made your changes click ‘Update’ to save the link.
Now, you can add your affiliate link to your content.
Open up a WordPress page or post. In the post editor, highlight the text you want to link and copy your affiliate link from above.
Now, when your readers click the link they’ll be taken to the product in the Amazon store. If they purchase the product, then you’ll receive a commission.
It allows you to add all kinds of popups to your WordPress site easily.
First, you’ll need to install and activate the OptinMonster plugin on your WordPress site.
The plugin acts as a connecter between your WordPress website and the OptinMonster software.
Once you’ve activated and installed the plugin, click on the ‘OptinMonster’ menu item in your WordPress admin bar.
After that, you’ll need to connect your site to OptinMonster by clicking ‘Launch the Setup Wizard’.
Here, you can connect to an existing account or claim your free account.
After you’ve finished going through the setup wizard, your WordPress site will be connected to OptinMosnter.
To start creating a popup ad, navigate to OptinMonster » Campaigns.
Then click ‘Add New’ to create a new campaign.
After that, select the ‘Popup’ campaign type.
Next, choose the campaign template. We will select the ‘Canvas’ template since this gives us a blank template to add our Amazon ad code.
Then, enter the name of your campaign name and click ’Start Building’.
The name of your campaign won’t appear in your design but instead is to help you remember.
This will open up the OptinMonster app, where you can customize the appearance of your popup.
You won’t be making that many visual changes. Instead, you will copy and paste the Amazon ad code you generated earlier.
First, click on ‘Blocks’, then select the ‘HTML’ block and drag it over.
In the ‘Editing HTML Element’ box, paste your Amazon ad code. It’ll automatically appear in the editor.
You can further customize your popup by adding new blocks, headings, text, and more.
Once you’re satisfied with the look of your popup, make sure to click ‘Save’, then click on the ‘Display Rules’ tab.
This is where we’ll set your popup display options.
The default setting is for the popup to display when a visitor has been on the page for at least 5 seconds. However, you can adjust this if you want the period to be shorter or longer. After that, click ‘Next Step’.
You can leave the default options on the next screen. Feel free to add animation or sound effects if you’d like. Once you’re done, click ‘Next Step’.
On the ‘Summary’ page, you can double check that your display settings are correct.
After that, go to the ‘Publish’ tab and switch the ‘Publish Status’ from Draft to Publish.
Then, click ‘Save’ and exit the screen.
Your Amazon ad popup will now be live on your site and display for visitors after the time period you set earlier.
The best part about OptinMonster is that it’s one of the few WordPress popup plugins that can give you complete control over personalization. Their display rules are extremely powerful, and you can use it to display multiple Amazon ads targeted towards different sections of your website.
Starting off the new month with a little inspiration boost — that’s the motivation behind our monthly wallpapers series which has been going on for more than ten years already. Each month, the wallpapers are created by the community for the community and everyone who has an idea for a design is welcome to submit it — experienced designers just like aspiring artists. Of course, it wasn’t any different this time around.
For this edition, creative folks from all across the globe once again challenged their skills to cater for some good vibes on your screens. The wallpapers all come in versions with and without a calendar for April 2021 and can be downloaded for free. A huge thank-you goes out to everyone who shared their designs with us — you’re smashing!
Last but not least, you’ll also find a selection of April favorites from our archives at the end of this post. Because, well, some things are just too good to be forgotten, right? Enjoy!
You can click on every image to see a larger preview,
We respect and carefully consider the ideas and motivation behind each and every artist’s work. This is why we give all artists the full freedom to explore their creativity and express emotions and experience through their works. This is also why the themes of the wallpapers weren’t anyhow influenced by us but rather designed from scratch by the artists themselves.
Submit a wallpaper
Did you know that you could get featured in our next wallpapers post, too? We are always looking for creative talent! Don’t be shy, join in! →
European Capital Of Culture 2021
“The festivities marking Novi Sad as the European Capital of Culture may have been postponed to 2022, but to us, Novi Sad is the cultural, artistic, and educational hub every day. Novi Sad is a wonderful mix of various cultures and traditions, unhurried days, and memorable nights. From hiking endeavors on Fruška Gora Marathon and laid-back picnics in many of our city’s parks and Danube quay, the sounds of tambura coming from local restaurants to Petrovaradin fortress, jumping to the rhythm of global hits on Exit festival, museums and galleries, pubs and nightclubs in Laze Telečkog, the upbeat street of Novi Sad’s urban and night life — Novi Sad welcomes you with its diversity, uniqueness, and passion.” — Designed by PopArt Studio from Serbia.
“Easter always feels like the start of Spring! And this year, after a particularly hard winter of lockdowns, it’s needed more than ever. Time to start living the outdoor life again and feeling the warmth of the sun! Happy Easter everyone!” — Designed by Ever Increasing Circles from the United Kingdom.
“In April, we celebrate World Health Day. This year’s celebration is perhaps more relevant than ever before. In addition to caring for the health of humanity, let us also take care of the health of the planet, because it is our only home.” — Designed by LibraFire from Serbia.
Sakura, rainy days, imagination filling up one’s mind with ideas — often it was the little things that inspired the community to design a wallpaper for April. Below you’ll find a selection of some of these almost-forgotten favorites from our archives. Maybe you’ll rediscover an old acquaintance in there, too?
Spring Awakens
“Despite the threat that has befallen us all, we all look forward to the awakening of a life that spreads its wings after every dormant winter and opens its petals to greet us. Long live spring, long live life.” — Designed by LibraFire from Serbia.
“April — its first day reminds us that laughter makes life better. Nature also laughs, but it does so in daisies!” — Designed by Ana Masnikosa from Belgrade, Serbia.
“My inspiration was the arrival of spring that transmits a sense of calmness and happiness through its beautiful colors.” — Designed by Margarida Granchinho from Portugal.
“While April showers usually bring May flowers, we thought we all deserved flowers a little early this year. During a stressful time in the world, spending time thinking about others is an antidote to some of the uncertainty. We thought this message, Lift Others Up, reflected the energy the world needs.” — Designed by Mad Fish Digital from Portland, Oregon.
“The Black Forest, which is beginning right behind our office windows, so we can watch the perpetual circle of nature, when we take a look outside.” — Designed by Nils Kunath from Germany.
“This month is International Guitar Month! Time to get out your guitar and play. As a graphic designer/illustrator seeing all the variations of guitar shapes begs to be used for a fun design. Search the guitar shapes represented and see if you see one similar to yours, or see if you can identify some of the different styles that some famous guitarists have played (BTW, Prince’s guitar is in there and purple is just a cool color).” — Designed by Karen Frolo from the United States.
“April is Easter time and I wanted to remind us that there’s a child inside all of us. My illustration is based on the story that fills our imagination since childhood, Alice in Wonderland, and joined to one of the most traditional customs in America at this time of year, the egg hunt. That’s how we get an ‘egg hunt in wonderland’.” — Designed by Patrícia Garcia from Portugal.
“April 23 sees the anniversary of William Shakespeare’s Birthday, arguably the finest writer England has ever produced. Here’s a jolly little wallpaper featuring some of his most famous quotes.” — Designed by Daniel Rooms from England.
“We were inspired by the rain and a popular Spanish adage which says: ‘April a thousand rains’, which means a lot of rain in April.” — Designed by Colorsfera from Spain.
Welcome back to our second article about creating a robust, bidirectional IoT prototype in less than a day using Arduino, Heroku, and Node-RED. If you missed the first part, we covered setting up Node-RED, adding security, and deploying to Heroku. In this article we'll look at creating our embedded system on the Arduino boards, connecting them to our Node-RED instance, customizing Sketches, and creating a flow that allows our devices to talk to each other. Let's get started.
Many developers wonder why they should care about service mesh. It's a question I'm asked often in my presentations at developer meetups, conferences, and hands-on workshops about microservices development with cloud-native architecture. My answer is always the same: 'As long as you want to simplify your microservices architecture, it should be running on Kubernetes.'
Concerning simplification, you probably also wonder why distributed microservices must be designed so complexly for running on Kubernetes clusters. As this article explains, many developers solve the microservices architecture's complexity with service mesh and gain additional benefits by adopting service mesh in production.
In the previous post on AWS VPC Basics, we learned about VPC basics and we also set up a VPC with public and private subnets.
In this post, we will learn about another powerful component from AWS, the gift of the internet, The Internet Gateway. We will also learn how routing works within VPC, how to set up routes to the internet gateway and our public subnet. This setup is very common for most of the applications on AWS.
In this article, we will see how to create an empty ASP.NET Web Application with .NET CLI and Visual Studio Code. In the previous article of this series, we already covered the below articles:
Every day, the ProgrammableWeb team is busy, updating its three primary directories for APIs, clients (language-specific libraries or SDKs for consuming or providing APIs), and source code samples.
Object Store Connector is a Mule component that allows the storage of key-value. Although it can serve a wide variety of use cases, it is mainly designed for storing watermarks, access tokens, user information, etc. It stores data in the form of Key-Value pair.
Object store connector provides 7 types of operation:
To say we’ve been busy is an understatement! From the beginning of 2021, our team has been grinding day in and day out to deliver the top-notch quality that you all know and love.
As always, we’ve taken your suggestions on board as best as we can. It’s incredibly important to us to make the time to hear each of our members and put their feedback into action.
With that being said, we aren’t always able to make every single wish come true. We may be akin to superheroes, but we aren’t magicians!
Maybe we should keep the cape!
That’s why these roundups can be super helpful. If you haven’t seen your suggestion come to life yet, this should clear up any curiosity you may have about where we’re headed and whether you can expect to see a certain feature pop up soon.
Of course, you can always take a squiz at our ever-evolving Roadmap for an up-to-date list of expected changes. But this roundup will also backtrack over the recent updates we’ve made and highlight the best parts.
Let’s kick it off with a note from WPMU DEV CEO, James.
“Check. Out. That. Scroll.
Seriously, check it out, we’ve done so much since our last quarterly roundup and have so much in the pipeline that this update is almost getting obnoxiously long!
And for that, I am sorry. But for what it contains, I most certainly am not.
Over the last 3-6 months the entire team here at WPMU DEV have absolutely knocked it out of the park. From our fantastic new PMs (*Product* Managers, ahem), incredibly talented devs (and DevOps and SysAdmins) and our really rather good designers.
And that’s just product! While we get the vast number of our best reviews based on our rock star support team (we hit the best ranked host in TrustPilot last month, based largely on them!) and, of course, our writers who bring you this roundup that contains, basically, piles and piles of good stuff that you may have missed – so do that scroll – and sets us up for an epic rest-of-the-year.
Suffice to say, if you are a freelancer, web developer, agency (of any size) or just look after WP sites for whoever and wherever, 2021 is going to be for you.
If we don’t have a vastly expanded set of tools that will allow you to create, develop and manage your own WP SaaS business by the end of the year, I’ll eat my hat.
And if we aren’t also presenting you with a set of site management tools that knocks the stuffing out of anything that has come before and more than doubles the number of WP sites you can comfortably look after… I’ll eat my socks too :D
So, my endangered clothing besides, please dive in and – as ever – share any feedback in the comments section (which, incidentally, will now give you hero points that you can trade for free memberships… all the way up to lifetime!)”
With that said, let’s take a proper look at what’s been going down at the DEV and what the coming months hold…and may I just say that the future is looking rather sensational!
We are absolutely buzzing for what we have in store for The Hub.
“Our vision for The Hub is to make it the best and most-used platform for running a WordPress web services business,” said Mukul, Product Manager.
“And we have been working towards it systematically by adding the features our members would need to run their business from The Hub. Bulk site management features such as Defender configs were added recently and we will be working on adding configs for other plugins in the upcoming months.
In the next few months, we are planning to release some more much-awaited features. The Plugins Manager is one such feature that would let our members manage plugins for all their websites and install new plugins from different sources(wp.org repo, zip packages, etc.) in one place.
The first phase of Client Billing is also expected to release in a couple of months and meanwhile, we’ll start working on the Reseller phase of the billing which would allow members to run a hosting/domain reseller business from The Hub. In addition to these, we are working on adding features such as Block/Ignore Updates and Hub Services configs (starting with configs for Uptime).”
Recently Released
New Thumbnail Design: Site thumbnails have snagged a new look. You no longer need to hover over the icon to view the available services.
Plugin Configs Integration: You could already import and export plugin configurations within Defender, but now you can do this all from the convenience of The Hub. Save your plugin setup and instantly apply it to other sites – significantly reducing the time required to get sites up and running to your liking.
Create new configs to apply to your other sites.
New Analytics Tab Design: Our Analytics tab just got an upgrade! Be sure to check out the new layout.
On Its Way
My Plugins Manager: Coming up you’ll be able to bulk manage your plugins from all sites, install plugins from wp.org, zip packages, and provide publicly-accessible URLs, all from the My Plugins page! This is an epic time-saver and definitely one to anticipate.
Block Updates: Having constant trouble with some plugins’ updates or using a premium plugin with no update support? Soon you’ll be able to block updates on such plugins/themes or even core updates, and once you’re ready to update the blocked plugin, you’ll be able to easily unblock the updates.
Hub Services Configs: Starting with Uptime, we are planning to roll out configs for different Hub services – similar to the plugin configs. After Uptime, we’ll be tackling Automate, so there’s plenty to look forward to here.
Improved Accessibility: Pumping out truly fantastic products and services is high on our list of priorities, but so is making those amazing things available to everyone in the community. This is why we’ll be applying color adjustments and navigation changes in the near future to fall in line with AA accessibility standards.
Dark Mode: Calling all rebels! If you don’t vibe with the classic light color scheme and are looking for something with an edge, keep your eyes peeled for this one.
Client Billing and Reselling: Soon you’ll be able to manage your client billing from within The Hub and not long after that, you’ll be able to resell hosting, domains, and more. I know..we’re excited too!
The Hub Client
Imagine being able to completely re-brand everything that The Hub provides, offer it to your clients from your own domain, and take all the credit…
Well, no need to imagine because that’s exactly what The Hub Client does for you. You can completely white label The Hub in quite literally a few clicks.
Install, activate, select a login page, and you’re done!
Select your client page in a matter of seconds.
Recently Released
HubSpot Live Chat Integration: This integration with HubSpot opens up a whole new channel of live support. Embed a Live Chat support widget right inside The Hub Client, and brand it with your own colors and logo, to offer your clients even more help options.
On Its Way
LiveChat Integration: In a little bit, we’ll be adding an integration with LiveChat so that you can provide live chat support as well as add an embedded knowledge base within your LiveChat widget.
tawk.to Integration: Also on the list of upcoming integrations is tawk.to, an amazing service that offers live chat options and a knowledge base completely for free. You’re going to love this!
Hosting
We’ve seen some major changes in hosting over the last few months.
The Head of Hosting, Konstantinos, shared a few words about what’s been happening and where we’re headed: “Our hosting has already excelled by being among the top-rated in the managed WP niche, in a short time. But we don’t stop here, nor relax. We’ve added two new locations in AUS/JP to provide sites closer to your clients.
We’ve also recently implemented one of the major parts of moving towards a white-labeled experience with the change of the temporary domains.
We’re continuing with other changes as well so that Agencies and Freelancers can use it literally as their own. And in parallel, we’re constantly improving security features such as WAF/BruteForce Protection and working to provide new tools such as Site Templates (coming shortly!) that always push the limits on creating the best and fully-featured hosting experience.”
Recently Released
New Australia and Japan Datacenters: You can all finally sit back and revel in the joy of this addition, instead of sitting on the edge of your seats with suspense. This was highly requested and we’re really chuffed about being able to offer these two new locations.
More WAF Options: Our Web Application Firewall has always been pretty substantial but we’ve just added even more protection – URIs can now be placed on an allowlist or a blocklist.
Email Aliases: This allows you to direct emails from an alias email address (or from multiple if you want), to one main email address – essentially streamlining content from several inputs into one area.
Bruteforce Attack Protection: On all sites hosted with WPMU DEV, we monitor the URIs that are most commonly targeted by bots – /wp-login.php and /xmlrpc.php. If either of these receives more than 30 requests per minute from a single IP address, the connection will be throttled to help prevent bruteforce attacks.
New Temporary Domains: In an ongoing mission to white label our services for your benefit, we’ve introduced .tempurl.host as the new temporary domain suffix, in place of the previous .wpmudev.host suffix and added a white-labeled “from” email address too.
Create a new temporary website with the .tempurl.host suffix.
On Its Way
Website Templates: Time is money and what better way to maximize this than by simplifying the entire website creation process? Save your current website as a template and create new sites based on the template – in the works.
White Label Improvements: This is a continued effort to consistently bring you closer and closer to being able to completely re-brand and market your own business. Look out for new white-labeled hosting plugins, database, and cli – coming to you any day now.
Reset WP: In need of a clean slate for your site? Soon you’ll be able to reset your WP installation and start completely fresh.
New UI Options: Some exciting new UI additions to The Hub are in the pipeline. Just to mention a few: Enable/Disable & Whitelist IPs for Bruteforce Protection, Bypass Static Cache by URL, Include Static Cache to URL arguments, New Relic & Blackfire implementation, Enable/Disable Object Cache in Production.
Smush
Our goal is to be the best and easiest-to-use image-optimization plugin on the market.
Product Manager, Erick Fogtman said “I’m really proud of the Local WebP feature we released at the end of 2020. However, our work with a feature doesn’t stop at the initial launch so the last couple of months we have focused on making it work out of the box and as automated as possible on as many different (and not so common) setups as we can.
Compatibility ranks high on our priority list as well, so a lot of work has been done for sites using Smush alongside the latest WordPress Core release (v5.7), JetPack’s Site Accelerator, WP Offload Media, other Lazy Loading solutions (such as Revolution Slider and the native WordPress one), and more.
In the next months, we’ll be focusing on Configs so you can import/export your favorite settings and even sync them with The Hub, a whole new Dashboard Page inside the plugin where you’ll be able to see all the important information at once, and even more improvements to existing features.”
Recently Released
Local WebP Conversion: Previously, images converted to WebP format could only be served from Smush Pro’s CDN but now you can convert your images locally. We’re super excited about this one because as much as we love our CDN, we also wanted to deliver options to those of you who may not want to use a CDN.
Improved Compatibility with Revolution Slider: This has addressed any conflicts between Smush’s free Lazy Load feature and the pre-enabled lazy load in Revolution Slider, giving you smooth continuity between the two.
Compatibility with WP 5.7: With the recent release of WP 5.7, we are keeping a keen eye on any potential jQuery issues to make sure that everything runs seamlessly without any hiccups.
On Its Way
Configs: If you’re a fan of Defender’s Configs feature, you’re in for a treat! The same feature is right around the corner for Smush – allowing you to save your plugin settings and apply them to other sites. Also, the recent plugin configs integration with The Hub will extend to Smush when this is released.
Hummingbird
We are testing new ways to make sites faster using Hummingbird while simplifying the optimization process.
“During these first three months of 2021, we added a lot of fixes in our Asset Optimization engine, making it more robust and compatible with other plugins, themes, and page builders,” said Erick Fogtman, Product Manager. “Our caching integrations (Redis, Varnish, Cloudflare) saw numerous improvements as well.
In 2020 we said one of our main goals was to simplify configurations and this remains intact. We understand optimizing your site to make it fast and comply with Google’s PageSpeed can be a time-consuming task, so we’re testing different solutions to make users’ lives easier.
The next major change is including Core Web Vitals to the Performance Scan Report and updating our PageSpeed Insights recommendations to provide our users with the latest and best solutions for their performance audits.”
Recently Released
Plugin Health: Not to be confused with an optimization tool, this powerful feature addresses critical plugin issues. Incredibly helpful for resolving problems related to Asset Optimization and the Page Cache Preloader.
Force purge page cache preloader to resolve critical issues.
Clear Page Cache on All Subsites: Save yourself the hassle of going into each subsite to clear the cache and simply clear the page cache on all subsites from the Network admin area.
Select What Cache to Clear: If you’ve been having a craving for some more fine-tuning when it comes to cache removal, this is for you. The Dashboard area now allows you to hand-select what cache to clear.
Bonus: If you are integrated with Cloudflare, you will also be able to clear that cache from the Dashboard.
Connect Redis Via UNIX Socket: To make your lives even easier, we’ve added the option to connect Redis Cache by entering the UNIX socket path – no host details required.
Browser Cache Support for WOFF2 Files: Browser cache already has you sorted for a multitude of different file types and we’ve just added another one to the list: WOFF2.
On Its Way
Tutorials: How would you like direct access to a powerhouse of information from right within the plugin? Stay tuned because soon you will be able to jump to relevant tutorials and plugin guides straight from Hummingbird herself.
Defender
The Defender team has been grafting away at some awesome features.
“For the past few months, a lot of stability fixes were added into the Defender plugin. We have synchronized Configs with The Hub, adjusted malware scanning logic to return fewer false-positive reports for the most commonly known plugins, said Nastia, Product Manager.
“Additionally, an option to check plugins and themes against the WP.org repository was added in the latest release.
Security begins from users’ passwords and Password Security is the first step to secure user login. So naturally, password protection enhancements are next in line to be added into a plugin.
We will be developing a check that will make sure users’ passwords are not from a known database breach. Along with that, an option to force a password reset to all users, for situations when a site was compromised.”
Recently Released
New Notifications Area: Sometimes it can be difficult to keep track of all your reports and notifications for each feature, which is why we have streamlined this into one convenient Notifications area.
Set up scheduled reports and notifications for all the relevant modules and do it all from one area. Easy to manage, easy to track.
Configure your notifications and reports to your specific needs.
In addition, our team has made scheduled scans and notifications mutually exclusive – giving you more flexibility on whether or not you want both actions to occur.
If you wish, you can also choose not to include recipients for the Firewall and Audit Logging reports. The reports will still run and you can view them whenever it’s convenient for you.
Code Overhaul: The version 2.4 release marked a major code overhaul for Defender. You can expect seamless functionality and an overall improvement in all respects.
Improve Malware Scanning: The next focus for the malware scanning feature is to reduce the number of false-positive reports, giving you a more accurate read on potentially harmful code and changes.
Bulk Delete Configs: In need of a revamp? Next in line is being able to bulk delete your Configs.
Forminator
Stripe and PayPal are in for some impressive changes.
Product Manager, Mohammad said “In Q1, we worked on fixing some major bugs to ensure a seamless experience in the plugin, such as fixing PayPal and Stripe submission issues along with fixing 70+ bugs. Next, we are excited to introduce PayPal and Stripe Subscription Add-ons which is one of the highly requested features.
Another requested feature that will be introduced in Q2 is the option to Bulk add/import options to select, checkbox, and radio fields. In addition to supporting images for Checkbox and Radio field as well as Polls answers. More than 90 bug fixes are also on the way.”
Recently Released
Fix PayPal and Stripe Submission Issues: We’ve addressed the issue of PayPal and Stripe submissions not being stored after payment. Nothing but smooth sailing from here on out, folks!
User and User Role Capability: The team has recently introduced the ability to control access to Forminator by User and User Role.
WP 5.6 and PHP 8 Compatibility Fixes: A large portion of our recent focus has been on fixing bugs to completely clear up any minor issues. This Forminator machine should now be humming like…well…Hummingbird!
On Its Way
PayPal and Stripe Subscription Add-ons: This is something that we are thrilled about and hopefully, you are too. We will be introducing subscription/recurring payment options for both PayPal and Stripe.
This feature will be offered as an add-on to Forminator and will be packed with little gems such as conditional payment options. Definitely keep an eye out for this one.
Tutorials: No more back and forth, hunting for the information that you need. The tutorials section gives you access to all the relevant guides, right at your fingertips.
Bulk Import Options: Soon you’ll be able to bulk add fields into the Select, Checkbox, and Radio fields.
Snapshot
Some exciting things are in the pipeline for Snapshot.
Product Manager, Nastia, said that at the beginning of the new year “the Snapshot v.4 plugin was white-labeled. After that, the Snapshot API went through a major refactoring that improved the backup process overall.
We’ve been working on fixes that will help save more WPMU DEV Storage. This includes an option to limit the number of backups kept per site. Upcoming features for Snapshot are FTP restoration, DropBox and FTP/SFTP destinations, and shared configs.”
Recently Released
Google Drive Integration: We’ve officially added Google Drive as a third-party backup destination. When this is connected as an extra destination, a full copy of each backup will be exported to Google Drive.
Any S3 Compatible Storage: Not so long ago, we added Amazon S3 and a handful of S3 Compatible storage options (those being Backblaze, Wasabi, DigitalOcean Spaces, and Google Cloud) to Snapshot as available third-party backup destinations. We’ve recently one-upped this by extending that handful to literally any storage service that is S3 compatible.
Connect any S3 compatible service with the Other option.
Password Protection for Deleting Backups: As an added layer of security, WPMU DEV account passwords will be required before deleting any backups.
White Label Compatibility: This is an ongoing task to improve white label compatibility and help you get closer to a completely re-branded experience.
On Its Way
Configurable Backup Rotation: At the moment, backups are stored for a default of 30 days and this limit cannot be adjusted. However, just around the corner is the ability to choose exactly how many backups you want to store before they begin their rotation.
Stability Fixes: We have some stability improvements on the way – ensuring that Snapshot will be running seamlessly.
FTP Restoration and Destination: Soon you’ll be able to bank on FTP as another restoration option for your backups, as well as a new backup destination.
Dropbox Backup Destination: You’ve been asking and we’ve been listening! Dropbox is on its way to joining the already-impressive list of third-party backup destinations.
Hustle
Hustle’s new integrations are the cherries on top of a great quarter.
“Our big one in this first quarter was integrating with Mailster and Mailpoet,” said Danae, Lead Developer. “These have been the highest requested integrations and I’m glad we have them out there now.
We’ve made Hustle compatible with the latest jQuery changes in the WordPress core. Our users won’t have to worry about our plugin when they upgrade their WordPress installs. We’ve also been improving the inners of the plugin and we’ll continue doing so in the next quarter, focusing on performance.”
Recently Released
New Templates: The last few updates to Hustle have introduced some exciting templates such as Christmas, New Years’, Holidays, Valentines Day, and Chinese New Year.
Integration with Mailster and Mailpoet: We’ve added another two integrations to the already-impressive list of available third-party integrations. Enjoy!
Multiple Triggers Functionality: The Behavior capabilities have been upgraded with a useful new tweak. Popups, slide-ins, and embeds can now all be actioned by more than one trigger.
On Its Way
Performance Improvement: Improving performance is always something that is on our minds but you can expect to see some significant improvements coming your way soon.
New Appearance Options: One of the many awesome features within Hustle, is the extensive customization options for the Appearance of your pop-ups, slide-ins, and embeds. Stick around to find out what else we have in store for you, because things are about to get even better.
SmartCrawl
It’s been all gas and no brakes over at SmartCrawl.
SmartCrawl’s Product Manager, Mohammad, said “In Q1, SmartCrawl introduced the Schema types builder, focusing on user experience. This allows users to add a valid schema type with a click of a button for Article types, WooCommerce types & Local Business types (as well as Multi-location Local Business). We are not done yet with the Schema Builder and we still have more improvements and types to add.
In the next quarter, the SmartCrawl team will be connecting SmartCrawl with Google’s SEO audits tools such as Lighthouse SEO Audits and Google Search Console, to provide our members with more reliable and updated SEO audits and insights.
This is done with the intention of not just integrating with Google tools but also providing an extra value for users by showing them how they can fix warnings using SmartCrawl Pro as well as showing contextual help within the plugin to simplify the complexity of each SEO warning/status/recommendation.”
Recently Released
Schema Types Builder Tool: As a team, we’re always on the lookout for ways to add value to your business and this is just one of the ways that SmartCrawl can facilitate that. SmartCrawl already generates general markup on key WordPress pages but the schema types builder allows you to further customize and tailor that to your specific needs.
Choose your schema type to start the customization.
This is particularly helpful if you want search engines to properly display content-specific information in rich snippets.
Local Business Scheme Type: You asked and we delivered! The Local Business schema type has just been added to the mix with 60+ subtypes to go along with it.
Schema Type Builder Wizard: With the introduction of the schema type builder tool, we have also brought you a setup wizard for the feature – making your life even simpler and helping you get started even quicker.
Manually Update Sitemap and Notify Search Engines: Previously, this was only done automatically. But now you have the option to instead manually update your sitemap and notify search engines that it has changed, if that’s what you would prefer.
New Article Schema Subtypes: The Article type now offers the choice of the Blog Posting & News Article subtypes, if you want something more particular than the generic Article type.
New WooCommerce Schema Subtypes: When choosing the WooCommerce Schema type, you can now select a Variable or Simple Product subtype to dive into a more specific configuration.
On Its Way
Lighthouse SEO Audit Integration: Heading right your way is a full integration with Lighthouse SEO Audits! Our SEO Checkup tool is already very solid but with this integration, you can expect faster and more reliable results – getting you another step closer to higher rankings in search engine results.
Branda
Here’s what’s been happening over at Branda.
“At Branda we’ve been working on improving compatibility with WP 5.7 and PHP 8,” said Hassan, Lead Developer.
We’ve also been removing a number of pesky bugs from the code to give you a smoother user experience. Other mentionable improvements include support for Adsense tags in the tracking code module”
Recently Released
Google AdSense Tracking Code Compatibility: I don’t know about you, but embedding AdSense code into a website completely hassle-free sounds pretty awesome to me! Branda’s Tracking Code feature now supports Google AdSense – allowing you to easily insert the codes into your website.
Bug fixes: No one likes a pesky bug so we’ve rolled out several bug fixes to keep things running smoothly, and to keep you on track with your branding.
Beehive
Buzzing with new upgrades, Beehive has recently made some great strides.
“The main goal for Beehive is to provide simple yet effective statistics within the WordPress dashboard, without any complex configurations. We are also planning to integrate Beehive statistics with The Hub analytics. As soon as the new Google Analytics 4 APIs are live, we will be updating our analytics page to include statistics from the new GA4 too,” said Lead Developer, Joel.
Recently Released
Google Analytics 4 Support: If you would like to hop on board with Google Analytics 4 – the new default for Google Analytics properties – you can do this by connecting with your Google Analytics 4 Measurement ID.
Manage Data and Settings: The uninstallation cleanup setting allows you to manage what happens to your plugin data upon uninstallation – you can either keep or remove it. And it doesn’t stop there! If you’d like, you can also choose to start on a completely new slate by using the reset settings feature.
Exclude User Roles from Tracking: Don’t want certain user roles to be tracked on your site? You can now exclude these in a cinch by simply adding the role to the exclude list in your settings.
Real-Time Vistors: You heard right! Real-time visitors can now be viewed as a part of your site analytics. Categorized by device, you can observe how many live visitors you have at any given moment.
View your live visitor count by device.
Shipper
Shipper has been on the move with plenty of improvements.
“We know that a lot of sites, especially at the beginning of their life, are hosted on low-budget hosting providers,” said Nastia, Product Manager.
So when there is a time to migrate, and a site has grown big for the server, migration plugins can fail. Shipper’s migration process was adjusted for that reason. We have added a Safe Mode option for the Package Migration method that will adjust the compressing process based on the server’s available resources.
Appearance also matters ;). A new HTML template was added for email notifications that are sent when a migration is successful.
The new generation of hosting providers, for WordPress managed hosting, does not allow modifying WordPress core files. We wanted to provide an option for more flexibility, so there is a new addition that allows the exclusion of WordPress core files, for migrations that have a WordPress core already installed on a destination server.
Less data to migrate, less time till completion!”
Recently Released
Migration Speed Improvements: In recent updates, the Shipper squad has prioritized a fresh batch of improvements for both the package migration and API migration features – hitting impressive speed results.
Safe Mode: So close, yet so far away…we all know the feeling of a process gone awry from an issue that could’ve been prevented. Well, now you can preempt that by enabling Safe Mode which will skip files over 50MB (these will be logged so you can import them manually) and ensure that you never exceed max_execution_time.
New Email Notification Template: Our email notifications from Shipper just got a snazzy new upgrade! Now when you get a ping from Shipper about your migration status, you’ll notice a sleek new look to the email.
Improvements with Beaver Builder: If you’ve built your site with the Beaver Builder plugin, you’ll be happy to know that we’ve worked on some compatibility improvements here.
Stability Fixes and UI Changes: Some general improvements with a focus on enhancing stability have been rolled out, along with some small UI tweaks.
Integrated Video Tutorials
The new features added to Integrated Video Tutorials have considerably improved the overall user experience.
Joel is the Lead Developer for Integrated Video Tutorials and this is what he had to say about the latest changes: “We are working on some improvements so that managing videos will be easier for admins. Also, there are plans to add more white-labeled videos to the videos collection. We will be updating the old videos too.”
Recently Released
Import/Export Feature: Rinse and repeat is for dishwashers, not developers! You can now export your plugin settings as a .json file and upload that configuration to other sites – eliminating the need to repeat the setup process on similar sites.
Manage Data and Settings: Control what happens to your data if you uninstall the plugin – either retain your current setup or start from scratch. And let’s be honest, sometimes we all need a fresh start, which is what you can achieve with the Reset Settings feature.
Reorder Playlists: Easily reorder your playlists by simply dragging and dropping each one to a new position.
Are We There Yet?
As you can see, it’s been a wild few months with updates and epic features popping up constantly!
We’re now truly on our way to our WP Saas destination. We’re loving the journey and we hope you are too!
If you haven’t jumped on board yet, try out our 100% risk-free 7-day free-trial membership and check out everything that’s on offer, including blazing-fast hosting, superior plugins, and super-heroic 24/7 dedicated support.
Keep your eyes peeled for the next roundup because no doubt, it will be just as exciting. With a clear vision going forward and a dedicated team to back it up, you can expect great things in the very near future.
It is common for software companies to have their own internal frameworks. These frameworks sometimes contain the whole software development life cycle, and sometimes it just boils down to a few tools and utilities.
Consider Temenos TAFJ framework as a case study, this framework has written in Java and can be considered as one of the most complete frameworks in the world it contains all aspect of software development requirements, it has its own data access layer, business layer, etc. plus it provides a special programing language for its developers to develop a new product in such platform.
Design & Dev | Paris & Co Iteration 001
