Voxel 1.4 is now available
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Voxel 1.2 is now available

Before we get started, this is a major update with a lot of changes so it’s always a good idea to save a backup.

If you’re using Voxel Elements, please update the plugin to latest version aswell. You can download it here

Once you update Voxel, we recommend:

  • Regenerate CSS
  • Clear cache

Let’s get into details:

Theme builder

Previously named Templates, this part of Voxel is now renamed to Theme builder. It’s split into further sub sections:

  • General templates
  • Header & Footer
  • Post types

General templates

In WP admin ➝ Theme builder ➝ General, you can manage all the general voxel templates

General templates are templates related to various Voxel functionality such as registration, paid membership, orders, social aspect etc.

Unlike in previous versions of Voxel, general templates will no longer be created automatically and can be deleted. This will help keep the admin experience cleaner by enabling only the parts of Voxel that you need for your project.

In a blank installation, a Create button will appear in the list of actions for each template. After creating the template, the following options are available for each template:

  • Edit the template: Edits that template using the page builder
  • View: Previews the template in front-end
  • More: Allows you to change the template ID
  • Delete: Deletes the template from the site. The template can be recreated if needed.

To learn more about general templates, view the documentation article

Header and Footer

In WP admin ➝ Theme builder ➝ Header & Footer, you can create unlimited headers and footers to be used on different parts of the site.

By default, a base header and footer template is available. To overwrite these templates in certain locations and under certain conditions, you can create new header and footer templates by pressing Create template button

The actions available for custom templates are:

  • Set label
  • Select conditions
  • Edit template
  • View template
  • Delete
  • Change ID

Custom templates can be re-ordered by drag and drop. The order defines their priority when conditions are evaluated during page rendering.

Conditions

To support the new functionality, some new conditions are added to cover different cases

  • Is page: Lets you target a specific page on your site
  • Is single post: Lets you target the single post of a specific post type. If no post type is selected, it’s applied to all.
  • Is post type archive: Lets you target the archive page of a specific post type. Similar to single post, if no post type is selected, it is applied to all
  • Is author profile: Lets you target the profile based on user ID
  • Is single term: Lets you target the single term template based on taxonomy and term ID. If no term ID is provided, it is applied to all terms on that taxonomy. If no taxonomy is selected, it is applied to all terms site wide
  • Is 404 page: Lets you target the 404 page
  • Is homepage: Lets you target the site homepage
  • URL parameter: Use a URL parameter as condition

Post type templates

In WP admin ➝ Theme builder, all the post types you are managing with Voxel will be listed. Each item is a shortcut that links to the post type editor Templates tab.

Post type templates are split into four groups

Base templates

Each post type has four base templates, that are utilized by default unless overwritten

  • Single post
  • Preview card
  • Archive
  • Create post

If you don’t need to support front-end submission for a post type, you can permanently delete the Create post template

Single post

In the Single post tab, you can create additional single post templates which can override the base template under certain conditions. For example, you can apply a different design based on the author’s membership plan. The entire stack of Voxel conditions is at your disposal when applying conditions to templates.

All these templates are optional, can be renamed, edited and deleted. Similar to Headers & Footers, you can change their order via drag and drop which will affect their priority when conditions are evaluated.

The two other groups are Preview cards and Template tabs. Other than UI, there’s no change to these two groups from previous versions.

To learn more about post type templates, view the documentation article

Membership roles

Membership roles can be used to separate your users into different groups. For example, in a business directory site you can make available a user role for regular users who browse your site, and business users who submit their businesses. You can then tailor their experience using various tools Voxel offers such as visibility rules.

Roles created and managed with Voxel are WordPress user roles, but as they are intended for front-end use, their capabilities in terms of WordPress permissions are based on the default Subscriber user role WordPress provides.

Managing roles

In WP admin ➝ Membership ➝ Roles, you can create and manage user roles. By default, in a blank installation you should see the Subscriber role. This role is added by WordPress itself and can be managed with Voxel. If you don’t create other roles, any users registered on your site will be assigned this role.

If there are roles with equal permissions to Subscriber added by 3rd party plugins or code, they will be made visible and can be managed with Voxel aswell.

Roles with higher permissions cannot be managed with Voxel by default for security reasons, though that ability can be enabled via code snippet. For more details, get in touch with Voxel customer support.

Role registration settings:

Enable user registration for this role:
User role selection can be made available in the front-end user registration form Voxel provides. Enabling this option features this role in that registration form

Enable social login for this role:
Enable the ability to login via Google for users who pick this role

After registration is complete:
Select the post registration flow for this role. The available options are:

  • Show welcome screen: Shows the registration welcome screen which asks the user whether they want to complete profile or skip and return where they were prior to registration
  • Redirect to where the user left off: Post registration, the user is returned where they were prior to registration. This path is recommended for regular users as they may be performing an action such as messaging or submitting an order when they were prompted to register
  • Custom redirect: Redirect user to a specific area of your site. For example, in a business directory site, you might want to redirect them to the Business listing submission page. Custom redirect supports Voxel dynamic tags aswell.

Role registration fields

In this tab you can select the Profile fields that you want to make available during user registration for this role.

Profile fields can be created in WP-admin ➝ Post types ➝ edit Profiles post type.

Fields that you create in the Profiles, will be made available when editing the role.

Role settings related to membership plans

Enable membership plans for this role:

This option allows users will this role to buy or subscribe to a membership plan

Show plans during registration:

This option displays membership plan selection for this role during user registration process

Pricing page template: This template can be used to display membership plans available for this role. Each role has its own pricing template which is used during registration process aswell as plan switching process. In that page, you can display the plans that you want to make available for that role

Membership plans

When editing a membership plan in WP-admin ➝ Plans, you can now select the roles that that plan should be available for under General ➝ Supported roles

  • All: Supports every user role
  • Custom: Manually set supported roles

Plan submission limits

In the Post submissions tab, you can setup the post submission settings for users with this membership plan.

In the right sidebar, the post types available in your site are listed. Clicking on a post type will make that post type available for submission. The options available are split into two sub-tabs

Limits

Allows you to set the post limit for that post type and pick the statuses that count towards that limit:

  • Submitted posts: All published and pending posts
  • Active posts: All published posts
  • Custom: Manually set which statuses count toward limit

Additions

Using plan additions, you can allow the customer to extend submission limits of their membership plan for an additional cost per post.

When a customer tries to submit a post after reaching their plan limits, a prompt will be shown asking them to either switch plan or increase limits of current plan. The subscription price is modified if customer increases limits.

Custom expiration rules.

Custom expiration rules will be made available next week with 1.2.1 update

Front-end

Current plan (VX) widget

Current plan widget now includes a link to Configure plan, and ability to Switch Role

Configure plan (VX) widget

The Configure plan (VX) widget allows the customer to increase the submission limits of their membership plan, assuming their plan allows that.

This widget must be added in the Configure plan template which can be found under General templates

This page can be accessed any time by the customer. There’s a button in the Current plan (VX) widget which links to it.

In some cases customers are required to go through this page and are redirected automatically to it. This happens when the customer is trying to switch to a lower plan that does not cover their existing published posts. In that case, if the number of allowed posts is not increased, recent posts will be unpublished upon switching to that plan.

Post submission

The Create post (VX) widget will evaluate the capabilities of the user and display relevant messages if the user cannot proceed with submissions

When the plan does not allow submissions on that post type, the following message will display

When the plan does support submissions on that post type, but the user has reached their allowed limit, the following message appears

When the user has reached their limits, but their plan allows extending limits then an additional button is shown for that purpose

Clicking on the Increase limits button sends the user to the Configure plan template

once increasing the limits and upgrading they are returned to post submission

Expired and Unpublished post statuses

These two new statuses are now added to complement the new features. Make sure you enable then in the post type editor and press reindex under Indexing status.

Publish post / Unpublish post action

Two new actions available in Action List (VX) widget to Publish and Unpublish post.

Registration form

Roles that you make available for registration are displayed in the front-end registration form. Based on role selection, different fields and general flow based on your settings will be utilized.

Demos

The City demo is updated to take advantage of latest features. Other demos will be updated next week. We’ll also include the documentation site as a demo.

Some other stuff


Hope you enjoy this update. If you have any questions, feel free to submit a support ticket.

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