Question re changelog for 4.0.6

Hello @abigailm,

we needed to remove the custom post/page options, decreased font families and amount of sliders.

Is there any change to the bootstrap slider?

Does decrease in font families mean that a font I had previously specified might now be discontinued?

Is there a place where you have posted a detailed list of which features (including fonts) are no longer supported?

I appreciate all of the work you do to keep Evolve consistently updated, but it is a huge problem for those of us with developed sites when updates change the function of appearance of our sites– so I really would appreciate specific information ahead of time. For me, it is the difference between an update process that takes a few minutes and one that requires many hours of my time on a live site with critical functions.

OK, I created a cloned staging site and upgraded there (from 4.0.5 to 4.0.6) and it looks like features that are no longer available in 4.0.5 are displaying correctly.

I have also reviewed the information at https://theme4press.com/evolve-multipurpose-wordpress-theme/

Am I correct in these assumptions:

1) Fonts: From version 4.0.6 on, there are only 3 Google Fonts that may be selected from customizer. However, for sites being upgraded from earlier 4x versions, the previous font selections will be preserved? (However, they may be lost if the site administrator makes other changes via customizer and does a save which overrides the previous selection).

2) Slider: The number of slides available in the free version is now restricted. So, for example, I have the Bootstrap slider with 3 slides — but going forward, the customizer can only allow selection of 2 slides. However, with an upgrade the database selection from the previous version is preserved, so my 3rd slide will still be enabled — but I would not be able to use the customizer to modify or change that slide going forward using the free version?

Am I correct that there is also no longer a native way to export theme settings? (I can’t find it as an option anymore in the customizers).

@abigailm hello! yes you are true. We have many changes! 2 slides in bootstrap but the big problem is the fonts. My site is in Greek and the options for fonts now have gone away….It took me 3 hours to change my site from open sans to roboto(which i dont like) to fix alignments etc… Also i had 5 sliders and now there’s no reason for me to have 2 of them. So i’ve disabled and the second one. Well, big changes and i think @romik84 should name the update as evolve 5.0 and not evolve 4.0.6.

@nickpapag — how did you upgrade? And were you upgrading from 4.0.5, or from an earlier version?

After I tested on a staging site, I went ahead and upgraded (taking care to first back up the database, of course)– and all my font settings were preserved. I only have one slider, but it is a bootstrap slider with 3 slides, even though now the theme allows for only 2 — but that slide was preserved as well.

I’d note that I am using a child theme and I did not activate the parent theme at any point during the upgrade process. So perhaps that is a reason that my previous settings were preserved while yours appear to have been overridden.

I have verified that my settings are intact – I made sure to clear all caches
So my assumption is that the settings already in the database would be preserved with the upgrade, but potentially overridden in the future if changes are made via the wordpress customizer. I opted to go ahead with the upgrade, because for me it is unlikely that I will make significant changes to site layout & typography in the near future.

I agree with you that the changes should have warranted a change to version number up to 5.0, because they represent a reduction in theme functionality and are not backwards compatible.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 9 months ago by Abigailm.

@abigailm you are totally right! The update was from 4.0.5 to 4.0.6. It’s true that i had no problem with my settings without a child theme. 5 slides there, open sans fonts ok, but i saw a problem with the infinite scroll in blog preview. So i used customizer to see if something happened and see all the changes. I use to update at once theme and plugins, and thats the reason that i know all of the good boys and girls in this forum ??
Well it’s in my character that can’t use “medium” solutions so i made all the changes for the theme with the settings as 4.0.6. offers. I can’t blame 100% @romik84 for the changes. He has a premium version and he makes his living from this. I can understand the slider but i cannot understand the Fonts!!! The fonts are critical for the total experience. And my site is in Greek so the options have gone. And i’ve passed all this again in August form Verdana to Open Sans. Now, back again!

Did you by any chance do a database backup before the update? If so you should be able to restore settings as they were before. And then you would also have the option to roll back to the earlier version and delay further updates until you have a system in place to preserve preferences.

I agree with you that a greater selection of fonts is important. But it is also true that that I with most other free themes it is common for features to be limited without an upgrade to premium.

You can also probably restore fonts by hard coding all specifications from before into your custom css. Of course much easier if you can first restore from database to see what they all are. I did make my own copy of current customizer settings so I will have that on hand for the future, in case I accidentally override by making other changes in customizer.

You may also have the option to install plugins that give you the functions you need. More fonts, sliders, maybe also infinite scroll.

Hello guys, the changes we made were for WP requirements, as some parts are plugin territory and some changes are made as of part for continue development of the free theme. We are not able to continue development of the theme if we don’t provide some extra features in the premium version ??

@romik84
Romik you already know that we are evolve addicted and many of us understand what u offer. The problem is that you give us 2-3 times a year, a shock with some changes that need a lot of work from our side. And some of us do this for free, and not for job ??
The point now is… this version has all the changes or we ‘ll face more cuts in the next?

Sorry for writing in @abigailm ‘s thread.

@nickpapag I prepare a kind of a compensation, like a government to people ??

Actually I am happy for others to post in this thread because I think it is important and helpful for others to know what the changes are in version 4.0.6 so everyone can prepare.

I now see is NOT a problem for most design elements on updates as long as no subsequent changes are made via customizer.

But very, very important to back up the database before upgrade!

Here are some other plugins that may be helpful for upgrade process:

My favorite: https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/wp-rollback/ (this gives the ability to go back to the previous theme version with a simple click) (But note – if there are changes to the customization options, rollback alone cannot restore those — you would need to also restore from the database for that).

Also helpful: https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/wp-staging/ (This lets you set up a staging site on your own system that is an exact copy of your site so you can safely test out the upgrade without making changes to your live site)

https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/customizer-export-import/ (This is another way to export customizer settings —so you can use that to backup before upgrade or after you have upgraded, as protection in case you accidentally overwrite settings in the customizer later on.)

https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/wp-database-backup/ (This is my personal favorite for backing up the database — I put it on all my sites — but there are also many other options for database backup, some that are even more popular. But I always, always, always make a database backup before updating evolve and many other themes and plugins.).

@romik84 — is there an online page that shows the current rules for WordPress theme developers that you have mentioned (“WP requirements, as some parts are plugin territory”)

As Romik says that some parts are “plugin territory” – here is a link to a plugin to replace all fonts– but note that I haven’t used this and don’t know how well it integrates with Evolve.

Fonts: https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/easy-google-fonts/

Romik — thank you for all that you do. I do agree that it is right and fair for you to hold back extra features for the premium version. I just think it would help if you would let your existing users know very clearly about the changes as it is not too difficult to prepare for them, but much harder to fix a site after things have been lost or messed up.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 9 months ago by Abigailm.

@abigailm thanks for your info. One more time you’re trying to help with your experience in this forum. About the fonts, i know the plugin but i use already 10 plugins and i’m trying to get rid of the most of them. i’m pretty busy to create the content for my school’s site and don’t want to mess with one more plugin. Well now all runs smooth, i don’t have the slider but finally it’s not a big problem. The truth is that evolve after last summer with the new changes is really fast, and still i see beautiful sites with it. So we’re moving forward with the new version. Thank u again!!!

The ‘Easy Google Fonts’ plugin does allow for the use of Google fonts, but in a very roundabout way and not integrated with the theme at all. It also requires manually adding the CSS tags for lots of parts of the site, since the plugin by default only works on paragraphs and headings. Though it is probably a good solution for those not willing or able to dig into the theme’s code.

On that note, I’m trying to make a child theme that does include all the Google fonts like it was in evolve 4.0.5, but this being my first adventure into php and the WordPress backend, I’m a bit stuck at the moment. Replacing evolve/inc/admin/customizer/kirki-framework/modules/webfonts/webfonts.json with the same file from evolve 4.0.5 appears to bring all the font choices back, however I haven’t managed to make it work in a child theme. If anyone else is doing something similar and has any pointers I’d love to hear it.

@romik84, if you have any objections to public discussion of this subject, please let me know. If this is something that could hurt sales of your paid theme I will remove it immediately.

Hi @spartelfant, evolve same like other themes is a free GPL compatible theme so you can do any modifications to it as you like, even share your finds/implementations/hacks/ideas ??

Hi @romik84, thank you. You’re right of course about the GPL, but this being the support forum for your theme, I could imagine you might not like it or deem it outside of the scope of this forum. The GPL makes it legal, not necessarily polite ??