Plugins
When I started to design my website, I quickly realized that I would need to install plugins because WordPress is designed to be as light as possible at its core. In addition, WordPress has opened its platform to developers so that they can create plugins according to the needs of a website. Choosing its plugins sparingly is not always an easy task. The main criteria that I would mention are :
- The number of active installations, which gives us an immediate guarantee on the quality of the plugin.
- Its latest update, for obvious reasons of support.
- Its freeware or its price.
- The popularity and the comments of other users
We also discover new plugins every month as new ones are created. Sometimes, we abandon a plugin because it hasn’t been updated for a long time or because some bugs haven’t been fixed.
Here is the list of plugins used in my website.
Elementor
I will start this list with the most important one, Elementor. Elementor is a page builder. My entire site is based on it. I chose Elementor because it’s currently the most accomplished and installed page builder, not to say it’s the best. Elementor comes in two plugins, the first one is free and allows you to make relatively simple websites. The paid version, on the other hand, allows you to go much further. Among other things, it allows you to create templates, which you can reuse or adapt on all the pages of the sites. Elementor Pro also comes with a range of widgets (objects that you place on the pages). I’m not going to list them here, it would be too long, but I’m going to mention two of them.
The first is the “Posts” widget, which allows you to dynamically display all the articles contained in your site.
The second is the “Forms” widget, which allows you to create an interface that the end user will use to interact with your site.
CPT UI
The second plugin that is almost indispensable for any website that wants to create a custom content type is CPT UI. I’m already hearing some spiteful people telling me that there’s no need to install a plugin to create custom post types, that it can be done by code in PHP. I would answer yes, but that the plugin offers quite a wide range of possibilities and configurations and that it is much simpler to manage them with a graphical interface.
ACF Pro
The following plugin is also available in a free and paid version. ACF was free for a long time, but they finally released a paid version that has some very interesting features. Personally, on my site, I use it for image galleries and for cloning fields for English translation. I refer you to the ACF site for more information.
Dynamic conditions RTO
This is also one of the most important plugins on my site. I was surprised that Elementor didn’t provide this possibility to display or hide a widget under certain conditions, whereas they do, for example, for the different modes of responsiveness (desktop, tablet, mobile). As you will have understood, DC RTO allows you to display or hide elements under certain conditions.
Ele Custom Skin
This plugin allows you to customize the design of your posts when you display them on an archive page, your home page or any list. Ele Custom Skin works only in couple with Elementor. It allows you to create and display what is called WordPress jargon, the loop, that is to say, all the publications responding to a certain request.
WP Mail SMTP
This plugin, as its name clearly indicates, will be used to send emails using a mail server external to the hosting provider. Most hosting providers offer only very limited possibilities to the messaging service offered with hosting. Or the service becomes paying. With WP Mail SMTP, you can reconfigure the sending of messages using free platforms like Google.
Polylang Pro et Polylang connect for Elementor
Polylang is a paying plugin, even if its version is basically free.
As its name suggests, Polylang is a plugin that allows to translate the content of its site into several languages. There are others, but I liked Polylang for its simplicity and its ability to translate a theme with integrated functions. I won’t explain here in detail the other arguments for or against Polylang, I will certainly do it in another publication.
Polylang connect for Elementor is a third party plugin that was not developed by Polylang, but by an autonomous contributor. It mainly allows to use Polylang with templates created in Elementor.
Central Color Palette
This plugin allows you to create color palettes, an essential task for the creation of a website. It is compatible with the Gutenberg editor. It also allows to export and import the palette, to display HEX codes and especially to be able to use them in CSS (style sheets). It’s for this last feature that I mainly use Central Color Palette.
It should be noted that since version 3.0, Elementor has decided to create its own color management and that it is embedded in the page design interface. Nevertheless, Central Color Palette is an excellent plugin for creating a palette that can be copied manually into Elementor’s settings. Central Color Palette is compatible with Gutenberg and also gives you the possibility to use class names to use colors in your style sheets.
Simple Comment Editing
But why didn’t WordPress implement the possibility for a visitor to correct his comment if it doesn’t suit him? Anyone can write an idiocy that he will regret to have published, even more when it is a comment. Or you simply notice that you misspelled some words and it is simply impossible to correct yourself after publication. The Simple Comment Editing plugin allows you to do it and it’s much nicer that way.
Wp-Optimze
There are a good dozen optimization plugins available. I chose this one for two reasons.
The first reason is that it allows to delete the tables that some plugins have created. Nothing more annoying when your database fills up with useless tables because you have tested a plugin and decide not to keep it.
The second reason is “draft” publications. WordPress creates draft publications when you start writing a publication and converts it to “published” status when you decide to put it online. It often happens that a publication abandoned along the way remains active under draft status but no longer appears in the list of publications. Wp-Optimize then does wonders when it comes to cleaning up.
Dashboard Welcome for Elementor
DWE doesn’t really have a basic function, it’s more just to make a nice design. It allows you to customize the edit page with a template created with Elementor. It becomes even nicer, when you decide to open your website to other contributors and create a custom work environment, which I did.
Code Syntax Block
Code Syntax Block is a plugin that can only be used with the Gutenberg content editor. It allows you to create text blocks whose content is formatted according to the programming language used. Its purpose is to highlight the lines of code that we would like to explain in a publication. It relies on a library called “Prism“. It is possible to use Code Syntax Block in stand-alone mode, but it works even better when it is linked to the “Prism” library.
WP GPX Maps
I’m going to finish this long list with a plugin specialized in displaying road and/or cycling maps based on a GPS file that we upload. There are also other plugins that do about the same thing, but I chose this one for its simplicity and its wide possibility to activate or not certain features. I’ll come back to the creation of my “Tracks” section, in another publication.
