Widgetkit 3.0 – Completely Rebuilt with UIkit 3
Surprise, it's time for another long-awaited update – say hello to Widgetkit 3. It's been almost 5 years since the last major update, and today we are bringing Widgetkit to the UIkit 3, and therefore also YOOtheme Pro ecosystem. We completely modernized Wigetkit by refactoring the administration and all its widgets with UIkit 3. It now makes use of all UIkit 3 features and benefits. Additionally, we added new options to the widgets, and made some general improvements. Let's get into details.
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UIkit 3 Features
Finally, Widgetkit got rid of UIkit 2 and all its outdated JavaScripts. This is a huge step for Widgetkit since it heavily uses the UIkit JavaScripts for all its widget effects. Not only were they greatly improved, but the file size also got about 25% smaller. This, in addition to the removed jQuery dependency, significantly improves your site's speed.
Now slideshows and sliders support touch and swipe navigation as well as mouse drag for desktops. You can control the animation with your fingertips, and it even accelerates to keep up with your pace. Background videos used in slideshows and sliders will play automatically when you scroll through the slides, autopause when you move to the next slide and start playing again where you left off when you swipe back. Widetkit now uses the lightweight SVG icon system from UIkit and no longer requires loading FontAwesome. The parallax effect, the masonry layout and filtering options for the Grid and Gallery widgets can now be used in any combination, and they will work seamlessly together. And these are just the main improvements, there is so much more to discover in the detail.
New Widget Settings
We also added some missing options to the widgets. There is an additional x-large breakpoint option for larger screens and a new HTML element setting for titles in all widgets, which is great for SEO. The animation setting got new small and medium offset options for the slide animations. The List widget has more list type options like bullet, divider, hyphen and more, and the Map widget now uses Algolia Places instead of the Google API for geocoding.
YOOtheme Pro Integration
Since YOOtheme Pro also uses UIKit 3, Widgetkit will not load UIkit and instead will adapt the YOOtheme Pro style. You can see how Widgetkit looks like with all the different YOOtheme Pro styles on our demo server. Additionally, there is a new Widgetkit element in YOOtheme Pro that allows you to load any widget into the YOOtheme Pro page builder. It opens the Widgetkit administration as you are used to in a modal where you can select and manage your widgets.
Gutenberg Integration
We also integrated Widgetkit 3 into the WordPress Gutenberg editor. Simply add the Widgetkit block to your Gutenberg layout. It will open the Widgetkit administration in a modal just like the YOOtheme Pro Widgetkit element.
3rd-Party Theme Integration
Widgetkit 3 improves the integration with themes from another theme provider. UIkit will now be loaded in the scope mode so the Widgetkit and theme CSS will not interfere with each other. This means the CSS which comes with Widgetkit is only applied to the widgets and will not affect the theme markup. Additionally, its CSS specificity got higher, so it's more robust against the theme CSS.
Migration and Breaking Changes
As it usually is with major updates, there are always things that get changed or removed. In UIkit 3 some slideshow animations got replaced with new ones. The UIkit 2 Slideset component with all its animations got removed, and it's functionality was replaced by the Set option in the UIkit 3 slider. UIkit 3 comes with its own SVG icons instead of FontAwesome, which is why the icon selection is different in Widgetkit 3. For you this all means that your widgets may look slightly different, but there are no further actions required.
The Slideshow component in UIkit 3 has a mandatory ratio option, which is set to 16:9 by default. This means if you are using the Slideshow, Grid Slider or Slideshow Panel widgets, you have to set the required ratio. The easiest way is to use the width and height of your slideshow images, for example, 1600:750.
Of course, if you are using UIkit 2 HTML classes in your content, you have to update them to UIkit 3. The same applies to custom widgets or custom content providers which need to be updated to UIkit 3. Otherwise, they will break both in the site and Widgetkit administration.
Who is Widgetkit 3 for?
Depending on the theme you are using, there are different recommendations on whether you should use Widgetkit 3.
| Theme | Recommendation |
|---|---|
| YOOtheme Pro | If your site is built with YOOtheme Pro, there should be no need to use Widgetkit. Use it only if you need a Widgetkit feature not available in YOOtheme Pro. |
| Warp Theme | If your site is built with one of our old Warp themes, we strongly recommend to switch to YOOtheme Pro. Just two weeks ago we announced that we are sunsetting Warp 7 themes. The update to Widgetkit 3 will allow you to keep all your Widgetkit content and make the migration to YOOtheme Pro much easier. Widgetkit will adapt perfectly to your chosen YOOtheme Pro style. If for some reason you are forced to stay with the Warp theme, do not update to Widgetkit 3 because its style will no longer adapt to the chosen Warp theme. Mind that this also means you will stay with outdated software since both Warp and Widgetkit 2 are no longer maintained. |
| 3rd-Party Theme | If your site is built with a theme from another theme provider, the Widgetkit 3 update is just right for you. It will bring all your Widgetkit Galleries, Slideshows and Sliders up-to-date with the latest UIkit 3 JavaScripts and all the new features. |
Mind that Widgetkit 3 is only available with a Widgetkit subscription. Now go ahead and check out Widgetkit 3 yourself. As always, let us know what you think in the comments below.
Update (29 January)
As promised, we have created a tutorial on how to migrate your Warp 7 site with Widgetkit to YOOtheme Pro.
brian.peat
hanna
However, you still have access to Widgetkit 2 with your theme subscription because of the Warp 7 themes.
sara.karakach
In the message of Sascha I see: "A really huge YOOtheme Pro 2.4 release with tons of new features in planned for early February, together with a new theme package which will demonstrate the new 2.4 features."
So my question is: are they (the new YOOtheme Pro or the new theme package) are going to be included in the subsription or will any of them also to be bought additionally?
hanna
The same applies to the Widgetkit update now. If you have a Widgetkit subscription, the update to Widgetkit 3 is included.
chris.gilroy
hanna
If you are using a Warp theme, do NOT update to Widgetkit 3. If you are using a YOOtheme Pro theme, you do not need Widgetkit at all.
matreas
viktor.horst.17
hanna
The ZOO 4 update is made for YOOtheme Pro. You don't have many advantages compared to ZOO 3 if you are using a Warp theme. The same applies to Widgetkit 3 which we recommend NOT to use if you are still using a Warp theme.
Basically, your customers need neither ZOO 4 nor Widgetkit 3.
antonis.pavlidis
Also do not forget that back in the days Wordpress Themes were not included in the same license with Joomla Themes, so it was 300 + 300 euros a year for something it now costs 300.
sara.karakach
Last year huge updates came in YTP. So absolutely no complaint about what we got, even if there were no themes at all (and there were themes)
But if I look back: from November each update which came was about something extra. So you wait for something: oh, yes, it comes but you have to pay for it extra. Then the next one: same story. And in the announcements there is not like: we are working on this and this but be aware that also the policy changes.
YTP does not have all the functionality which Widgetkit has. And if everything which Widgetkit has now comes with the "latest and greatest" YTP 2.4 then this is all ok. I understand the whole rationale behind selling additional product. But I just want to know what to expect, in terms of policy and not in terms of deliverables (which I already know is difficult to predict)
hanna
snowpeak
It's a big difference between Widgetkit and Yootheme Pro. Some effects you have in widgetkit you don't have in YTPro, like Gridslider e.t.c. You cant build the effect some way as in widgetkit.
I hope in 2.4 we really got some new Elements, and possibility ta have more fields in them. Now I have rebuilt and created advanced Elements for grid and slider to use Z4 integrated the way I want for my sites.
eero
jamessmith
Sharat
stephan.herby
hanna
Widgetkit 2 was never officially part of the theme subscription. We only added it because it was essential for the Warp theme demo packages. Since Widgetkit 3 is neither needed for Warp 7 themes nor for YOOtheme Pro, it's not included in the theme subscription. Widgetkit is a stand-alone product, and therefore of course requires its own subscription.
Nevertheless, you still have access to Widgetkit 2 with your theme subscription. And even the ZOO 3 free version is still available.
eero
Now that Widgetkit is using UIkit 3, I wonder what happens when UIkit 4 comes along, which is listed as "next on todo list" on the Yootheme Pro roadmap.
hubert.cole
hanna
reinder.herder
I kind of frustrating this.
My Joomla install tells me there should be an update for the Widgetkit 2. Now I see it is not an update but an upgrade and not free (included in the normal subscription) anymore. But what when I do not want this because I have to pay extra? The announcement will stay there.....
Sorry....
gracia.eric
Because of the breaking changes, I think you should disable the automatic update from Widgekit 2 to Widgetkit 3 and let the ones who needs this update to download it and install it manually.
Like you did with Widgetkit 1 and Widgetkit 2 (even if it's a bit different today because the jump from 2 to 3 is smaller than was from 1 to 2 !)
joshgilson
nicolas.depeyre
riiid
lucado
stefan.bauer.63
sascha
stefan.bauer.63
stefan.bauer.63
//disable plugin-update because WK3 destroys theme
function filter_plugin_updates( $value ) {
unset( $value->response['widgetkit/widgetkit.php'] );
return $value;
}
add_filter( 'site_transient_update_plugins', 'filter_plugin_updates' );
ann.maree.imrie
g128
I just tested version 3 in a UIkit 3 environment (Template from another provider).
Works well !
Just a problem with the save button.
The message "Project saved!" no longer appears at the top but at the bottom and half visible.
sandstorm871
hanna
Check the Widgetkit page to see which widgets will be updated.
giacomo.bruzzo
upgraded to 3.0 on our testing site.
- Some CSS will have to be replaced.
- Gutenberg blocks is great, works well.
- widgetkit tries to load
/vendor/assets/uikit/js/components/accordion.min.js?ver=5.x
and
/vendor/assets/uikit/js/components/slideset.min.js?ver=5.x
these are not there anymore.
there is a dependency somewhere that should be removed - cannot quite figure out where.
- other than this still testing.
Giacomo
giacomo.bruzzo
chiodi.marco
I can't understand this price fragmentation policy, maybe you want to impress all your lovers?
The fragmentation between Standard and Developer makes logical sense, but this separation of widgetkit makes no sense since up to widgetkit 2 the same was included.
Since we have already had an increase in the cost of the package, for example my Standard from 79 has risen to 96, and this change does not seem very correct to me even if I respect your decisions.
I think you will have a lot of people popping up on your desk, and keep in mind that no new template work has been released in the meantime, and from various discussions your aficionados have been sympathetic to your effort to improve YTP.
I only ask that this understanding be rewarded by your pricing policy.
With love
hanna
Widgetkit was only part of the theme subscription because it was essential for the Warp theme demo packages. But that's definitely not the case any more with YOOtheme Pro. On the contrary, we recommend NOT to use Widgetkit if you are already using YOOtheme Pro since you simply don't need it. Widgetkit 3 is mainly for someone who uses themes from another theme provider.
Widgetkit and ZOO have not had any updates for a long time. So now that both are released, we will continue with YOOtheme Pro, and you can look forward to new theme packages.
chiodi.marco
this does not seem to me to be said that it has not changed
Order Details
Date: 06-25-2020
Joomla Standard Renewal
YOO-10-J-G-R1 96,00 €
Order Details
Date: 05-25-2018
Joomla Standard Renewal
YOO-10-J-G-R1 79,00 €
just to answer and close here I do not want to raise controversy about it.
Thanks for the good work
hanna
----------------------------------------------
Theme Basic: 49€ | 60€ *
Theme Standard: 99€ | 120€
Theme Developer: 299€ | 300€ **
Widgetkit Standard: 39€ | 39€
Widgetkit Developer: 59€ | 59€
ZOO Standard: 119€ | 119€
ZOO Developer: 179€ | 179€
*) The theme Basic subscription changed its duration from 3 to 12 months.
**) The theme Developer subscription includes both WordPress and Joomla for the price of one. Before you had to pay 600€ for both.
So yes, the theme Standard subscription was the only subscription which got an increase in price, but the Basic subscription is basically cheaper because of its duration, and the Developer one costs half the price if you needed both WordPress and Joomla.
chiodi.marco
eero
- Yootheme Pro users: No need to buy anything extra. Great!
- Current Widgetkit license holders: No need to pay anything extra, instead you got a great update.
- Old warp users: No need to buy anything extra, as the new version doesn't work on your sites.
- Expired Widgetkit license holders: Great update, extra value, same old price.
Nothing to complain here, move along, move along... :D
eero
chiodi.marco
it is not complaining about the prices, and only specifying some things that were previously included and are now paid.
I understand that you are a PRO and nothing has changed for you, but for a small one like me and perhaps many others we have a jump of € 201 to go from standard to developer, and many times this affects the expenses that one does not expect
eero
Warp had widgetkit included, because the widgets were needed in the themes.
Yootheme pro doesn't have widgetkit included, because it already has most of the same widgets included. No need to pay anything.
Warp themes are no longer updated, and wk3 doesn't work with them anyway. No need to pay anything.
Why would you have to pay more now? Or upgrade from standard to developer?
b01.tom
sarki
I have been one of your passionate clients since 2008, but the gradual increase in your costs to ultimately more than double for the same services gives the feeling of having been trapped as by a drug dealer, for me it is is too much drop, too bad ...
eero
thrane
https://www.algolia.com/blog/product/sunseting-our-places-feature/
hanna
carl.gerhard.wieners
richard.l.stoffiere
anna.robinson
And the most upsetting thing about it is not getting any notification ahead about this change of what is included in subscription plans.
On quite a few sites I'm using both YTP and Widgetkit so I don't exactly understand it when you say I don't need Widgetkit with YTP. I don't use Pagebuilder for most articles so I still need Widgetkit for Joomla core articles. Or am I missing something?
supporter
So you do not need Widgetkit anymore if you are using YTP (except that I do not know your exact use of Widgetkit....)
supporter
My bad !!! What I stated above is totally false....
Module Builder only supported on "top" and "bottom" positions.
So you are correct anna.robison you NEED Widgetkit
eero
bozhkov
P.S. I use widgets in an online store environment, they display product options and colors. One widget can be published both in categories and in hundreds of products. Due to the fact that Builder has position restrictions, YTP capabilities are powerless here. Therefore, the Widgetkit continues to be relevant even for new YTP sites.
P.P.S. Please make a label for the gallery. A field with a label can be added, but the label is not displayed on the site.
P.P.P.S There is no pop-up message that the widget has been saved.
hubert.cole
hanna
michele.jordan
adi.heutschi
dezcool
eero
supporter
But I have to admit I was WRONG !!
In some cases YOU NEED Widgetkit even with YTP !!
Like anna.robison stated: how do you use YTP inside a Joomla core article to replace Widgetkit ???
YTP Module Builder is only supported on "top" and "bottom" positions.
"top" and "bottom" positions are clearly not enough to replace Widgetkit....
hanna
supporter
Maybe you can discuss with your team to grant a discount on the Widgetkit annual subscription for existing Page Builder subscribers...
This could be en elegant solution to please everyone ;-)
bozhkov
abacmedia
sven.mediafish
I really don't get it; first you put Warp7 to sleep, then we get some old icons and after that WK3...
I really expected YTPro to have updates every month but more than three month without anything new... quite disappointing.
sean.butterworth
hanna
ermal
tormentor667
hanna
tormentor667
sandro.risi
sean.butterworth
hanna
fred.gravelaine
I pay, do the update and ... crashes my warp 7 site with its custom theme widgets. Thanks to Akeeba backup for their excellent component.
Ok, I lost my money.
I can't install widgetkit 3 on my sites in production, I can't upgrade my warp sites to YTP, my customers wouldn't understand that we have to redo everything from scratch, spending time and money to have the same thing, besides, I can't see myself doing a training on the builder after giving them a training on joomla.
I am thus condemned to not make any more evolve my sites and for those which will follow, I think that I will have to find other solutions.
Just a request, please, could you release a WK2 2.9.28 or 2.9.3 that removes this not very honest update message to WK3
skatespot.dk
skatespot.dk
..and I heavily use Zoolander WK features for google maps ... do you by chance know I this will be able to by migrated (and when ZL has a update for WK 3.x)?
steiermarketing
sven.mediafish
brian.peat
redzero
So I'm just happy to see WK was updated to UIkit 3 and $71/year isn't too bad. I think people would do a little better with the price increase with a little bit of forewarning. Unexpected costs are no fun but are easier to deal with if you know they are coming ahead of time and can plan for them. So in my opinion, YOO should give a little heads up. But otherwise, I think it's understandable. I would suggest, though, maybe adding a new subscription named "Full Developer" (or something like that), which allows customers to get Theme, ZOO and Widgetkit subscription benefits for maybe €399.00 instead of the €478.00 that it currently costs for all three. Just a thought.
Also, I have to say, I think WK is still very useful, even with the YT Builder. It's nice to have those widgets all houses in the same area. It's also nice to be able to use the same widgets on multiple pages sometimes. And I tend to use Widgetkits inside of other Widgetkits, which adds more reason that I like WK all houses in the same area.
Regardless of the cost discussion, I'm very happy to see WK updated and thanks for the great work!
giacomo.bruzzo
We just updated from WK 3.0 to 3.0.2 / Wordpress on our test machine.
We found a bug: It seems that the plugins not caching images any more (grid loads the full images).
As a test we reverted to 3.0, and normal behaviour resumed.
Can you please try and replicate on your side?
Cheers.
kovoks.kovoks
Is there a clear guide somewhere what to do to update a Warp 7 theme with Widgetkit 2 to a yootheme pro theme. I understand that in order to migrate the widgets to yootheme pro one needs to first update widgetkit from 2 to 3 is that correct? And if so: is it easy to update WK2 to 3 or is that a migration process in itself?
Thank you and regards, Marijke
sascha
kovoks.kovoks
Thanks for letting us know!
hanna
kovoks.kovoks
One last question, apologies if you have answered this a million times already: in order to use the Yootheme Pro template and use widgetkit, we have to upgrade widgetkit to 3 right? We can't use YTP and widgetkit 2?
Regards, Marijke
hanna
krisztina.csapo
1. Builder modules can be used only in top or bottom positions.
2. If you use a widget somewhere else (eg. sidebar) on many pages, and you have to modify something, then you have to modify it once in one widget - not in each and every page that uses the same sidebar element with a different template.
3. If you use the Widgetkit Lightbox for JCE (Pro), then you MUST have WK installed, otherwise popups stop working.
I use it on 47 websites, all Joomla, all for a not-for-profit, as a volunteer. The organization has a dev subscription which included WK for years, since 2017, when there were no dynamic content elements and other goodies implemented in YTP in the past 3 years - what was missing that time I solved with WK. So there is no other choice than buy it at a time when donations dropped significantly due to the current situation in the world.
Encouraging developers to use outdated software that is not developed any more sounds strange for me - it is against all security standards. For those who use only Joomla, including WP for free in the dev subscription does not help. Doing this overnight without any further notice is beyond my comprehension.
No, I am not happy at all with these changes, for single website clients with their own licenses, the increase in costs is exactly the DOUBLE of what they paid for it insofar. Has anyone noticed that we are in the middle of a pandemic and economic crisis?
hanna
krisztina.csapo
andrew.crossan
formations
hanna
alexey.pyatanov
2. I agree with the other users! Subscribing to YOOtheme Pro is very expensive. The product is interesting, but the prices are high.
I write through a translator. Sorry if the translation is not accurate.
moloseb
When logged in in the builder, the images are loaded in a canvas and they resize just how you configure it.
But when you quit the builder the images are loaded to their full size / they do not resize/crop or whatever you configured.
( Wondering if it has to do with your last update noted in the changelog:
"Fix background image resizing with lazy loading disabled"?)
Sorry for posting here, but no one reacted to that support issue and that is quite disfiguring some websites :-(
brian.peat
Still, I don't understand why that feature has still not been added natively to the builder. So every time someone says "all the features of WK are in the builder, you no longer need WK" my answer is, this is simply not true. There's no current way (without building a custom element) to get a slide show (meaning one panel at a time with navigation) that consists of an image on the left and content on the right. I'd leave WK behind if I could finally find a solution to that.
nycreate
akcreation
Many thanks,
Keith
hanna
akcreation
lloyd.13
newhallklein
paul.krijgsman
The work that needed to be done to update WK costs money so it makes sense to ask for people to pay for it. And be honest, do a customer project and you charge it. With the next projects you do that again and again. Or you could create a plan for your customers to do yearly upgrades and updates and charge it then.
jemmyn
ronald.wegert
thomas.venugopal.19
marin.web.designer
hubert.cole
hanna
miljan
hubert.cole