The Show Continues????

John's Intro:

It's Episode 597 and we have plugins for Poets of the Mail, Duplicating… and WordPress News. It's all coming up on WordPress Plugins A-Z!

– ‘good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you happen to be hiding out there on the globe today! Coming to you LIVE from …'

Amber's Rant:

Welcome to Episode 597 – The Show Continues???? – enjoy our lovey, still rather new setup for the show, let us know if you can think of anything that should be added, removed or changed!

Regarding other things, my crazy cats seem to be going nuts with Spring Fever, so maybe get yourself out there before you too start singing to the walls and trying to climb them! Not sure about where everyone listening in is located, but for the Island I am very much enjoying the beginning of the warm season! If you grow things, better get your seedlings in soon to get a good start on your garden if you are in the right area!

Some reminders before we start the show today….

Reminders:

• The show's face has changed, time and day has not. We will be keeping the show on Monday's at noon-thirty PDT with our usual pre-stream at 12:15 pm PDT. Come and join us in the pre-stream while we twiddle the dials and pegs and get ready for the show!
• Our show notes for each episode can be found at wppluginsatoz.com – the newest show notes will be up within 24 hours and on our front page!
• Don't forget that this is a value for value show, and that you are a big part of it's creation! You are our producers, and we need you to help us produce! Get out there and hit some like buttons, share an episode or two, and let people know that you help to produce the longest running WordPress Plugins podcast!

That's it for reminders, don't forget to stick around until the end of the show for some possibly life altering advice!

…When you see this in the notes, it means we didn't read this on the show. The only way to find this information out is to read our Show Notes!

…You can send any questions/suggestions or notes saying ‘hi' over to me at amber@wppro.ca, or hit up our site wpppluginsatoz.com/contact – Be creative with the title so that the spammer eater doesn't eat your note though!

Let's start the show with this weeks Featured Artist:

Artist: 

J Saliba

As we have not received anything new lately, we're pulling up some amazing art from our vaults! If you'd like to take a gander at the art vaults yourself, or if you have an idea for some art, head on over to https://wppluginsatoz.com/artwork/.

…We can NEVER have too much art!

Breaking News in the WordPress World at large!! 

…If I missed something, shoot me a link at amber@wppro.ca – it may show up on the next show!

News this week:

WordPress Vulnerability Report – April 19, 2023 (https://ithemes.com/blog/wordpress-vulnerability-report-april-19-2023/) – As usual, there are a lot of plugins that have had vulnerabilities patched. There is also a bit of a hefty list of plugins that currently have unpatched vulnerabilities though. The ones I most easily recognize are:

Enable acceptability, WP EasyPay – square for WordPress, Database Collation Fix, SImple Popup, WP Roles at Registration, and Events made easy.

There a couple of themes that have been patched, and a couple that are having issues. The ones having issues are: Educenter and Blogger Buzz.

Be sure to have a look yourself through the plugins and themes both with patches and with vulnerabilities. You can find the link to this in our show notes.

WooCommerce 7.6 introduces single product details block and ‘add to cart' form block (https://wptavern.com/woocommerce-7-6-introduces-single-product-details-block-and-add-to-cart-form-block) – The two buttons in this latest release may very well save sanity for some! Along with the button, the ‘add to cart' form will automatically display additional options, depending on if the product has a set of available quantity or variations. For those designing with patterns, this release has improved it's mini cart's performance, with content pre-loaded, and an appearance that more closely matches the site's active theme. This new release also makes it easier to get a more consistent design with improved, scalable margins for patterns using the products block. There is more on this, be sure to check out the show notes to find the link to find out more!

WooCommerce launches Woo Express (https://wptavern.com/woocommerce-launches-woo-express) – Woo Express is a new managed hosting product that uses WordPress.com's infrastructure and relieves store owners of the responsibility of hosting and maintenance. The company soft launched Woo Express in early March with a selection of visitors but has concluded that phase and is now open to the public. Check out the show notes for more!

Virtuozzo launches version 2.0 of its application platform for WordPress (https://wptavern.com/virtuozzo-launches-version-2-0-of-its-application-platform-for-wordpress) – Virtuozzo is the software company behind the virtualization and cloud management capabilities of many popular hosting service providers. On their WordPress Platform they enable service providers to sell containerized hosting as a service. Most recent updates introduces a new user interface for WordPress customers that makes it easy to configure resources, adjust scaling, pay invoices, and deploy WordPress sites.

WordPress contributors continue exploring migration of public and private messages from Slack to Matrix (https://wptavern.com/wordpress-contributors-continue-exploring-migration-of-public-and-private-messages-from-slack-to-matrix) – WordPress and Matrix contributors proposed a new Meta team sub-project to explore replacing Slack with Matrix back in early 2023. This would be an open source federated chat system. After this most recent metting between the team, Automattic sponsored contributor Alex Kirk published an update on the status of recent experiments in migration. It is currently being looked into as to whether or not the Apache 2.0 Slack Matrix migration tool could work for this project. When we find out more, we will let you know!

Newly rewritten WordPress SQLite database integration plugin needs testing (https://wptavern.com/newly-rewritten-wordpress-sqlite-database-integration-plugin-needs-testing) – WordPress contributors are making progress on officially supporting SQLite in core, a project that would benefit less complex sites (small to medium sites and blogs) that don’t necessarily require WordPress’ standard MySQL database. In a recent update, Yoast-sponsored core contributor Ari Stathopoulos said the SQLite Database Integration feature plugin has been rewritten, with the help of Automattic-sponsored core contributor Adam Zielinski, to be a more future-proof implementation. To learn more about the code having been written and the proposed next step, be sure to follow the link in the show notes!

You can now eat dinner in space – for just €120K (https://thenextweb.com/news/french-startup-zephalto-space-balloon) – French startup Zephalto has just announced plans to send eager tourists to the stratosphere in a space balloon by 2025. Starting at €120,000 per person, simple six-hour round trip!
“We choose 25 km high because it’s the altitude where you are in the darkness of space, with 98% of the atmosphere below you so that you can enjoy the curvature of the Earth in the blue line. You’re in the darkness of space, but without the zero gravity experience,” Vincent Farret d’Astiès, Zephalto founder and aerospace engineer, told Bloomberg.

Trip includes gourmet meals both before and during the flight, aperitifs, wine tasting, stratographic photography, and the possibility to share the experience instantly with the people back on Earth via Wi-Fi. The capsule would have 20 square metres of interior room, accommodating six passengers and two pilots.

The Extras – check out our Facebook, or Twitter page for even more!

How high-performance car data will increase EV battery performance (https://thenextweb.com/news/high-performance-car-data-informing-battery-performance)

German creatives want EU to address ChatGPT copyright concerns (https://thenextweb.com/news/germany-creatives-chatgpt-copyright-concerns)

EU lawmakers fear AI is moving too fast – and call for global oversight (https://thenextweb.com/news/eu-lawmakers-fear-ai-moving-too-fast-call-for-global-oversight)

AMD is quietly arming an entire new wave of steam deck competitors (https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/21/23693046/amd-steam-deck-competitor-ryzen-z1-extreme-7840u-aokzoe-gpd-asus-ayaneo)

Stack Overflow wants AI to pay up for training on its data too (https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/23/23694818/stack-overflow-wants-ai-companies-to-pay-up-for-training-on-its-data-too)

UK startup space DOTS wants to test space materials… well, in space (https://thenextweb.com/news/uk-startup-space-dots-wants-to-test-space-materials-well-in-space)

Italy's new rules for ChatGPT could become a template for the rest of EU (https://thenextweb.com/news/italys-new-rules-chatgpt-could-become-template-for-rest-of-eu)

The world's first self-driving bus fleet will soon hit Scotland's streets (https://thenextweb.com/news/the-worlds-first-self-driving-bus-fleet-will-soon-hit-scotlands-streets)

Dragon Rating Time!

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John's Plugin

Mail Poet

https://wordpress.org/plugins/mailpoet/

The Lowdown:

Yes, I have covered this in the past and even interviewed the developer before Automatic acquired it. https://wppluginsatoz.com/wp-plugins-a-to-z-interview-47-with-kim-gjerstad-from-mail-poet/

Take control of your mailing list with Mail Poet to become no longer dependent on a 3rd party like Mailchimp.

This also makes your life easier for creating auto emails vs having to manually create it in Mailchimp. You can set it up in multiple ways and integrate it into your e-commerce store such as WooCommerce.

You can have multiple lists and get 1000 free subscribers to use their mailing service or you can use your own mailing service.

You can easily schedule your email for automation and it will automatically pull information and place it in each new newsletter. You can setup campaigns within limitations or integrate coupons into the newsletter to help increase sales. It can also be setup with auto emails for WooCommerce.

Take some time to get it setup right though, this is important as a wrong setup can cause you some grief, as I have experienced.  Once you have this setup, it is easy to use. It is important to protect your list sign up and prevent spamming as much as you can. Use all the tools available such as recaptcha. If you do not do, this you will be working hard to clean the lists up.

Here is a list of features:

All features

• Create and add a newsletter subscription form to your website
• Manage your subscribers and subscriber lists in WordPress
• Build and send newsletters with WordPress
• Create automatic emails to send new post notifications
• Send automated welcome emails
• Behavior and interest-based subscriber segmentation options
• Pre-built and customizable email and subscription form templates
• WooCommerce emails: abandoned cart, first purchase, specific product, product category
• Customize WooCommerce transactional emails
• Reliable email delivery with MailPoet Sending Service (available for free – plan required)
• Basic engagement statistics (available for free) and detailed engagement statistics (paid plan required)
• Multi-condition segmentation (paid plan required)
• Google Analytics integration (paid plan required)
• Support via our Knowledge Base and Community Forums (available for free), and Priority Customer Support (paid plan required).

Rating 4 Dragons

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NEWER SEGMENT! WordPress Tips

This is a new segment we have started bringing forward, and are looking for some feedback from our Producers – like it so far? What else would go well here?

Elementor Pro:

When using the Them Builder, don't forget about the Default Kit. When first getting used to utilizing the Theme Builder in full, I neglected to do anything with the Default Kit, and found myself wondering why the typography and colour's just weren't showing up quite right in the themes all across the board – figured out a little too late that if I had set things up in the Default Kit, then those typography and colour issues I was having would have been solved. Set them in there, and they are added to the global settings for the Theme Builder.

You can also go into the Global Settings for Elementor right from whatever page you are using – I'll talk about that more next show.

Slider Revolution Pro:

When using Slider Revolution, if your home screen for Slider Revolution, where you access your various slides, get's a little wonky, the menu is off kilter, the information is waaaayyyyy down your screen – chances are there is a plugin that is causing this rather than something wrong with the plugin. I found out that a plugin I really liked called Dobby was causing this exact issue – I was unable to solve it though. Once I deactivated the plugin, all was well – I have noticed a couple of other plugins that really just do small things like Dobby – hiding the notices, adding a hello notation at the top, etc – these plugins seem the be the worst culprits for doing this to Slider Revolution. I have come across it 2x so far. I know that generally people look at their plugins first – but a lot of people tend to go for the more intricate plugins they have recently added – when it comes to Slider Revolution, it seems the simpler ones tend to be the culprit.

…Some random entertainment in the World of WordPress!

…Matt's Famous Quotes
https://www.idrlabs.com/quotes/matt-mullenweg.php

…The hall of shame via Automattic:
transparency.automattic.com/tag/hall-of-shame/

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Amber's Plugin

Duplicate Page

https://wordpress.org/plugins/duplicate-page/

The Lowdown:

I came across this in a site that had already been built that I was making small changes in. This plugin is very simple in the free version, though if you are interested there are a lot of features in the pro version.

With this plugin you can create duplicates of pages, posts, and custom posts. Once you have downloaded and activated the plugin, you will find the settings for the plugin on the left hand menu under ‘Settings', ‘Duplicate Page'. In the settings you have the option of choosing Elementor, Gutenberg, or ‘All Editors' for your editor, what status your duplicated page/post will have once made, and where you land once you have duplicated the page/post.

This last part means you can choose to stay on the all pages/posts page, or you can go to the duplicate editing page where you can start editing your duplicate immediately.

There is also an option where you can add a prefix to any duplicated page/post, making it easier to tell which one of the pages or posts are now a duplicate, and which on is the original.

That is the limit of the options in the free version, though I tell you I have found this plugin endlessly useful! Great for creating content with a specific layout where you just change bits of the writing for each post, or if you are needing to create a bunch of spoof pages and posts for a demo site.

These guys do keep the plugin fairly well up to date, though they are not always changing it every few weeks. They tend to throw out updates every few months or so, and they have not changed their interface from what I can tell – which I really appreciate.

They do have a banner at the top of the settings page asking you to rate them, though you can exit out of that and it doesn't seem to come back too often. Not real spammy which is good. And so far as can be seen, there don't seem to be any issues with the plugin not playing nice with others.

In the Pro version you receive the following key features:

• User Roles: Allow User Roles To access Duplicate Page.
• Post Types: Filter to show Duplicate Page link in post types.
• Clone Link Location: Option where to show clone link.
• Status: Option to select Duplicate Posts Status.
• Redirection: Option to Redirect after click on clone link..
• Clone Link Title: Option to change Duplicate Post Link Title.
• Post Prefix: Option to add Post Prefix.
• Post Suffix: Option to add Post Suffix.
• Editor: And Many More Filters and Features.

I have not felt the need for upgrading as I find it very useful at its free level, although I can certainly see the usefulness of having user roles able to do things, filters, and cloning of link locations for particular types of sites.

Rating:  4 Dragons

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Onto our Producer Know How and Donations Segment!

Join in and be part of your own production and support the show at the same time!

Reach out to John and get yourself Interviewed – use us as your tool to get out there!

…Looking for a way to get your name and work out there? Use us as a stepping stone! Hit us up at https://wppluginsatoz.com/interview

Send in your Plugin Reviews, or suggestions for a Plugin reviews!

…Have a plugin you love? Or one you really think people should avoid? Reach out to us and get your words and opinion out into the world by hitting us up at https://wppluginsatoz.com/submit-plugin-review/

Send in your own Plugin License and add it to the contest – this is a great way to get your name and your work out there!

…Is your plugin worth its salt in Dragons? If so, send it on into us and add it to the contests! You can do this by hitting us up at https://wppluginsatoz.com/plugincontest/

Send in questions and/or comments – we always love hearing from our Producers!

…Have a thought to share? Send it in! You can stay anonymous or belt your name out in all caps!

You can support the show by Subscribing to our Newsletter, Donating, or reviewing us on Stitcher Radio, Google Play, or the iTunes Store. Doing this will also help you in producing the show for your own benefit too!

You can check us out on Facebook, or our YouTube Channel! Be sure to hit the ‘like' button and share share share!

…Just showing up to our YouTube Channel and joining us live every Monday at 12:15 PM PDT is a FANTASTIC show of support – and since you're already on the net's, might as well check out the Facebook page and hit that ‘like' button and share it out!

…Don't forget – if you leave a review of us on any platform, that will help the show get noticed too; and if you happen to add your name to the show via questions or that awesome spotlight offered with a War Room Producership, that will get YOUR name out there too!

Earn yourself a Producership Credit!

We have 3 levels of Producers that help to keep the show's larders stocked to bursting – Free-Lance Producers, Back-Room Producers, and War-Room Producers. There are special perks for Back-Room and War-Room Producers that you can learn about on our site wppluginsatoz.com. Click on Time, Treasure, or Talent Donations in our main menu to learn all the nitty gritty details on how you can add your 2 cents!

Free-Lance Producers:

…Free-Lance Producers always show up when least expected, and often times when most needed! No donation required to become a Free-Lance Producer – you just are one if you're here!

…If you have listened to even 10 minutes of this show, or shown up a single time to one of our live shows on YouTube, you are one of our many Free-Lance Producers! Although you guys are always popping in and out at unexpected times, we appreciate your support and periodic help with one thing or another – thank you!

Back Room Producers:

…Back Room Producers always seem to be about the place helping with our contests, artwork, site organization, notes, questions, suggestions, and even more! While they tend to hang out a lot in the back lounge and consume massive amounts of coffee and doughnuts, it's well earned through both hard work and their donations – never above $50 dollars and absolutely equal to their Time and Talent donations!

…Back Room Producers, if you ever notice something that needs some work feel free to reach out to us and let us know – you can offer to take it up yourself, or just let us know and we will add it to our list. We always appreciate your help in organizing and changing of the coffee – thank you!

War Room Producers:

…War Room Producers receive a few extra perks with their donations of $50 or more – an official AtoZ Handle of their choice, a spotlight in that weeks show for a short speech, and an official Executive Producership Credit! These credits are real and can be used in the real world to your advantage! Only draw back is that they sometimes gotta make fresh coffee when the Back Room Producers emptied the pot…

**If you prefer to stay anonymous, please let us know at the beginning of your note to us regarding your donation! We are more than happy to keep you anonymous from the world – nobody is ever forced out of the tender embrace of the shadows on this show!**

…Official AtoZ Handle means you will receive a specialized login to our site. We are working to update our site where we will have a Members Only section, and you will have access to a variety of things through your personalized handle for our site! To receive your Official AtoZ Handle, think up an original name, and send it in to us along with the show number and the show name.

…Your spotlight can be an elevator pitch for your business, a note, or you can just skip it – just be sure to let us know your choice and we will adhere appropriately.

…The Producership Credit we offer is REAL! When you send your donation in to us of $50 or more, please be sure to note down the number and title of the show your donation appeared on, and we will back up your right to claim Producership!

…You don't ACTUALLY have to make the Back Room Producers coffee, but you might want to make yourself a fresh one. 😉 Especially if you are planning on pointing out things going wrong on the site… we got a long list and will likely try and convince you to help us out a little!

…War Room Producers, same as for the Back Room Producers, reach out to us if you notice something that needs work! Whether you are wanting to take up the job yourself or just inform us and leave it, we will add it to our ever-growing list!

Questions, Notes, and Feedback from our Producers out there:

You can send in your 2 cents and have it read out here on the show!

…No such thing as a stupid question people! I was new not too long ago, and I know how overwhelming it can be stepping into this world at this stage – I know for a fact that questions you have are the same questions others out there have!

Reach out through email to amber@wppro.ca, or through the site at wppluginsatoz.com/contact/!

Miscellaneous Announcements from us and Producers:

Have an announcement like a meetup, or to announce you'll be on stage at a WordCamp? Let us know and we will add it here and help get your news out to the world!

WordPress Victoria Meetup
https://www.meetup.com/yyjwordpress/

We don't have any Meetup's ourselves right now, but keep checking back!

And remember, the show notes found at wppluginsatoz.com has a whole lot of extra information to grab up that we don't read on air so be sure to check them out!

How to reach us:

We have a real brick and morter address where you can send in art and/or notes – you can find the address in our show notes!

WP Plugins A to Z
C/O John Overall 
20-754 E Fairview Rd. 
Victoria, BC  V9A 5T9  
Canada

We also have virtual addresses too!:

John:

• My website: http://www.johnoverall.com/  
• WordPress Emergency Support: http://wppro.ca/wpemergency
• email: john@wppro.ca

Amber:

• email: amber@wppro.ca

Today's Plugins we covered were:

John’s Plugin:

Mail Poet by MailPoet

• Create and add a newsletter subscription form to your website
• Manage your subscribers and subscriber lists in WordPress
• Build and send newsletters with WordPress

Dragon Rating: 4

Amber's Plugin: 

Duplicate Page by mndpsingh287

• Duplicate pages
• Duplicate posts
• Duplicate custom posts

Dragon Rating: 4

Q & A Time with Amber – Catch this info on our YouTube Channel

If you have questions you would like to have asked on the show, send them in to me at Amber@WPPro.ca – let's see if we can stump my dad!

• What is the simplest way to deal with spammy comments in a WordPress Site?
• What is a simple-ish way to speed up a WordPress site?

Questions asked after closing credits:

• How can you tell if a WordPress error you see is something you can fix yourself, or something you need to call in a specialist for?
• Which 5 plugins would you recommend a new user install in their brand new WordPress site first and why?