If you have saved a Layout or an Element Preset while building a YOOtheme Pro layout, you have already used the inbuilt Layout Library. Is such an integral part of the Builder that we could not imagine it without, yet we could reimagine it. And so we did with Essentials for YOOtheme Pro 1.6 release that, not only has been deeply refactored for more stability and ease of use, but is introducing a new addon, Layouts!
Multiple & Cross-Site Libraries
While it is possible to export library layouts and import them into another one, it's a manual and prone to error process that could be done better. Layouts Addon extends the Builder Layout and Elements Presets workflow with the ability to create custom Libraries based on a local or external Storage, set with Read-Only or Read/Write permissions. Currently supporting FTP and Amazon S3 storage, it would allow you to share a library with your entire team and/or clients removing the need for manual import/exports.
An Element Preset is the smallest layout component, and although is not directly present in the Layout Library, it is part of it and accessible within the Elements. Layouts Addon supports those with the same capabilities and features enabling each Library to hold true to the entire YOOtheme Pro Builder Layout workflow.
The new Layouts Addon is available for all Premium Subscribers, try it now and make sure to send us your feedback!
Storages Module
Storages go far beyond Layouts, it's a concept we have been working on for some time, a core module ready for new features, e.g. an Image Source with support for sources such as Dropbox, Amazon S3, or Google Drive. We cannot wait to explore this further.
New Settings Workflow
Up until now, Essentials settings were integrated into the theme settings workflow, which is convenient for simple features, but as the complexity of these grows it might lead to unpredicted issues. With Essentials 1.6 we are moving the settings into their own, import/export independent, location. Additionally, all Customizer configuration menus have been merged into one Essentials menu, with the addition of About Section which will highlight the version and changelog.
Highlights from 1.5.x
As we decided to keep adding minor features while working on the major ones, in order to keep feature feed & feedback faster, here are the additions worth mentioning from the Essentials v1.5 consequent releases.
New Access Rule, Dynamic
Currently, all access rules support mapping dynamic values to the rule fields, but Dynamic Rule explicitly evaluates the dynamic values against a static or another dynamic value. It's a very convenient rule when there is no available more specific one, being the only downside that it cannot compare, yet, values from different sources.
API Key-Based Advanced Query for YouTube Source
YouTube and other auth-dependent sources use our Auth App for the authentication process, which is very convenient at the expense of control and statistics. That's why an API Key-Based YouTube Query has been introduced for YouTube Source, which additionally allows setting more complex video queries.
Font Awesome 6 Icon Collection
The Font Awesome new major version has been released recently and is already available as a free core Icon Collection, but if you have access to the Premium one, you can still install it as a custom collection.
Rest of Additions
- Added Week as a new Access Rule.
- Added Form Actions status setting.
- Added Form ID & Name attribute settings.
- Added Start and Before Than filters for TikTok source video query.
- Added Date Modify filter to Request source Timestamp mapping field.
- Added support for dynamic file path to form Download action.
- Added support for Form Fields data placeholders in Redirect After Submit Actions.
- Added support for placeholder replacement in Email Action static attachments path.
- Added options to set a custom filename and avoid collisions for Submitted Files on Upload Field.
- Added Reviews Link, Original Review, and Translated Review fields mapping for Google My Business source.
