Hi,

This is Aj the theme author. I hope you had a nice weekend!

Yes, it’s possible! You can create dynamic templates for not only each custom post type but also any custom taxononomy. I have some guides here:

• https://totalwptheme.com/docs/dynamic-templates/
• https://totalwptheme.com/docs/category-taxonomy-template/

You’ll want to use my Post Types Unlimited plugin which will give you access to tons of options to fully customize your post types and taxonomies: https://totalwptheme.com/docs/adding-custom-post-types/

This functionality is available for both WPBakery or Elementor (whichever builder you prefer).

Let me know if you have any other questions!

- AJ

Hi,

This is AJ the theme author. I hope you had a nice weekend.

So, the theme’s built-in contact form actually makes use of the WordPress core wp_mail() function – https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/wp_mail/ – which means it uses the default mail functionality in WordPress. So any plugin that modifies the core WordPress mailing functionality should work.

Now, you don’t necessarily need to use a plugin! You can use a little custom code via your child theme functions.php file. This is done by hooking into the phpmailer_init hook – https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/hooks/phpmailer_init/

There is a good example in the core docs (link above) but this thread also has a nice example: https://stackoverflow.com/a/78620755/7607379

- AJ

Thanks AJ. That appears to answer the question nicely. Cheers.

Hi Stefan,

This is AJ the theme author. I hope you had a nice weekend.

I have confirmed this to be a bug with the alternative mobile menu and I will fix it in the upcoming patch to be released today/tomorrow.

You have 2 other alternatives if you do prefer:

• You can use a “Flex” header style and add the dark toggle in the Aside area, which will display on mobile next to the mobile menu icon. Sample video: https://a.cl.ly/6quAyOkO – this will make the icon more prominent.

• You can use the Header Builder: https://totalwptheme.com/docs/header-builder/ – then you insert the “Dark Mode Toggle” element wherever you want it to be. Some customers actually choose to not have the dark mode button in the header. Rather, it’s common to add it in the site footer. Which you can do via the footer builder – https://totalwptheme.com/docs/footer-builder/ – via the Dark Mode Toggle element or you can manually add the shortcode – [vcex_dark_mode_toggle] – into your footer area inside a widget or the copyright area. More info on the shortcode here: https://totalwptheme.com/docs/dark-mode-toggle-button-shortcode/

- AJ

I am having a lot of issues with WPML – I can’t even get standard posts to save using the default WordPress theme and all plugins disabled except for WPML, there is definitely something wrong. I’m creating a new test server to set things up and see if I can locate the issues with the cards. Thank you for your patience.

- AJ

Ok, I deleted my installation and created a new WPML test site and now I can properly save posts, I’m not sure why WPML was bugged.

I was able to locate the issue inside the theme and patched it. I’m releasing an update shortly (today or tomorrow – hopefully tonight) which will include the fix.

When you create your card though you should only see the english version to select in the Customizer, if you see both versions there could be an issue with the way your WPML is setup, because cards should be automatically translated. Here is a video showing how everything should work: https://a.cl.ly/geuDLKLY

Sorry for the troubles and thank you for reporting the bug!

- AJ

WPBakery just released an update so I’ve had to take some extra time to fully test the updated WPBakery plugin before I can release the official update with the WPML fix – if you want feel free to email me at wpexplorer [at] gmail dot com and I can temporarily patch your site for the meantime, while I finish up and officially release the Total 6.2 update – this way you can work with your custom cards.

Hi,

Nothing in the theme update should mess up your CSS. Can you share the issue so I can take a look?

I can’t even tell you how many times (thousands) customers update and have CSS issues that are cache related or a conflict with an optimization plugin.

You will want to keep your site up to date, it’s best to see and fix the actual issue then waste time rolling back and never updating.

If you share the URL and let me know what the issue then we can address the actual problem!

- AJ

Hi,

Honestly, the page settings metabox is an older functionality that was required when the theme was released over a decade ago. In reality most sites should probably disable the Theme Settings metabox (you can in the Theme Panel) – because all those settings are manually tied to the specific page and there are so many new global settings/methods/hooks available where you can setup your site dynamically without using page specific options – which then can be a hassle to modify if you have many pages.

If you are creating a lot of redirections on your site (for some reason – generally not recommend for SEO reasons) you may want to consider using a redirection plugin. More specifically a plugin that creates the redirections using server-side methods (like an .htaccess file) this way the redirections take place prior to Wordpress loading so it’s much faster. Redirections made by theme functions still require WordPress to load (the theme has to load to run it’s redirection) – so it uses server resources and is slower.

- AJ

ps: A reason to not allow re-directing to other pages is for security reasons, since those settings are available to authors/editors.

Hi James,

So you want a single image that grows and then when it finishes growing it shrinks and does this over and over?

Or you just want a single image that grows and then stays? If so, it seems like such a waste to load extra resources (the slider feature requires loading extra JS) and lowering the site page speed score for something that doesn’t provide any added benefit to the end user (honestly sliders don’t either – unfortunately so many people request them).

Anyway, I see WPBakery doesn’t allow you to select the same image twice (if you could, then you could have 2 slider images but make them the same one).

I’ve updated the theme so if you have only 1 image it will basically slide between the same one. This way it’s not confusing if the user only selects one image. If you email me at wpexplorer [at] gmail dot com I can send you a Total beta version if you want to try that out.

- AJ

got it.

I cannot find any Post tags when in the dynamic template mode.

In the Default mode, was able to add post tags from the Single Layout Elements.

any solution?

Hi,

If you are creating a dynamic template you can display the post tags via the “Post Terms” element or the “Terms Cards” element. In WordPress, categories, tags and custom taxonomy items are all called “Terms”. Since the theme’s elements can display items from any taxonomy it makes more sense to give it the global name “terms” rather than a long name like (Post Tags, Categories and/or Custom Taxonomy Terms).

- AJ

Thanks, AJ

Weird! Glad it’s fixed though.

By the way, I see you have slider revolution enabled and I could be wrong, but I don’t see any sliders anywhere. If you aren’t adding sliders to your site (which honestly I don’t recommend – https://yoast.com/opinion-on-sliders/) you should just delete that plugin and then you can disable it via the theme panel: https://totalwptheme.com/docs/disable-bundled-plugin/

- AJ

Thanks for the sliders tip—followed your advice and deleted/disabled it. ... And I just want to say how highly I think of the Total theme. Its quality and functionality are head and shoulders above the ones I researched and tried before finding yours. I always recommend it when I have the chance.

I really appreciate it, with the market being so saturated, word of mouth is the best way for me to get exposure!

- AJ

Thanks for the info. Regardless of which CSS I use, the width of the mega menu is tied to the width of the header and can’t be full screen?

If you were setting the header to full width so that your mega menu could expand all the way, but you rather keep the header centered and just expand the mega menu, it is possible with some advanced CSS. But it’s dependent on your site setup.

For example, if you are using Header Style 1, the menu is absolutely positioned within the header, making it impossible to re-position the dropdown relative to the header and viewport.

In which case, you would need to swap to header style 9 (Flex: Right menu) – via Customize > Header > Style

Then you can use the following custom CSS:

.main-navigation-ul li.megamenu {
    position: static !important;
}

.main-navigation .megamenu > .sub-menu {
    width: calc(100vw - var(--wpex-vc-full-width-offset, 0px)) !important;
    margin-inline: 0 !important;
    inset-inline-start: calc(50% - 50vw);
}

What this does is it makes the dropdown have a width of 100vw (100 view port) aka the width of your screen. Then to position it all the way to the left it sets the left position (inset-inline-start) to be equal it’s parent’s width minus half the viewport width, which is essentially the space between the left of the screen and the start of the header container.

Now, because of how WP menus work (ul list) if you stretch the mega menu all the items inside will also stretch. You could keep them centered by applying some inner padding though, as such:

.main-navigation .megamenu > .sub-menu {
    padding-inline: calc(50vw - 50%);
}

This will give the dropdown a left and right padding equal to half the viewport width minus half the header width – which again, is the width between the edge of the screen and the start of the header.

Sorry for all the jargon, hope this makes sense. It’s a complicated thing to do!

- AJ

This is perfect…thanks!

Hi James,

It’s not actually hidden on mobile by default, are you sure you didn’t add custom CSS to your site for this?

Sample demo where you can see it displayed on mobile: https://totalwpthemedemo.com/blogdotnom/

- AJ

Gah. You’re right, I did it years ago and forgot! Sorry!

This is AJ the theme author.

I confirmed it is a bug with the older Portfolio Grid element. I’ve patched the Total Theme Core plugin, if you log into your site and delete the plugin then go to Appearance > Install Plugins and re-install it, it should be fixed. But let me know if you still have issues.

Thank you for reporting the bug and sorry for the troubles!

For future sites, I highly recommend you use the new Post Cards element though for all your grid displays – then you can also make use of the WPBakery Slim mode feature: https://totalwptheme.com/docs/wpbakery-slim-mode/

- AJ

Hi,

This is Aj the theme author.

Thank you for your patience over the weekend.

The theme uses a regex to make sure the license being entered follows the Envato license format. This way I don’t have to ping my server to validate the license if it’s not even formatted properly to start.

If you are copying/pasting your license from this page: https://themeforest.net/item/total-responsive-multipurpose-wordpress-theme/6339019/support – it should work just fine. If you do continue to get this error can you please open a ticket and share the license so I can verify – https://my.totalwptheme.com/submit-help-request/

I don’t believe Envato has modified the format they use for their license keys, but it’s very well possible. I will also contact them to see.

- AJ

Export/Import is not a function that would ever be added to a theme. You would either want to use the native WordPress functionality at Tools > Export/Import or a plugin.

One problem with exporting posts though from a different site is that WordPress uses an incremental numerical ID for all posts, images, etc. When you import posts/images from another site it’s possible ID’s can conflict, so the ID’s are sometimes changed during the import process. This can cause a “disconnect” with builder elements that use these unique ID’s (image elements where you define an image, post gallery where you define images for the post, etc).

Generally you would only be doing an import/export on a fresh installation which prevents these sorts of errors – so if you are importing from one site to another existing site, be aware that there may be some manual fixing needed after the import.

- AJ

ps: I didn’t understand why you would move them to standard pages, if the thought behind that was so you could access the Theme Settings metabox where you can define a custom template on a per-page basis, you can just enable that box for your custom post type via the PTU settings: https://a.cl.ly/d5uQq4N2

Great suggestions – thank you!

Of course! Let me know if you have any issues or followup questions!

onetimesecret on it’s way now with WP login details

onetimesecret on it’s way now with cPanel login details

Got em!

Thanks AJ – but “stretch image” is enabled, yet the image is still getting squeezed out of shape. Any other thoughts?

Ok, I double checked locally using the setting and there is a bug! It’s actually been an issue for a few versions now so I’m surprised no one else has noticed.

I manually patched the Total Theme Core plugin, so if you log into your site and go to Plugins and deactivate+delete the Total Theme Core plugin then go to Appearance > Install Plugins and re-install it, the fix will be there.

Sorry for the troubles and thank you for the heads up.

Ah thanks AJ. I noticed it a few weeks ago on another site of mine, but it wasn’t priority so hadn’t been in touch. Great – all sorted.

Hi,

This is Aj the theme author.

I always code everything with speed in mind. So, first of all any code that has to do with Elementor only gets loaded if the plugin is enabled, so nothing to worry about there. And all the Elementor code is only about 300kb on your server, which is very tiny.’

Total has actually always had integration for many plugins (Yoast, WooCommerce, bbPress, LearnDash, Jetpack, BuddyPress, Events Calendar, WPML, Relevanssi…etc). You can view all the relevant files under Total/inc/integration – but these files only run if the associated plugin is enabled. You look at the Total/inc/integration.php file if interested.

When bloat becomes a concern is when themes or plugins are coded in a way where everything is constantly running, even when it’s not needed. I always code my classes, functions and scripts to run/load only when they are being used. For me, optimization/speed has always been a priority – I’m a little OCD in that regards.

So rest assured you should have nothing to worry about!

With the theme Elements specifically, these are coded in a way where each element has a single registration array and output file and they use an abstract class which registers them with WPBakery. Then for Elementor I have a separate class (again only loads when Elementor is installed and running) that makes use of the same files. I am a big believer in writing DRY code so rather then manually registering each element with Elementor I created a class that takes existing code which I use for WPBakery and converts it to work with Elementor – thus keeping the theme quite small.

Total is only 4.4MB for the whole theme and 2.4MB for the Total Theme Core plugin, in comparison just a plugin like Slider Revolution is 10.8MB. Total is quite small/efficient considering everything it offers

Hope that eases your mind a bit, let me know if you have any followup questions!

- AJ

Hi James,

I’m releasing Total 6.1 today and the functionality will be built-in now

Screenshot: https://a.cl.ly/lluelDNb

With some added features and improvements over the plugin and support for Rows and Sections.

This will add images that fade-in and out behind the row content as a background. If that’s not what you want though, I don’t have a plugin that does something different. So hopefully this is what you are looking for.

I’m doing the final checks before pushing out the update! Checking comments/tickets to ensure there is nothing critical to do before shipping it out.

- AJ

Hi AJ – thanks, yes that is what I was looking for, you used to have it as a separate plugin but this is the same. Nice, thanks.

6.1 is out – let me know if you have any issues with the new settings or any other questions!

- AJ

Hi Florian,

Because SVG’s can contain malicious code, the theme uses the WordPress wp_kses function to parse the HTML output of custom defined SVG’s to allow only specific html and html attributes. I opted into only specifying specific html used in the most icon sets, such as Fontwesome, Google and Bootstrap. This keeps things slim and efficient.

This is the list of allowed html and html attributes:

'svg' => [
    'aria-hidden' => [],
    'aria-labelledby' => [],
    'class' => [],
    'height' => [],
    'width' => [],
    'viewbox' => [],
    'role' => [],
    'xmlns' => [],
    'preserveaspectratio' => [],
    'fill' => [],
    'focusable' => [],
],
'g' => [
    'fill' => [],
],
'title' => [
    'title' => [],
],
'path' => [
    'd' => [],
    'fill' => [],
],

Now, there is a filter available “totaltheme/helpers/svg_sanitizer/allowed_html” so you can use this filter to allow other attributes by adding some code to your child theme’s functions.php file or via a code snippet plugin. Ex:

// Example for hooking into the SVG sanitizer to allow other tags and attributes.
add_filter( 'totaltheme/helpers/svg_sanitizer/allowed_html', function( $allowed_html ) {
    $allowed_html['defs'] = []; // allow the defs html tag without attributes.
    $allowed_html['circle'] = [ 'cx' => [], 'cy' => [], 'r' => [], 'fill' => [] ]; // allow circle tag with attributes.
    return $allowed_html;
} );

Hope that makes sense, please let me know if you have any questions or feedback! I will add a doc about this as well.

- AJ