Understanding plugins used on our child themes
In this guide, we will explain the different types of plugins we use on our child themes: mandatory and optional. Each type serves a distinct purpose and contributes to the functionality and versatility of your website.
Mandatory
These are the plugins that are integral to the functionality of our themes. They need to be activated for the theme to work correctly. In other words, without these plugins, your theme would be missing essential elements and may not function as expected.
Kadence Blocks: Kadence Blocks is a mandatory plugin for our child themes, essential for them to function correctly. It’s a powerful tool that enhances the Gutenberg editor in WordPress by providing a suite of custom blocks, which allow you to create more engaging and effective layouts. With Kadence Blocks, you gain control over the layout of your pages and posts, can add stylized content sections, improve typography, and more. It also offers professional-looking results without any coding knowledge.
Kadence Starter Templates: This plugin is essential for you to import demo content. Moreover, one of its key features is the Design Library button, which is crucial as it allows you to drop in your blocks into your page editor. This offers an efficient way to build your pages and posts, and ensures a consistent design across your website.
Optional
These plugins provide additional features and enhancements to your theme, but they are not required for the theme to operate. You can choose to use these plugins if you wish to extend the functionality of your theme or add specific features. However, even without these plugins, your theme will still work perfectly fine.
SheShoppes Premium: This plugin adds Portfolio and Podcast Custom Post Types (CPT), along with Locations Taxonomy. The Portfolio and Podcast CPTs provide specialized fields and options for these specific types of content. These features allow for unique ways to present specific content types. But if you don’t want to use these special post types, you can just include them as regular blog post categories and leave this plugin turned off.
The SheShoppes Premium plugin also includes a Popular Post block. This block allows you to showcase the most commented posts within a given timeframe on your website, helping you highlight engaging content to your readers. We are continually updating our SheShoppes Premium plugin with new features.
SheShoppes Shop My Post: It’s a dedicated plugin for affiliate marketers. It allows you to display an affiliate widget block at the end of each post on your single post page, post block, or post archive. This feature makes it easy for you to share your affiliate products directly within your content, providing a seamless shopping experience for your readers while maximizing your affiliate revenue.
Instagram Feed: This plugin, now known as Smash Balloon Social Photo Feed, lets you show your Instagram photos on your WordPress site. It works with multiple Instagram accounts and allows you to customize how your feed looks. It’s a great way to share your Instagram content with your site visitors.
Mailchimp for WP: This plugin integrates your WordPress site with Mailchimp, a popular email marketing service. It allows you to create attractive sign-up forms and integrate them into your posts, pages, or sidebar. Of course, you can use other CRM of your choice.
WooCommerce: This plugin turns your WordPress site into an online store, or adds the functionality of an online store to it. You can sell physical items, digital downloads, and even services. It offers different payment methods. With add-ons, you can make your online shop do just about anything you need it to.
