Development

We have noticed the Builder Contact addon had security vulnerability allowing hackers to send spam/phishing emails on behalf of the affected sites. The issue was first reported by a few of our members on the support forum and at the same time we were notified by the WordFence team (big thanks to WordFence team for notifying us the concerns and suggestions). We took immediate action to fix all security flaws and released the update. If you are using Builder Contact prior version 1.4.6, it is highly recommended to update to the latest version immediately. If you have the old Builder Contact version installed on the server but not activated, please either delete it or replace it with the latest version (do not leave the compromised version on the server). If your membership has expired and can't update Builder Contact, please contact us. We will offer a 3-month free membership extension so you can update the plugin. We apologize for any inconvenience it may cause.

We are very happy to receive the positive feedback from the Mission Pagespeed we announced two weeks ago. Today we are releasing the Beta version of the Pagespeed framework. As stated in our previous post, our goal is to make all Themify themes to score A+ on Google Pagespeed Insights. Since Ultra is our flagship theme, we are using it as the base for the Beta version. We've been testing it on many different demo sites. All of them return 90+ Google Pagespeed score including sites with WooCommerce. Here is your opportunity to try the Beta and let us know your Pagespeed score.

How to install the Beta version:

• Download the themify-beta.zip (save it as a zip file)
• Login to your site WP-admin > Appearance > Themes, click "Add new", upload the themify-beta.zip and then activate it
• Deactivate all Builder addons if you have any
• IMPORTANT: Go to Themify > Settings > Theme Settings -> Performance & Minified Scripts, check the "Disable minified scripts" and "Enable Webp convert" option. The minified scripts need to be disabled as it is not final yet.

One of the major concerns about using multi-purpose themes is the page speed. Most multi-purpose themes are packed with many features and they usually include many scripts which take longer to load than the simpler themes. Site loading speed not only affects your visitors' browsing experience, but it can also impact your site search engine placement as Google ranks higher for fast loading and mobile-friendly sites. All Themify themes have been mobile friendly for many years. The upcoming Themify mission is to make all of our themes score 95+ on Google Pagespeed without using any third party plugins.

Mission Pagespeed: Making The Fastest Multi-purpose Theme

Over the past 2 months, we've been working quietly on the Pagespeed Mission to improve the page speed of all Themify themes and the Builder. Today we are happy to announce that we've made good progress. It is a big mission as we have to change the whole theme and framework structure in order to achieve it. All themes need to be re-coded as well to work with the new framework. Our goal is to make Ultra and Shoppe the fastest multi-purpose themes that includes a drag & drop layout Builder.

As promised, on our previous Builder Pro release post, we are committed to releasing new features and themes for Builder Pro. Today, we are happy to announce a new time-saver tool for developers who are using Builder Pro to build sites for clients. Now, when you import a predesigned Pro theme, you get an option to import the demo content. With the demo import feature, you can quickly replicate the entire site as appeared on our demo — this includes the Pro theme, templates, and the content such as posts, pages, menus, etc. It is like an all-in-one package for developers.

If you are using WPML to run bilingual sites, we have a good news for you. We've been working quietly with the WPML team to make Themify compatible with their plugin. Today we are happy to announce that all Themify themes and Builder plugin are fully compatible with WPML. Using the WPML translator tool, it is extremely easy to translate content created with the Builder. After a page is built with the Builder, click a button to duplicate the page with WPML, then it will load all text from the page content where you can translate them. After the translation is complete, the translated page will automatically have the same design as the original page. In other words, whatever you've designed (including the styling) with the Builder will appear on the translated page. This makes the translation process faster and seamless.

There have been many changes on the WordPress scene with the newly released WordPress version 5.3 last week and the new WooCommerce version 3.8 a week prior. Before their releases, we tested their beta versions with 2 of our flagship themes, Ultra and Shoppe. There were no critical issues found based on the beta tests.

With their official new version releases, we've further tested them across our live demos using all Themify themes and plugins. We can confirm that all Themify themes and plugins are safe to update with the latest versions of WordPress and WooCommerce. If you are not using the latest Themify version, please update it along with WordPress and WooCommerce's updates. If you encounter any issues, please post it on this blog post's comment form or contact us directly.

What's New in WordPress 5.3

• Improved accessibility on admin user interface
• Improved Gutenberg Editor (better Table, Posts, Columns and Gallery Block)
• A New default theme, Twenty Twenty
• New Site Health tool alerting you to issues on your site (eg. configuration issues, PHP version compatibility, security concerns, theme/plugin issues, etc.)

For more information on WordPress 5.3's new features, check out WP Beginner and Kinsta Blog.