Qode Essential Addons


Qode Essential Addons - A Plugin for Enhancing Your WordPress Theme

Hi, and welcome to the Qode Essential Addons User Guide. The User Guide covers all the information needed to use the Qode Essential Addons plugin with your theme to build an amazing website. If you need any additional assistance while using our plugin, you can always submit a topic to the support forum at https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/qode-essential-addons/ and our support team will be glad to help you out. You can also send us an email at gethelp@qodeinteractive.com

You can navigate through different sections of the User Guide by clicking on the links in the menu to the left of your screen. You will also notice that we have highlighted certain parts of the text throughout the User Guide, such as important pieces of information and useful tips.

The Qode Essential Addons is a completely stand-alone plugin created by Qode Interactive. This plugin is used with all themes developed by Qode Interactive as their vital part. 

The plugin enhances the themes by adding the Portfolio custom post type, the Portfolio List, Blog List, Product List shortcodes as well as numerous other custom options and widgets. In addition to this, the plugin adds the administration panel when used with themes created by Qode. 

Currently, the Qode Essential Addons supports using both Elementor and WPBakery page builder plugins. There are plans to expand the list of compatible page builder plugins in the future.

Although the Qode Essential Addons can be used with any WordPress theme, users will get the most of it when using the plugin in tandem with one of Qode Interactive themes. In the event that the theme you are using was not developed by Qode, you will still enhance your theme with Portfolio List, Blog List and Product List shorcodes, widgets, and certain other features, however the administration panel that is added with Qode Essential Addons as well as all the custom page and global options will not be available. 

Installing Qode Essential Addons

First off, here's a list of minimum requirements as well as recommended hosting parameters for running Qode Essential Addons plugin: 

Minimum Requirements

Recommended Hosting Parameters

There are two ways you can go about installing the Qode Essential Addons plugin: 

Installing From Your WordPress Dashboard

  1. ​Navigate to your WordPress Dashboard -> Plugins -> Add New
  2. Search for Qode Essential Addons
  3. Install and Activate Qode Essential Addons from your Plugins page.

Installing Directly From wordpress.org

  1. Locate and download Qode Essential Addons on wordpress.org
  2. Upload the qode-essential-addons directory to your ‘/wp-content/plugins/’ directory, using your preferred method (ftp, sftp, scp, etc…)
  3. Install and Activate Qode Essential Addons from your Plugins page.

In this section of the User Guide we will discuss all the custom options and features for creating and editing pages that become available once you've installed the Qode Essential Addons plugin. 

Let’s go over the custom fields available for pages.

Please note that any settings you save here will override the global settings you've set in your theme's Core Options. It is generally considered good practice to set up the look of your pages on a global level, and then override settings on a local level, if necessary. This will save you a lot of time, unlike if you were to set up every page locally. Note that these custom theme page as well as theme's Core Options are available only when using the plugin with themes developed by Qode Interactive. 
Page Settings
Header Settings
Standard Header
Logo Settings
Header Logo Options
Sidebar Settings
Title Settings
Title Area

In this section of the User Guide we will discuss all the available options for each post, setting up pages to display blog listings, as well as how to change the date format for your posts.

Let’s go over the available custom fields for blog posts.

Note that most of them are the same custom fields you'll find when creating standard pages.
Page Settings
Header Settings
Standard Header
Logo Settings
Header Logo Options
Sidebar Settings
Title Settings
Title Area

 

Blog Lists

After you have created enough posts, you also need to create a blog list where all of these posts will be displayed. To create a blog list, you first need to create a new page on which your blog list will be displayed, and in the page's backend find the Blog List shortcode. For a more detailed look into the Blog List element, refer to the Custom Shortcodes section of this guide. 

Date Format

If you wish to change the date format on blog posts, navigate to Settings > General > Date Format from your WordPress admin, and select your format of choice.

In this section of the User Guide we will discuss the creation of portfolio items, as well as how to add portfolio lists to your website pages.

When used with Qode Interactive themes, Qode Essential addon expands the theme by adding the Portfolio custom post type for creating and displaying portfolio items on your pages. 

Portfolio Items

To create a new portfolio item: 

  1. Navigate to ThemeName Portfolio > Add new from your WordPress admin panel.
  2. Enter a title for your portfolio item in the text field near the top of the page.
  3. On the right side of the screen you will see a section named Portfolio Categories. Here you can select the categories that you would like to add this portfolio item to. If you would like to create a new category, click on the + Add New Category link. A text field will appear in which you can enter a category name, and then click Add New Category.
  4. Once you have checked the categories you would like to add your post to, click the Publish button.

Beneath the Portfolio Categories section are the Portfolio Tags, Attributes, and Featured Image sections. In the Portfolio Tags section, you can enter tags for this portfolio item. In the Attributes section, you can set the order in which you would like this portfolio item to appear in portfolio lists. In the Featured Image section, you can set an image to be displayed for this item on portfolio lists.

Now that you have set up your first portfolio item, let’s go over the available custom fields for portfolio items.

Note that most of them are the same custom fields you'll find when creating standard pages.

Portfolio Settings

General Settings
Gallery - Big
Gallery - Small
Images - Big
Images - Small
Slider - Big
Slider - Small

You can also choose the Portfolio Custom type, if you would like to build your portfolio from scratch via shortcodes, like you would any other page.

Media Settings
Info Settings

 

Page Settings
Header Settings
Standard Header
Logo Settings
Header Logo Options
Sidebar Settings
Title Settings
Title Area

 

Portfolio Lists

A portfolio list displays a listing of your portfolio items, each of which can be clicked on for a detailed overview of the single portfolio item.

A portfolio list is added to pages via the Portfolio List shortcode. To add a portfolio list to a page, navigate to the backend of that page and add the Portfolio List element to the page via Elementor Page Builder (by entering the Elementor Page Builder view, and then dragging the Portfolio List element from the element selection screen).. For a comprehensive overview of all the options provided in the Portfolio List element, please see the Custom Shortcodes section of this User Guide.

This section of the User Guide provides a comprehenisve overview of all the settings available in the theme's Qode Essential Addons section of your WordPress admin panel once you have installed and activated the Qode Essential Addons plugin. The settings found here are applied globally and will affect all pages on your website. However, note that many of these options can be overridden locally by applying settings on individual pages or on shortcode elements.

It's important to note that these options will be available only when using the plugin with themes developed by Qode Interactive. 

You can look up any of the available global options by typing in the keyword or a part of the option name in the search field located at the top of the screen in the Core Theme options section. 

General

Header Logo Options
Mobile Header Logo Options

Fonts

Typography

Header

General
Standard Header

Mobile Header

General Settings

Title

Sidebar 

Top Footer Area Styles
Bottom Footer Area Styles

Blog

Blog List
Blog Single

Portfolio

Portfolio List
Portfolio Single

WooCommerce

Product List

In this section of the User Guide we will take a comprehesive look at all the custom shortcodes included with the plugin and their repsective options.

Section

The section element is a container element in which you can add other elements (shortcodes) and sort them on your page. Besides the standard Elementor Page Builder options for sections (you can access these options by hovering on a section and clicking the Edit Section button), you also have the custom options which we included with the theme. You can access these options by clicking the Edit Section button on the section of your choice, and then navigating to the Advanced tab located in the Elementor toolbar on the left side of the page. 

Qode Essential Addons Grid

Portfolio List

The portfolio list shortcode enables you to present a listing of your portfolios on a page.

General
Query
Layout

Blog List

This shortcode allows you to display your blog posts on a page.

General
Query
Layout

Product List

You can use this shortcode to display a list of your shop products. 

General
Query
Layout

In this section of the User Guide we will discuss the available widgets and widget areas that become available once you have installed and activated the Qode Essential Addons plugin. 

Widgets are easy to manage and can be incredibly useful to have on your site.

We have developed custom widgets and widget areas in order to provide you with even more functionality. You also have the option of creating your own custom sidebars (custom widget areas).

Widgets

Widget Areas