MD Optins is a new suite of tools available for Marketers Delight that adds a variety of tightly integrated and beautifully customizable call to actions, floating bars, and popups.
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After hundreds of hours in the making Marketers Delight 5.0 is finally available for download! In this post I will take you through the new features and upgrade guide.
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Even though Marketers Delight 5.0 is a major new release, a specially made updater process has been made to help your site best upgrade from MD4.9.x to MD5.0!
If your site is already running an older version of Marketers Delight, you will want to follow this guide step-by-step to get the best results for a smooth upgrade.
Before Upgrading…
Again, as MD5.0 is a major new release it will not be as simple as clicking a few buttons like you are used to, so you may need to set aside some extra time to configure your new settings and cleaning up your child theme (if running one).
Marketers Delight 5.0 is the most stable and complete version ever released and is worth updating your site to as soon as possible, so clear some extra time for some “Website Spring Cleaning” and to play with the excellent new design and marketing features in MD5.0!
Tip: Upgrade on a Staging Site First
The least stressful way to perform a major upgrade is to do it on a staging site, and I highly recommend you run the updater there first before your live site (or just push it over when you’re done).
If you notice any settings are missing or need to make design tweaks your staging site will give you a heads up at what you need to do to ensure your website is running 100% after the upgrade.
HEY! — Before doing anything to your live site, make sure you have a solid backup and restoration plan just in case things go wrong.
How to Upgrade Your Existing Website to MD5.0
Follow the steps below exactly to update Marketers Delight, child theme, Dropins, and other upgrade tips.
Step 1
To begin, make sure your license key is active so you can get the MD5.0 update sent to your site.
Step 2
With your license key active, go to Appearance > Themes and click the yellow update nag for Marketers Delight 5.0.
The theme files are now being uploaded to your site and should only take a few seconds to finish. After the MD5.0 files are on your server, return to the Themes panel to refresh the admin.
Note: if you have a child theme active, do not activate the Marketers Delight parent theme after finishing the update.
Step 2a – Dropins + Page Leads
BEFORE PROCEEDING TO STEP 3:
1) if you have installed any Dropins from the Dropins Library you must update them in your child theme now.
2) Page Leads are REMOVED from Marketers Delight! But don’t worry, you can now install Page Leads as a Dropin to your child theme which will allow you to keep your Page Leads data in MD5.0. Why the change? MD5.0 will focus on a far superior content builder system and Page Leads are an old idea put to rest. It is recommended you move your content away from Page Leads over time.
If you don’t use Dropins and Page Leads, skip this and proceed to Step 3.
The Testimonials, Videos, Glossary, Gallery Blocks, Beacon, and Page Blocks have all been updated to support MD5.0 and can be re-downloaded from the Dropins Library.
After you redownload the Dropin, you must simply replace the current folder in your child theme with the new version. For a refresher, follow the same instructions you did when you installed the Dropins.
Step 3
Now that the theme files are running on your site, you must upgrade your database immediately to convert your site data to the new formats in MD5.0. Click the “upgrade database” button to begin the automated process.
Step 4 (Upgrade complete)
After the upgrader completes, go to the MD Dashboard to see what’s new and begin to explore what’s new! Make sure the frontend of your website is displaying properly, and fill in anything missing from the settings panel.
Step 4a: Known Bugs
After running the MD upgrader on a variety of sites we have found a few specific parts of your site/settings you will need to double check and possibly reconfigure:
- Go to MD > Optins to set your site’s default email list
- Go to MD > Optins > Popups > Popup Hotspots to re-add hotspots
- Go to Appearance > Widgets > Edit Sidebars to re-add sidebars to custom post types
- Go to Apearance > Menus and unset/correct the Main Menu location if needed
- If you set a custom content or sidebar width, your website will appear way too small. Go to MD > Site Design > Content > Widths to correct values to pixels (no longer percentage based)
Find any bugs of your own? Please report them at the support forums!
Step 5: Child Theme Updates
This section will help you organize your Child Theme’s files and make organization/coding recommendations to stay organized. If you aren’t running a child theme, skip this part.
File Reorganization
Much of the MD file structure has been reorganized and some child theme templates have moved and you will need to update some template file locations.
- The /content/ folder has been renamed to /templates/ (but MD still reads the /content/ folder for backwards-compatibility). It is recommended you rename the old content folder to templates.
- 95% of all frontend templates have been moved into the new /templates/ folder so you now have full and easy access to the entire output of your site via child theme
Template File Updates
The following template files have been modified, and it is possible you will need to update their file contents and location in your child theme.
- templates/logo.php
- templates/content-box.php
- templates/content-item.php
- templates/content-item-404.php
- templates/loops/loop.php
- templates/loops/loop-search.php
- templates/loops/loop-teasers.php
- templates/content-schema.php
- templates/headline.php
- templates/byline.php
- templates/text.php
- templates/author-box.php
- templates/archives-title.php
- templates/optins/email-form.php
- templates/menus/menu.php
- templates/menus/main-menu.php
- templates/menus/main-menu-search.php
- templates/comments/comments.php
- templates/comments/comment.php
- templates/comments/comments-list.php
Update functions.php
The functions.php file is the main file to execute code in your child theme. This is probably the busiest file you have, and may contain functions no longer needed as MD has evolved over the years.
- Remove wp_enqueue_script() for MD and child theme style.css files. As of MD4.8 you no longer need to manually load your child theme and MD style.css file—they are both loaded automatically.
- Remove any unused functions. Download the latest blank MD child theme and compare it to yours. Notice how the child theme functions.php file is just about empty, so use it as a basis for what unused functions may still be cluttering up the file
- Remove (if it exists)
add_filter( 'widget_text', 'do_shortcode' );
Update style.css
Many styles, typography, and spacing has been vastly improved and the MD stylesheet has been updated responsibly to transition onto your site as smoothly as possible.
The only major CSS helper class change you will need to change is .format-text-main to .format. This is the main typography class used to style fonts and add nice spacing to elements.
Otherwise, take this time to remove and organize any CSS your site may no longer need—MD does a lot right out of the box these days.
Hire Alex to Upgrade Your Website to MD5.0
I have dedicated extra hours to give you everything you need to safely upgrade your site. I am even back at the MD Forums to answer any questions for doing the upgrade yourself.
…but sometimes that isn’t enough. If you don’t have the time or you would prefer me, Alex (the creator of MD), to upgrade your site I can handle everything for you.
In addition to upgrading your site to Marketers Delight 5.0, I will also fully optimize and clean up your child theme for best performance and organization. I will also give you a list of other recommendations I see for you to further optimize your site.
To do this for you I am charging a one time fee of $75 here with a turnaround within a week (usually no more than a few days). If you also need to update your license key to get MD5.0 I will give you a package deal.
Remember, between the MD updater, upgrade guide, and support forums, you have what you need to update your site, so this offer is for those of you that want it done with a professional edge.
Use this simple child theme modification to add a sticky scrolling effect to your site’s header. This is a simple solution that requires no jQuery and uses MD’s extremely lightweight JavaScript API to make this simple effect possible on your website.
The Sticky Header feature is slated to make it into a future MD release, but for now this simple effect can be achieved with the above code snippets in your child theme.
With a few extra custom CSS styles, the sticky effect is made more elegant by narrowing the height of the header and reducing the font size of the site title to prevent the header from blocking too much content while scrolling.
Today MD4.9.6 is released with two notable new features and a handful of bug fixes and improvements. This is the first new release in a few months during the ongoing development of Marketers Delight 5.0 and I am excited to show you what’s new and talk about the future.
Continue reading →Use MD’s built-in HTML helper classes to quickly create custom website elements that match your design and are already fully mobile-responsive. Refer to this page as a reference for the most recent list of helper classes in each MD release.
If you’re using the Marketers Delight WordPress theme, you’re probably already interested in connecting with your visitors and growing your website. But if you’re only doing those things in a single language, you might be missing out on reaching potential fans and providing the best experience possible to your existing visitors.
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One of the many things that makes WordPress great is how translatable it is to any language, opening it up as the premier software for the entire world to use. In this guide I will show you how to fully translate the text strings MD adds around your site from English to any language you prefer to use on your own website.
Continue reading →Running into issues with your site after updating, installing, or using Marketers Delight? Follow the steps on this page to get through the most commonly solved problems at the MD Forums.
1. My site isn’t loading CSS, or parts of my design don’t reflect styles from the Site Designer
To keep the CSS styles that power your website lightweight, Marketers Delight regularly rebuilds the style.css file on your server. Sometimes the file does not regenerate, causing your site to load either no styles or a limited amount.
To troubleshoot broken or missing CSS, go to MD > Settings > Save. Now return to your site and refresh it to see if it has returned to normal. If not, further troubleshoot the issue by going back to MD > Settings > Site Performance > Print Inline CSS.
Now you should see your site’s design back to normal, or at least loading the full stylesheet again.
This all but confirms that your server is not allowing the MD style.css file to regenerate because it does not have the proper file permissions setup.
You can learn how to change the file permissions of /wp-content/themes/marketers-delight/style.css file from this tutorial on WordPress.org. In short: change the permission of MD’s style.css file to 777.
After you correct the permissions, you can disable the Print Inline CSS option to go back to loading style.css.
It can also be useful to know that MD regenerates your site’s stylesheet when:
- Update to a new MD version
- Each time you press the save button on MD > Settings
- Save MD > Site Design Customizer settings
- Switch between MD and another theme
- Call
md_compile_css()in a template
Still not working? Open a support thread at the MD Forums for assistance.
2. My site looks different after an update
MD offers many exciting updates that often change large parts of your website. As MD has matured over the years, updates have become more stable. However, conflicts can arise with old features or child theme customizations in new versions.
The closer you are to using MD without any child theme customizations, the less likely you will run into these conflicts. Changing CSS classes and overriding templates is where the problems arise, but even this gets fewer by the update.
Read the changelog of any version to see which template files have updated, and compare any MD CSS classes in your child theme stylesheets to how they are on your site after the update to find the most current class names.
Still don’t know what happened? Report your case in the MD Forums for assistance.
3. A feature isn’t working as expected
Sometimes after big releases some features around MD can stop working or they do not act as expected. Sometimes features can also be changed intentionally, which is documented in new blog posts, but if you think that is not the case, help us fix it for future MD releases.
If any feature:
- Doesn’t save after you make changes
- Seems to load slowly
- Works but doesn’t seem to display right
Go to the MD Forums to make a report and it will be investigated. These kinds of issues are fixed with a high priority, so don’t think your time will be wasted!
Sometimes Plugins can break MD’s functionality, and is usually due to scripts conflicts. If you think this is the case test your site after you temporarily disable the Plugin to see if that fixed your issue. If not, help can be provided at the MD Forums.
It is also possible to not be fully familiar with how a feature works, so be sure to read the MD website and demo site for fuller explanations of how to use MD’s features.
4. My site shows errors and warning messages
This can be one of the scarier issues to find, but all can be resolved! There are two types of error messages:
- Fatal errors/white screen (website totally unusable)
- Error warnings (long, confusing messages show on website)
Enabling error messages
If you only see a white screen and no text, you need to turn on WP_DEBUG (and turn it off when you are done) to show error messages. After you do that, refresh your site to hopefully see the error.
Solving error messages
Now read the error message and look for any keywords that have the name of a Plugin or Theme running on your site.
If you recognize a name, you know the error is coming from that Theme or Plugin. If you have a fatal error, navigate to the correct folder in /wp-content/ via FTP and rename the Theme or Plugin folder to disable it on your site.
If your site works after this, you can continue as best you can and report the bug to the Theme/Plugin owner to hopefully get it fixed.
Marketers Delight 4.9.4 is ready for download! The main focus of today’s update is a deep WooCommerce integration that makes setting up a store with WordPress a whole lot easier.
By introducing a modular CSS system, and updates to the Scripts Manager, MD4.9.4 is better than ever at serving only the most relevant scripts and styles to keep any given page as lightweight as possible.
Like with all major updates, MD4.9.4 adds just as much as it takes away.
To keep adding new features and capabilities into Marketers Delight comes with the responsibility to grow in a way that’s best for the overall health of your website.
A big tool like WooCommerce requires a lot of work to setup—not including many performance optimizations—and there MD has improved in many ways to better design your store and keep your website fast-loading.
Now in the click of a button you can make your MD powered website fully compatible with WooCommerce.
Sites already running Marketers Delight 4.9.4
