A new version of the MaxBoxy plugin is finally available. It’s few months since we published version 1.0.0. and we have been working in the background for the next release which is finally available from the wordpress.org repository – Free MaxBoxy at WP. Though we planned a much closer release of the current version, things weren’t quite clear. To be straightforward, the things with WordPress weren’t that clear, where are they moving with the Gutenberg project and what they plan to include in the core. You see, Gutenberg is an ongoing project which brings a lot of new features and changes in the way the themes and plugins are built for WordPress. If we go more than a year back, we were building menu items for MaxBoxy, then we realized it was unnecessary because WordPress is bringing that to the core and there are a lot of plugins that provide block library which will be complementary used with MaxBoxy. So we ditched that and moved on.
At this moment it still isn’t clear what blocks will be in the core but things are getting much closer to the point where we can build upon them with some certainty. When Gutenberg was introduced there was speculation that even meta-boxes will be obsolete. That would be a heavy strike for those who have been used to this approach. Luckily, while JavaScript’s React is bringing more flexibility, meta-boxes aren’t going anywhere, which is a great thing for developers oriented more to PHP.
Maxboxy’s Current moment
With the new version, 1.0.1. of MaxBoxy, we tightened and polished a lot of things. The release brings more stuff that is built in the background, than introducing new features. There are some UI changes that should bring a better experience, we hope. However, under the hood is where the changes have happened a lot:
- We switched more to OOP programming
- We linted the code to PHP standards
- We fixed the bugs and errors
A lot of testing has been done recently and there were some errors that would be encountered when some options are in use in some PHP versions, i.e version 8. Those are resolved now.
Testing with upcoming WordPress 6.1
Until everything is tested in detail the Pro add-on won’t be released. However, we’ve already done testing against the upcoming new version of WordPress – 6.1. The good news, no issues were encountered, and you can comfortably use MaxBoxy with the newest WordPress.
What to expect with MaxBoxy
In the near future, we intend to polish the plugin further. While the previous months were more of work that’s not viewable on first sight with the intention to improve the code, the following weeks will bring more UI improvement and better sorting of the patterns that come available with MaxBoxy.
We intend to switch to a more visual, image-oriented, design of the panels’ toggler/closer options. It will bring more clarity where the closer or toggler button appears.
We have built more than 80 patterns that could suit MaxBoxy panels. Still, most of these are available for the Pro version and it needs polishing a bit. We are considering introducing global colors for those patterns. This way, you set a global background and text color from the global settings, and all the available patterns come prepared with these settings.
Another significant thing, we’ll be pushing the test mode option soon, something like a preview where Maxboxy’s panels can be seen just by admins and hidden from public view. If everything goes well it will be available in a week or so.
A bit further in the future
All aforementioned options should be available before the Pro add-on for MaxBoxy becomes available. Going further we’ll test WooCommerce interactions like panel popups based on the cart contents or on the total price and similar options. There are other plans, but currently not ready to reveal until the testing is done. Stick around, we have really exciting features coming.
Releasing the MaxBoxy Pro
Most of the features planned for the initial version of the Pro addon are already finished and you can see most of the options working from MaxBoxy’s demo page.
After thorough testing, the Pro plugin should be available in late Q2 of 2023 in the second half of 2023. As weaved through this post we’re eavesdropping on what WordPress is doing with Gutenberg and trying to lean on it by keeping MaxBoxy encompassed as the reliable solution for building conversion floating and injecting boxes.
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