TABLE OF CONTENTS


Latest Updates


Site Translations Now Available

  • We now offer translation and localization versions (e.g. Spanish, French and more) through an integration with Weglot.  Set up is easy, just sign up for a Weglot package, then file a support ticket with us and send us your API key. Weglot starts by automatically translating your website, and then you can customize automated translations manually or with a language consultant to make language feel more natural. You can get an initial site translation in just a few clicks!



  • Global Sponsor Carousel in the Footer
    You can now choose a carousel format to display your sponsors globally above the site footer.



    To select this option, go to Groundplan Theme Settings >> Footer & Social >> Global Sponsors & Partners, and select "Sponsor Layout >> Sponsor Carousel".  If you select at least 6 sponsors, a carousel will display otherwise sponsors will display without the carousel in the same location above the footer. 


Flexible Page Header Titles

  • Event, Page and Post titles below the header image.  You can now use a theme setting to make page, event, and post titles appear below the header image instead of overlayed on top of the header image. To enable this option, toggle the setting in Groundplan Theme Settings >> Groundplan Theme Settings >> Layout Options >> Header Block Layout, and select "Title Below Header".



Content Block and Layout Enhancements

  • Added a Testimonial Gallery to the Landing Page Template
    You can now add a testimonial gallery to your landing pages. The landing page format has larger default text, and supports background colors and textures. Text overlays a transparent white background for readability.

  • Added a Post List Image Field.  This is an optional 4:3 aspect ratio format for Post summaries in post lists and category pages.  If not set, still defaults to the header image for the post.  Note: In rare cases when you use the classic 3-column promo style with the Home Page Template, the post list image is not used in that location as the area is designed for a 16:8 format, matching the header image.

  • Event Search now defaults to "Any" instead of "Events". Users can now search for events, classes, or "any" for both at the same time. This can help reduce confusion when users aren't sure if they want to filter results for only events or classes.

  • Additional date format customization.  For one-night only performances, you can now specify a character separator between the event date and time that displays on the event detail page. Set the "Display Date & Time Separator" field in Groundplan >> Settings >> Event Display Date Format, and then resave your events to regenerate the display date. (Note that this change will still be overridden if the override field is set.)

    Display date time formatting has been improved to prevent confusing line breaks before "am," "pm," and timezones if included.


Bugfixes and Other Goodies

  • Added a "Default Sponsor List Label" setting in Groundplan Theme Settings >> Event Settings, which changes the default label from "Sponsors" to any title you choose, so that you don't need to set that title in each 
  • Fixed an issue with opening the correct FAQ when multiple FAQ blocks were included on the same page.
  • You can now choose the layout of Partner / Sponsor block on tabbed pages - either a Grid (default) or a Gallery / Carousel.
  • Improved the layout of the Partner Gallery to center differently sized sponsor logos.
  • Improved readability of paragraph font styling in the editor.
  • Fixed a bug where some genre badges would not appear when only one series had been selected and when certain plugins were inactive on the site.
  • Fixed a bug when a default template page is published without any tabs.
  • Fixed a bug where image gradients appeared on the header if the header was also in "title below header" mode.
  • Updated the Twitter logo to "X".  As a reminder as Twitter starts to offer less, ahem, reliable marketing value – if Twitter is no longer part of your sharing strategy, you can disable it from social sharing under Footer & Social >> Social Share Configuration >> Enable Twitter Share.   If you no longer utilize your Twitter account, just remove your account in Footer & Social >> Social >> Twitter Account and it will no longer appear in the footer.
  • Added a hover state to items in the Promo Grid (On Landing and Flex Content Pages)
  • Fixed a bug that affected the Posts List block on the landing page only that could fail to display a category of posts when the category selected was a child of another category.

Version 2.0 (October 2023)


A new default / Flex Content page

The new version of the default page (also known as the flex page or tabbed pages) has all the same features as the previous version, but adds more flexibility:

  • You can now add as many duplicate content blocks as you like, of any time, to any tab, in any order.
  • Controls for content blocks are now more intuitively grouped together.
  • We've added additional block types to the flex page, including Promo Grids, Full width Promos, Video Galleries, and the new Benefits Comparison Table.


For all the details on the new version of the template, see this article: Flex Content Page.

The Flex Content Tabs Page (v 2.0) is currently in beta release, and will be replacing the default template.  To use the Flex Content Tabs now, when creating a new page, select Page Attributes >> Template >> Flex Content Tabs (2.0)

The old version of the template will remain on the site as "Legacy Tabs Page (v1.5)." We will change your template to the new default automatically when the beta period is over, and there's no need to update old pages to the new format.




The "Add Button" Button


There's now a button in every wysiwyg editor to paste in a button shortcode – wherever you need one!


Manually Curate Events in any Event List


In every Event List, you can now curate individual events instead of an event taxonomy (like genre or series).  Your same sorting filters will still apply, which can hide some of the events you select - for example, events that close will be automatically removed when "Show past?" is set to "upcoming and current".


Displaying events by taxonomy is less management than manual selection (you only need to add an event to a genre to have it feed to this list in the future), so that remains the default option.


Editable Map Styles

We've added a new setting (Groundplan Theme Settings >> Maps Settings) to customize the style of embedded maps throughout the site. The new default is  "Default Google Style", which includes some usability features like full screen mode and street view. If you prefer the older style, you can adjust this setting to "Simplified Silver"




  • Our "Legacy" version 1.0 tabs and old "Plan Your Visit" template have now been fully deprecated and removed from site template options.  If you previously had any existing legacy tabs or Plan Your Visit pages, we've migrated the content in those pages to the Version 2 "default" tabs layouts, which will prepare them for the new version.  There should be no change visually to these pages.
  • "Heading 1" has been removed from the blockformat dropdown in text editors.  H1 is a reserved HTML element for page titles, so this helps avoid SEO optimization errors when writing content.
  • Reorganized Social link and sharing support to support the latest changes at Meta, including adding support for Threads profiles and removing the now-deprecated Facebook Recommend button.  Added controls for enabling or disabling Twitter share buttons (accessible in the Footer & Social settings page).  This is enabled by default.
  • The event list filters now remove any taxonomies (series, genres, etc) that don't have any upcoming events assigned, since those options wouldn't return results.
  • Fixed a bug when using multiple Instagram feeds on the same site.
  • Added IDs based on title to Event, class, search results, and post lists pages to allow the use of anchor links to that item.  (e.g., to link an anchor to an event called "Nutcracker 2023" on the event list page you'd use the url with the anchor "https://yourdomain.org/events#nutcracker-2023")
  • Corrected an issue where the Event Carousel block didn't display the next upcoming event first.
  • Added support for Facebook and LinkedIn pages for people, which display on the person detail page.
  • Added an option to disable / hide background video on mobile devices (for Landing Page >> Feature Blocks).  Videos continue to default to being visible on mobile.
  • Changed settings text sitewide for "Target" to "Link" (e.g. "Promo Button Link") to be more intuitive.
  • Added support for integration between Gravity Forms and Zapier automations
  • Visual fixes for some event search configurations
  • Visual fixes for partner grids
  • Removed legacy capitalization constraints on downloads and some fields.
  • Added a TikTok link setting to GP Theme Settings >> Footer
  • Updated Facebook Brnad
  • Fixed a visual issue when a person has multiple company associations.
  • Added heading support in Testimonials.



Past Updates