There are a number of plugins installed to change the way WordPress works as well as to add functionality.
Additional Gutenberg Blocks
This site uses the newer Gutenberg editor for WordPress, and some of the plugins are additional blocks that can be used in the editor. The plugins that add blocks are Atomic Blocks – Gutenberg Blocks Collection, Carousel Slider Block, and Ultimate Addons for Gutenberg.
Additional Editing Options
A few of the plugins add additional options to the editor.
- Contact Form 7 provides a way to add forms to a page that can be emailed to someone. This is currently used on the Join a Project, Suggest a Project, Contact Us, and Cal State Ready pages.
- iframe allows a content manager to insert an iframe into a page. This is currently used to embed the event calendar from TeamUp on the Events page.
- TablePress provides a method to create complex tables. It’s not currently used on any pages, but it’s a useful plugin to have installed.
Site Security
A number of the plugins help to properly secure the site.
- Akismet Anti-Spam protects both the comments and email forms from spambots. There is a small annual fee for this service.
- Cookies for Comments is an additional layer of comment spam protection.
- Disable Comments turns off comments for certain types of comments. For this site, comments are disabled on pages and media, meaning visitors can only comment on blog posts and news items.
- Health Check & Troubleshooting periodically checks to make sure the WordPress installation is well configured.
- Really Simple SSL forces every page to be delivered using https.
- Wordfence Security is a WordPress firewall that can detect hacking attempts and block them. It also has a number of notification options and is currently set to email the Cal State Innovate email address any time an administrator logins in.
Administrative Functions
Some of the plugins change the way WordPress functions when administering the site.
- Create And Assign Categories For Pages extends the WordPress category and tag taxonomy to pages. This change is core to how most of the pages are grouped and displayed as well as how many of the side menus are built.
- Duplicate Post lets a content manager duplicate a current page into a new draft. This is critical to the workflow for many of the special pages on the site, including webinars, projects, minigrants, and innovation badges.
- No Category Base (WPML) removes /category/ from the URL for category pages. That allows the site to have a simpler URL for things like the blog as well as the pages for lists of webinars, projects, and minigrants.
- Redirection setups up redirects from old URLs to new ones. The older innovation badges had a URL scheme we didn’t want to use anymore, but those URLs were attached to digital badges, so this plugin lets us redirect the old URLs to the new URL structure for innovation badges.
- WP Accessibility adds some public options to the site to improve the navigation experience for low vision visitors.
Widgets
There is one additional widget plugin, Recent Posts Widget Extended, that is used to dynamically build the side menus for a number of the pages. Another plugin, Widget Options, provides greater granularity and control when deciding on which pages sidebar widgets appear.
