We are pleased to announce Spectra 2.9, which adds support for Global Block Styles into Spectra’s Core Blocks!

With this update, Spectra Pro’s Global Block Styles will be available for all of Spectra’s Core Blocks!

But that’s not all, we’ve also made Container editing easier, added in a new vertical align feature for buttons, and a whole lot more!

New:

• Core Blocks – Added Global Block Style support for core blocks.

Improvements:

• Container – Enhanced the accessibility of nested Containers.
• Buttons – Added a new vertical alignment option.
• Admin – Made the welcome video GDPR compliant and added a filter to hide it.

Fixes:

• Container – Resolved an issue wherein the core Social Share block would get centered by default inside Containers.
• Form – Resolved an issue that caused form submissions to fail when the reCAPTCHA badge was hidden with v3 enabled.
• Image Gallery – Resolved an issue in which the custom link validation would fail when the root domain contained hyphens.
• Lottie – Resolved an issue in which the SVG alignment would not work as intended in the TwentyTwentyThree theme.
• Lottie – Resolved an issue in which the width of the block would be adopted from the parent Container.
• Global – Resolved an issue wherein a block error would occur when attempting to select typography font-families in the presence of multiple iFrames.
• Global – Resolved an issue wherein adding Containers, Forms, Lottie blocks and the Popup Builder would cause errors when the Gutenberg plugin was active.
• Global – Resolved an issue wherein the ‘normal’ text-transformation option would not work as intended.

Improvements:

• Animations – Added a new one-click button in Containers to animate all inner-blocks.

We are pleased to announce Spectra 2.8, with the all new Sticky feature for Containers and the enhanced Site Visibility Mode!

With Sticky Containers, you can create a seamless UI by sticking containers into place when the page is scrolled. Stick them to the top or bottom of the screen, or even restrict them to stick only inside the parent container – Make the content that matters persist.

With our Site Visibilty improvements, you now get both Coming Soon and Maintenance Mode – Keep your visitors informed and maintain SEO health by using the appropriate HTTP response codes, optimizing the user experience and search engine recognition.

Feature:

• Container – Added a new Sticky-Container setting in the Advanced tab.
• Site Visibility – Improved the Coming-Soon Mode by adding the Maintenance Mode feature.

Improvements:

• Container – Updated responsive padding settings to inherit from bigger devices by default.
• Buttons – Added alignment options to both the child and parent blocks in the block controls toolbar.
• Buttons – Reduced the default number of buttons to 1.
• Form – Made the default recipient as the current user’s WordPress email address when the `To` field is left empty in submitted forms.
• Global – Enhanced the reusable block functionality for the following blocks: Tabs and Slider.

Fixes:

• Container – Resolved an issue wherein the left and right margins of inner-containers would not work as intended.
• Content Timeline – Resolved an issue in which the icons would appear over-sized and the content styling would break on the frontend.
• Image Gallery – Resolved an issue with the masonry type wherein the loader would not be hidden after all the images have been loaded.
• Post Carousel – Resolved an issue in which the responsive columns would not work as intended in the editor.
• Post Grid – Resolved an issue wherein the post meta responsive font-size would not work as intended in the editor.
• Separator – Resolved an issue wherein the height would revert from percentage to pixels after reloading the editor.
• Global – Removed responsive conditions for core PHP-rendered blocks.
• Global – Resolved an issue in which the font-family that was set would not appear as intended in the FSE template editor.

Fixes:

• Fix: Loop Builder – Resolved an issue wherein the block would encounter an issue within Astra’s Custom Layout Archive.
• Fix: Popup Builder – Resolved an issue in which the visibility modal UI would appear incorrectly.
• Fix: Dynamic Content – Resolved an issue in which the Read More button on the posts page would not appear when Spectra Pro is enabled.
• Fix: Global – Resolved an issue in which the Spectra Pro notice would appear when Spectra was not installed.

Fixes:

• Image – Resolved an issue in which the updated responsive images would not appear as intended.
• Image – Resolved an issue in which masked images would get cut off when the zoom-in hover effect was used.
• Form – Resolved an issue wherein the country-code background color would not match in the editor and the front-end.
• Form – Added an error message when the confirmation type is set to “URL text”.
• Form – Resolved an issue wherein the Forms block would not work inside Containers in Astra’s Custom Layout.
• Google Maps – Resolved an issue in which the custom classes would not appear on the frontend.
• Image Gallery – Resolved an issue in the carousel type wherein the arrow positions would revert from percentage to pixels after reloading.
• Marketing Button – Resolved an issue in which the default border-radius would not match in the editor and the front-end.
• Post Timeline – Resolved an issue in which the notice links would not redirect users as intended.
• Table Of Contents – Resolved an issue wherein headings containing some uppercase latin characters would not function as intended.
• Testimonials – Resolved an issue wherein the gradient background styles would not work as intended.
• Global – Resolved an issue wherein a PHP error could occur in the Widget Editor.
• Global – Resolved an issue in which non-FSE themes running on PHP 8.1 would encounter PHP issues regarding the preg_match and strlen functions.
• Global – Removed the Block Editor Spacing setting for FSE themes.

Fixes:

• Hardened the security of the plugin. Props: Patchstack
• Container – Resolved an issue wherein container background images would not render as intended during site migration.
• Admin – Resolved an issue in which a deprecation notice would be shown on PHP v8.2 and above.

Improvement:

• Info Box – Changed the Info Box icon position dropdown to a multi-control.

Fixes:

• Call To Action – Resolved an issue wherein the buttons would not be aligned as intended.
• How To – Resolved an issue in which the responsive heading font-sizes would not work as intended.
• Image Gallery – Resolved an issue wherein the lightbox would not work as intended within Containers.
• Post Blocks – Resolved an issue wherein text-formatting for buttons would appear as HTML tags on the front-end.
• Price List – Resolved an issue in which the title bottom margin, row, and column gaps would not work as intended in the responsive editor.

Improvements:

• Global – Enhanced the reusable block functionality for the following blocks: Google Maps, How To, Icon List, Inline Notice, Lottie, Marketing Button, Modal, Popup Builder, Post Grid and Post Carousel.

Fixes:

• Container – Resolved an issue in which the link tag would not work as intended on the front-end.
• How To – Resolved an issue in which the minimum minutes setting would be unskippable.
• Post Blocks – Resolved an issue in which the responsive styling would not work as intended in the editor.

Improvements:

• Container – Added an image overlay option for the background.

Fixes:

• Container – Resolved an issue wherein the blocks inside Containers would appear underneath the Container’s overlay when set.
• Container – Resolved an issue in which the flex properties would not work as intended in the frontend for the Image and Heading blocks in nested Containers.
• Modal – Resolved an issue in which the Modal would not open in Astra’s quick-view popup for WooCommerce products.
• Post Blocks – Resolved an issue wherein taxonomies were not accessible to the Shop Manager role.
• Separator – Resolved an edge-case issue in which the responsive alignment would not work as intended.
• Table Of Contents – Resolved an issue in which Latin characters in a heading would prevent the links for that specific heading from working.
• Table Of Contents – Resolved an issue wherein the collapsible setting would not work in the editor when enabled.
• Table Of Contents – Resolved an issue wherein regenerating assets would cause the Table Of Contents to appear empty in FSE.
• Global – Resolved an issue wherein a PHP warning could occurred in a few cases on some websites.