SlideCraft – Documentation

Version 1.0.0. Requires WordPress 6.3+ and PHP 7.4+.

Description

007AJ SlideCraft builds hero banners, boxed sliders, carousels and fade slideshows without slowing your site down. The front end is plain JavaScript (no jQuery) and loads only on pages that show a slider.

Editor

  • Slide list: add, duplicate, reorder (drag or arrows) and delete slides.
  • Visual stage: drag text, button and image layers into place. Positions are percentages, so layouts scale with the slider.
  • Desktop, tablet and mobile views with per-device position, width, font size and “hide on this device”.
  • Live preview in a real browser frame at each device width.

Slides

  • Backgrounds: image (focal point, optional Ken Burns zoom), video (YouTube, Vimeo or an MP4 from your media library), solid color or gradient, plus an overlay color.
  • Layers: heading/text, button (link and style) and image, each with an entrance animation (fade, slide up/down/left/right, zoom) and its own delay, duration and easing.

Slider types and navigation

  • Full-width hero (fixed or viewport-based height), boxed slider, carousel (slides per view per device) and fade slideshow.
  • Arrows, dots, autoplay with progress bar, pause on hover and focus, loop, swipe/drag and keyboard navigation.

Accessibility

  • Carousel and slide roles, labelled controls, a visible pause/play button, a polite live region, hidden inactive slides and full keyboard support.
  • Respects “reduced motion”: animations, Ken Burns, autoplay and background videos stay still.

Performance

  • No jQuery on the front end, assets only where a slider is shown.
  • First slide image loads eagerly with fetchpriority=”high” and width/height (no layout shift); the rest lazy-load with responsive srcset.
  • Videos are only embedded when their slide is visible.

Display anywhere

  • Shortcode: [slidecraft id="12"] or [slidecraft slug="home"]
  • Block: “SlideCraft Slider”
  • Widget: “SlideCraft Slider”
  • Theme API: slidecraft_show( 'home' ), slidecraft_get(), slidecraft_exists() plus filters and actions.

Tools

  • Import and export sliders as JSON (everything is sanitized on import) and duplicate sliders in one click.

Installation

  1. Upload the slidecraft folder to /wp-content/plugins/, or upload the zip under Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin.
  2. Activate the plugin.
  3. Go to SlideCraft > Add New Slider, add slides and layers, then Publish.
  4. Show it with the block, the shortcode, the widget or slidecraft_show( 'your-slider-slug' ) in your theme.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does it need jQuery?

No. The front-end script is dependency-free vanilla JavaScript.

Why is my hero slider not full width?

The slider fills its container. Place the block in a full-width area (set the block to “Full width”) or call slidecraft_show() outside your theme’s content wrapper.

Can authors add scripts to layers?

No. Layer text only allows safe inline tags (strong, em, br, span, links and similar). Inline styles on spans are kept only for users with the unfiltered_html capability.

What happens to my sliders if I delete the plugin?

Nothing, unless you tick “Delete all sliders and settings when the plugin is deleted” under SlideCraft > Settings.

External Services

This plugin can show background videos from third-party video platforms. Nothing is loaded from these services unless you choose a YouTube or Vimeo video background for a slide, and even then the player is only embedded in the visitor’s browser when that slide is visible. The plugin itself never sends requests from your server.

YouTube (by Google): when a slide uses a YouTube video, the visitor’s browser loads the player from www.youtube-nocookie.com (privacy-enhanced mode). The video ID, the visitor’s IP address and browser information are sent to Google.

Terms of Service: https://www.youtube.com/t/terms

Privacy Policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy

Vimeo: when a slide uses a Vimeo video, the visitor’s browser loads the player from player.vimeo.com with “do not track” enabled. The video ID, the visitor’s IP address and browser information are sent to Vimeo.

Terms of Service: https://vimeo.com/terms

Privacy Policy: https://vimeo.com/privacy

Privacy

SlideCraft stores no visitor data and sets no cookies. See External Services for optional YouTube and Vimeo embeds.

Changelog

1.0.0

  • Initial release.

Support

Email admin@007aj.com with your site URL, WordPress and PHP versions, and a short description of the problem. We reply within one business day.