For the course of events to change, it doesn't necessarily have to take place a paradigm shift, sometimes even a decision made to fulfil an ordinary need is enough. But please, let me clear up the vagueness of my words, because I think an explanation, for the users of The Permalinks Cascade Pro and SiteTree, can be as much appreciated as it would be receiving words of gratitude for the trust placed in me.
Today SiteTree becomes officially part of the history. Don't worry, I am not going to say my goodbyes to the project, far from it! This post is about a breath of fresh air: I gave the plugin a new name, and from now on it will be distributed in two versions, Pro and Lite. The introduction of the much anticipated Gutenberg Blocks is another big novelty. But let's start from the timeless question: "Why?"
Flock can easily turn out to be a companion for those just starting out blogging as well as a complete answer for anyone seeking minimalism. Despite its being essential, it offers an acceptable degree of customisability. It is clean, functional and content-centric. Flock is a theme for personal blogs.
Having to deal with spam comments like any other owner of a WordPress blog has to, I said to myself: "Luigi, do you know that the time is ripe for a new project?" Not that the WordPress community was lacking of an anti-spam solution for bloggers, but as you know, freedom comes from the possibility to choose. In other words, there are never too many alternatives. So today I'm happy to introduce to you the first version of a plugin that weeks ago blocked its first spam comment on this very site. Welcome RedBrick!
Even though it has been an experience lasted only a few months, developing add-ons for SiteTree has been very pleasant. As we know, sooner or later everything draws to an end, but that isn't always bad. I write this because the last add-on left too, Multilingual Leaf, has been incorporated into SiteTree.
Today is the day. SiteTree turns into a premium plugin to all intents and purposes. As disclosed about a month ago, this change of course is the offspring of my current financial situation, but also of the will to give a future to the project.
I guess you wouldn't have expected such a drastic change of course. Me neither. I have always been of the idea that the freemium business model was the one that best suited my way of thinking, and I am still convinced of that, but sometimes needs change rapidly, and when it does happen, action has to be taken proactively.
Do you like the new icon? The slight refresh hasn't changed its meaning — something I will tell you about some other time — but it adds-up to an update that introduces in SiteTree two functionalities previously exclusive to Demux Leaf: the ability to produce a multi-page Site Tree and that of creating collections of XML sitemaps.
Developing a software is tough, but giving it a new name, it's a no less challenging task. Most of the time such a choice is nourished by an obvious reason, other times it is simply the need to give breath to an idea, to push for the change. Wonder Leaf is born exactly from said need. It's the result of a thought that finally reached full maturity: the ability to look at life in wonder isn't a privilege of a few, but an aptitude of everyone, and as such, it has to be celebrated everyday.
Pro Leaf is slowly collecting new gems, little features currently focused on improving your productivity as a SiteTree's user. This time around it's the Ghost Pages feature of SiteTree to see an uplift: Pro Leaf 1.2 makes Ghost Pages easier to spot, and faster to flag.
A new WordPress plugin has just bloomed into the Interweb, an add-on addressed to SiteTree's lovers who have based their multilingual website upon WPML. Its name is Multilingual Leaf, and it is only awaiting to be discovered.
The past November, when I launched Demux Leaf, one of the first official add-ons for SiteTree, I couldn't have predicted that only three months later I would have announced my decision of opening its source to the community, but I'm doing it, and I couldn't be more confident about my choice.
It would be much more worth writing about a restorative experience lived in a difficult 2020, but I am just a young life-learner who mingles drops of code into a cauldron full of hope, and as such I can only wish you to find in this update that bit of extra usefulness that SiteTree was still missing.
After an outburst of emotions that only Fred Flintstone could have expressed better, an unstoppable need to thank every single person who contributed to reaching this milestone made a heartfelt "Grazie!" to spring out of me. Just the time to catch it, that I was already sticking it between these lines: in no case it could have failed getting to you.
The last of a year-long succession of updates is here, ready to salute this prolific 2020 that has seen SiteTree growing from an idea of the past to a sitemap builder plugin much more able, way more robust in structure, and with a regained character. In this release the shortcode feature introduced with SiteTree 4.5 is further enhanced by the introduction of a new attribute — SiteTree keeps collecting Flexibility.
Out of curiosity, about a month ago, I fed the terminal a one-liner program that would have tallied the number of lines of code I had put together to give life to SiteTree Pro. The terminal displayed a number slightly over 13k. Looking at it with a bit of proud, I realised a crossroads was just showing up before me: one path went on with SiteTree Pro in constant growth, the other turned a little to lead straight towards an adventure even more nestled into the WordPress jungle. I really liked what I had built up until then, but the ideas that were bubbling in my head inspired me even more. So I immediately got to work, and after 3k new lines of code, I can finally announce the release of the first Leaves for SiteTree!