The wait is over! We are proud to present our new major version, the Smart Slider 3.3 ‐ Eclipse. This update is a little different from the last two major versions. Mostly because we’ve been listening to your feedback and focusing to improve the performance and the overall experience.
I know that new, spectacular features are always exciting but sometimes what makes everything a little bit better is more important in long term. This update is full of fixes and performance upgrades that should make your experience better, but it also helps us bring you really new exciting features in the next weeks! Let’s have a deeper look at what 3.3 – Eclipse has to offer.
Under the Hood Features
During the previous months, our team were working on a complete re-architecting of our backend system. It was a very time-consuming process but finally we’re ready with most of the heavy lifting.
New Caching System
Smart Slider 3 has always worked from its own cache files. You might have never noticed them, but these cache files helped a lot with your site’s speed. Until version 3.3, these cache files were stored on the server, which caused troubles where there were server configuration issues. Now it’s over! We were eager to find a better solution and our new database caching is exactly this.
Bye Bye XML Files
Previously, all of our parameters were written in XML. But for a more fluid user experience and better flexibility, we’ve got rid of them. You can’t imagine how big this task was, but it was totally worth it. We spent a lot of time tweaking these options but from now the admin is much more transparent.
JavaScript Improvements
Loading is a crucial point for every slider, so we’ve improved this area a lot, too. There is no more conflict with minified files or with the wrong loading sequence. In addition, there is a more robust code which will handle the dependencies and the asynchronous loading without any error. The final result will be a faster and much more stable slider.
New Slide Creation
We’ve redesigned the way you add new slides to your slider, making it easier and faster, so you can create slides more efficiently.
Dynamic Slide Improvements
With the previous major version we released the Content mode which is our all time favorite feature. In this version we’ve changed all dynamic layout from Canvas to Content mode. Even more, we’ve changed the dynamic slide creation a little bit. Now the navigation is crystal clear and simpler to go through the creation steps.
New Features
Let’s wander to the world of the visual representations and leave the mumbo-jumbo behind, because Eclipse has plenty of new feature as well which worth having a look at.
The new way to build a Slider
Next generation visual editor, customizable animations & effects, and access to hundreads of premade templates.
Recently we’ve added 3 new beautifully crafted slider templates that give you an easy way to start with Smart Slider. But this is just the beginning, in this year we would like to release new sliders, blocks and pages much more frequently. We have many more slider demos currently being worked on for future updates that will be free for anyone who has an active license. Hey, if you’re a free version user, you will get access to a bunch of free slider templates soon.
New Slider Templates
New Slice Background Animations
So far I haven’t been a big fan of the background animations, but with these new slice animations I think it will change. The slice background animations work with a changeable background color and a simple row slice reveal. It’s a super engaging and modern animation effect that gives you the ability to build a better online presence.
Row and Column Style
Currently our most important goal is to move forward into a visual builder way with Smart Slider 3 which would be a perfect plugin to create any kind of sliders or carousels, but also build a block or even a whole page visually. For this reason, we have to implement a plenty of new options to create a full value visual software. As a first step, we added lots of style related options for the row and column elements with normal and hover state.
New Row and Column Options
Divi Module
After few successful cooperations with other page builders, we finally have access to create our own unique module for Divi. Previously we had the backend module but with Smart Slider 3.3 you can add sliders easily with the visual editor too.
Smart Slider 3 Divi Module
Recent News
June already? Time flies. A lot has happened with us and with our company – and there’s a lot more to come. But now let’s see the two most important pieces of news:
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200k Active Installs
We are thrilled to reach 200.000 active installs in the WordPress Directory with the free version of the Smart Slider 3, besides that currently we’re the fastest growing slider plugin. All in all, a huge thanks for your trust and support, this is what makes us grow. We would not have made it without our incredible users who are enthusiastic fans of Smart Slider 3.
Nextend Social Login
Two months ago we re-launched our previously really successful and popular WordPress plugin, the Nextend Social Login. If you’re looking for a good free Facebook or Google login for WordPress, then you will love this lightweight plugin. What’s more, finally we have a little time to create extra, long awaited features which are available in the paid version packed with our super-duper support service.
Nextend Social Login
What’s Coming Next?
We’ve always got our eyes on the future of web design, so 2018 will see us working on lots of awesome features. The hardest part is to choose from our infinite to-do list. But this time the choice is also yours. In the following vote you can select the next big feature and share your opinion!
What should we focus on next? Vote Now!
This update took us longer than expected, but it’s well worth the wait. We’d love to hear your opinions on the latest update so please let us know what you think in the comments below! If you’ve got questions or feedbacks, you can get in touch with us via our contact page or join the conversation in our Facebook Group.
Hi I’m Daniel David, one of the co-founders at Nextend and the designer of the Smart Slider 3. I’m all about web design, video games, series and sci-fi/fantasy books. Wanna drop me a line?
