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Howdy Friends,

We have an exciting new feature in the works that we wanted to share with you today, but first, let's do a quick recap of other product news around Themeco HQ.

Releases

There were two new updates released in September including dozens of new features, fixes, and improvements. We are aiming to continue with this release schedule into the fall as we prepare for our next major release.

New Videos

September saw the release of new video tutorials including a really creative way to think about sliders and a great example showcasing some of the many native web effects in Cornerstone. We've got several more videos coming your way in October, so be sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel for instant access to all of the latest content.

Super Loopers Update

We also released Popularity Tracker, a great new video and template for Super Loopers where we show you how to create your very own "Popular Articles" section of your site with Cornerstone. This is in addition to Custom Events Calendar released the month before where we teach you how to create your very own events calendar using only Cornerstone (no additional plugins).

You can purchase Super Loopers individually or subscribe to Max for instant access to current and future plugins, courses, and templates. As you can see, these are not static products. We routinely add new content, features, and updates to keep you on the cutting-edge of website building.

HTML Storage System

Later this year we will be debuting a new feature that we've had our eye on for sometime. I wanted to give you a brief overview, then send you to a more detailed writeup where you can learn more.

Simply put, we're planning to move Cornerstone's output from that of shortcodes to HTML. The output is what we store as content for WordPress to see in your database. Historically, much of WordPress was built on building with shortcodes. At their core, shortcodes are simply code abstractions that allow for quick and easy use both in building content (especially in the old way of working with WordPress) and with the final output.

There have been some challenges with the shortcode approach however. First, it is a non-standard way of working with code (this doesn't necessarily mean bad just different). The code purists will point to the fact that the "right" way is to output HTML directly. We certainly agree, however it's not always as black and white as some make it out to be. When you consider the fact that WordPress was created to abstract the need for direct coding, you can appreciate some of the conventions that were introduced, shortcodes being one of them. Second, shortcode-based output makes it hard to integrate with 3rd party tools and plugins ultimately adding a lot of manual work. We want to improve that.

Moving to HTML storage will bring a host of new improvements, performance optimization opportunities, and more. In addition to helping with 3rd party integrations and cleaner output, this move will further modernize the Cornerstone Builder framework. After all, we're committed to keeping Cornerstone the most advanced builder in WordPress! You can find a more detailed writeup in the forum, and we'd love to hear your thoughts.

All my best,
Kyle