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Major Theme Updates Released

update-theme

All of our themes have received a major update. It is important to update to the newest version before WordPress 4.4 is released in order to avoid the possibility of seeing an error. This is not only a compatibility update, though. There have been improvements made to sermon media downloading, a new email field for locations, translation improvements, performance optimizations and more. Read on to find out what’s new.

WordPress 4.4 Compatibility

WordPress 4.4 should be released before the year’s end. It will likely include a change that can cause an error to show for old themes (depending on whether or not your hosting is configured to show warnings). To avoid this possibility, all you need to do is update to the latest version of Exodus (1.5) or Resurrect (1.9). Find update instructions at the end of this post.

Compatibility is one reason we recommend keeping WordPress, themes and all plugins up to date and why we release frequent updates to all of our products (this is our 72nd update). We have your church covered.

You can read the development details of this change in WordPress if you would like.

Location Email Field

We just released Church Theme Content 1.4 which adds an Email field for locations. Update the plugin and your theme to take advantage of the new field. It can be shown on a location’s short and full view next to Phone. The CT Locations widget has an option to show the email address. Exodus can also show it in the footer of all pages.

email-field-exodus

External Downloads

Until now, the Download buttons for sermon audio and video showed only if the file was locally hosted (e.g. uploaded via WordPress). Some churches host their files externally on Amazon S3, Libsyn and other file hosting services. The download button will now show for those files. This is something we’ve had many requests for.

download-external

New & Improved Translations

Exodus

Resurrect

  • Resurrect’s translation was improved by Miguel Arbizu
  • Resurrect’s German translation received some improvement

Other Improvements

View each theme’s changelog for additional details on what is in the update.

Also read about the specific changes in Church Theme Content 1.4.

How to Update

Updating is easy. Just go to Appearance > Themes then click update (you can also update in Dashboard > Updates). If an update is not showing, make sure your license is active by going to Appearance > Theme License.

Please send us a support request if you need help updating.

10 Comments

  1. Chad Warner

    Thanks for adding the download buttons for external files! We host audio at SermonAudio, and until now the Save Audio button hadn’t appeared. This is a welcome addition.

    • Steven Gliebe (Author)

      Hi Tyler,

      The download button links to the URL provided. If it is a real .mp3 file either locally hosted or hosted on another server then the Download button will appear. Since the SoundCloud URL is not for an actual .mp3 file, there is no download button.

      This update makes it possible to show the Download button for .mp3 files hosted on file hosting services like Amazon S3 and Libsyn.

      Please let me know if you have any other questions.

  3. Alastair Mills

    I’ve just upgraded to the latest version, and very happy with the Save Audio. The play/pause button doesn’t seem to be displaying correctly – I just get a blank/black square which does toggle play/pause. Any ideas?

    • Steven Gliebe (Author)

      Hi Sanjeev,

      The download button works only when an audio file is provided directly (such as uploading an MP3 file or linking to one hosted somewhere else).

      I think SoundCloud requires users to login to download, if the provider of the audio has enabled downloads. So, somebody can click through to SoundCloud then login and download your audio but not download it directly from your website.

      Please let me know if you have any other questions.

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