In version 2.2.0 (released November 28th, 2018) we have added long-awaited RTL support for all themes based on Apollo13 Framework. It means both Rife Free & Rife Pro can finally be used by a broader audience. We have also started implementation of accessibility improvements and fixed a few minor issues.
RTL support
RTL means “Right to left” and it is notation used to describe how letters in particular alphabets are written – from which side to which. For example, Arabic is RTL language, while German is LTR(left to right). By adding RTL support we mean, that layout of theme and theme features works fine when the direction of writing is RTL. It means many parts of the design will be flipped from left to right or the opposite.
There is no explanation why it took us so long to implement this basic feature. I feel like we were extinguishing other fires before, and we wanted to add this as soon as other things will calm down.
Most important is that from now on all new features will be implemented for RTL and LTR layouts at the same time.
In Rife Pro, there are few additional options connected to it like choosing the side of a sidebar on LTR and RTL versions of the page or side of the vertical header.
Another thing(available in Rife Pro) is language switcher for WPML that can be activated in header tools. It will be most useful when using a layout with the vertical header.
In a few days, we will also release new Design that will present RTL layout in action.
Accessibility improvements
As our ongoing strive to improve Rife Theme, we have started to fixing accessibility issues in the theme.
In this version, we have brought back outlines for the whole main menu and added the ability to focus on the submenu parents. Thanks to this, keyboard users can navigate easily through the whole main menu of your website.
All header tools where changed to buttons instead of divs like it was previously. Thanks to this they are better announced by screen reader software and also works naively much better than emulated by JavaScript “like button” behavior. What is most important – keyboard users can finally use them.
These all seem basic things, and to be honest – they are. We learn every day, and as we learn we fix old things that once was thought as being the “correct way”. That is why I love working on Rife because I can always make it better then it was the day before 🙂
Anyway, this is just the start of improvements, as we want to make all of the theme features to be accessible for keyboards users.
Raised minimum PHP version to 5.3
Since we are improving theme deeper support for Elementor, we needed to raise minimum PHP version from 5.2 to 5.3. Because of that, we have also added the check in the theme for available PHP version on the server, and the theme will not activate on a not compatible server(with PHP 5.2 or lower).
Anyway, this change shouldn’t affect any of you, as you all should be using at least PHP 7.2. Why not 5.6, 7.0 or 7.1? Because all those versions reached the end of the life (7.1 on 3rd December 2018). What is more PHP 7.X is much faster than 5.6 or any of the previous versions, so it is in your best interest to switch to 7.2. Read more why you should upgrade your PHP version.
We have already tested Rife Free & Rife Pro with upcoming PHP 7.3, so as soon as it is released you could use it on your server.
What is coming next?
If you are interested in our plans for future you can check Road Map for Rife Themes Family. Also, if you have any idea for a feature that you would like to see in our Themes please let us know by using feature request form.
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See you around 🙂
Air.