Tag: WordPress plugin

Why You Should Whitelist URLS on WordFence’s Firewall (And How to Do It)

If you’re using Page Builder Sandwich along with Wordfence Security, there’s a chance you might have encountered something called a 403 error.

Now, according to WordPress resource site WPBeginner, 403 errors occur when server permissions don’t allow access to a specific page.

But what does a 403 error mean, and why is it occurring in Page Builder Sandwich in the first place?

The 403 Error Explained

The most common cause of the 403 error is when security plugins aren’t configured in a particular way or standard.

Like WordFence, most security plugins from WordPress restrict some actions if they’re suspected or proven to be malicious. These scenarios usually occur on your WP Admin or WP Login page, or show up as pop-ups alerting you that you don’t have authorization to view your page.

Here’s what the pop-up will look like if you ever encounter it on Sandwich:

So what does this mean? Is Sandwich safe to use? Is WordFence bad? And does the 403 error warrant bad points for both Wordfence and Page Builder Sandwich?

Well, no.

All of this just means that Wordfence is extra careful when scanning your external plugins.

And that’s actually a really good thing, especially since they’re a security plugin.

WordFence is Legit…

WordFence is one of the most popular security plugins for WordPress. It has over a million active installs, so chances are, it’s probably installed on your WP website, too. They exist for a great cause: Not just tokeep your website safe, but to also reduce security risks, and improve your website’s security overall.

tl;dr WordFence is legit.

…And So is Sandwich. But Why Does It Need Whitelisting?

It’s not just Sandwich that WordFence blocks.

Other plugins and URLS require whitelisting (the inverse of blacklisting) on WordFence, too. Some more popular plugins might have been allowed already by Wordfence.

So what’s happening behind the scenes, and where is the 403 error coming from?

Ajax Functions and Page Builder Sandwich

Page Builder Sandwich performs ajax functions throughout your editing experience. Certain plugins do, too.

W3Schools expounds on ajax a little further:

AJAX is a technique for creating fast and dynamic web pages. It allows web pages to be updated asynchronously by exchanging small amounts of data with the server behind the scenes. This means that it is possible to update parts of a web page, without reloading the whole page.

Chart taken from W3Schools

In Page Builder Sandwich, the ajax calls range from getting shortcode mappings, rendering shortcodes to saving your changes. This might cause you to experience problems , such as the 403 error, problems with saving your output, or unrendered shortcodes. This is the time that you might need to whitelist ajax calls specific to Page Builder Sandwich.

Whitelisting Page Builder Sandwich on WordFence

To white list PBS in Wordfence’s Firewall, add an entry in the Whitelisted URLs area with these parameters:

URL: /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php

Param Name: main-content

Param: POST Body

For multisite WordPress installations, it’s a good idea to include your site’s folder name in the URL above. For example: /my-multisite/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php

After adding these values, the 403 Error should be properly addressed, and you should be able to save your output and generate rendered shortcodes again.

This is what it should look like under your WordFence Firewall settings:

Ta-da!

Conclusion

Yes, Page Builder Sandwich is safe to use.

More than that, it only performs ajax actions when in editing mode, and it’s compatible with external plugins and themes (as long as they’re at par with WordPress’ coding standards).

WordFence Security is no different.

But what’s great about them is they give WordPress users the opportunity to keep their sites safe and secure, with the additional option to let you decide which plugins are, and aren’t.

November 9, 2017
Shortcode Mapper Plugin Feature: The Events Calendar by Modern Tribe
Plugins of the same category, but with respective features, are developed and enhanced every day. This gave birth to the variety of WordPress-powered websites – and later on, websites catering to several functions. For instance, there is a number of plugins which enables a developer and/or user to create, schedule, invite an interested person to an event.

The Events Calendar is the events calendar you’ll need

There are a lot of available events calendar in the WordPress market. So how do you choose? There are recommendation blogs, plugin face-off blogs, and of course testimonials from different users. All of these have one thing in common: they include The Events Calendar by Modern Tribe in their list.

An example of a minimal event post of The Events Calendar

What’s with The Events Calendar, anyway?

The Events Calendar by Modern Tribe is the frontline plugin in the said category. It provides professional quality of event posts. It has a pretty simple interface, with the title at the top, date and time, the price if applicable, a featured image and or map, and additional details about the event. You can view all your events by date, keyword, and location if Pro.

You can do much more with The Events Calendars Pro and its official add-ons:
The Events Calendar PRO

Recurring events

Week view

Photo view

Location search

Map view

Venue and organizer view

Advanced widgets

Additional fields

The Events Calendar ADD-ONs

RSVP tickets

Event ticket plus via WooCommerce, Shopp, WPeCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads)

Community Events

Community Tickets

Filter Bar

Facebook Events

iCal Importer

Eventbrite Tickets
Integrating it with Page Builder Sandwich makes it even cooler

Recent posts were made to highlight the benefits of using PBS and its Shortcode Mapper. This is to make sure that you guys are taking advantage of the latest innovation that the Sandwich Team can develop plus notify the plugin developers that their creation gave birth to another awesome feature.

For the case of The Events Calendar plugin, we came up with 2 mind blowing reasons as to why the combination needs to exist:

1. Reviewed by WordPress plugin royalties

The Modern Tribe assured their customers that the product and service they offered was of quality. Creator of Easy Digital Downloads, Pippin Williamson gave his inputs about The Events Calendar. Alongside him was Mark Jaquith, one of the leading WordPress developers, who made sure that the plugin was secure.

Page Builder Sandwich was also reviewed recently by Pippin, together with the other established and rising page builders in the market. In his in-depth critique, he concluded that indeed, PBS is one of the most powerful drag-and-drop page builders. He highlighted that only Page Builder Sandwich was able to create a functioning Shortcode Mapper.

2. Shortcode options: from backend to frontend editing

By default, the plugin’s shortcode options can be accessed through the backend admin panel. Then, the same process of backend plugins takes place: go to the backend editor, input the wanted changes and then save. Only when the refresh button is clicked would the edited content be seen. All-in-all, that’s 4 steps.

But that long procedure has been turned into a real time frontend editing by Page Builder Sandwich – in just 2 steps:
1. Instead of going to the backend panel to access the shortcode options, click on the Shortcode Mapper and select on The Events Calendar. You’d be redirected to a pop-up window as seen below. Click on The Events Calendar.
  View of The Events Calendar in the Page Builder Sandwich Shortcode Mapper
2. Close look at The Events Calendar Shortcode Properties
  The Inspector on the left displays the initial properties of the shortcode. Clicking on the “Open Editor” button, the shortcode controls displayed at the backend can now be accessed on the frontend via a pop-up window.
See? The Events Calendar looks like you’re just making an event post.

There are a lot of benefits, right?

With the integration of a page builder that doesn’t lock you in and leaves shortcode mess, and the most popular events calendar, your workflow would not only smoothen but also increase in productivity. Additionally, you can look into what Modern Tribe offers: the bundle of plugins that go with The Events Calendar.

So far, The Events Calendar plugin by Modern Tribe was the only one mapped in our Shortcode Mapper. This doesn’t mean however that the mapping stops there. Just comment what plugin of Modern Tribe that you would like to see in our Shortcode Mapper.
October 12, 2016