In August 2024, we announced the arrival of OceanWP 4, which marks the beginning of a new customization era of our popular WordPress theme. Today, we’re thrilled to announce that we are releasing OceanWP 4!
Before we share the release date, we kindly ask you to go through the entire article and read about the less glamorous details to ensure a smooth transition to the latest version.
Here are the 3 best reason to do so:
- Understanding changes: Knowing about the changes helps you anticipate potential issues and prepare properly.
- Avoiding pitfalls: Understanding the technical aspects of the update can help you avoid common pitfalls and ensure a seamless migration to the new version.
- Maximizing benefits: Being informed about the new features and functionalities enables you to fully leverage the benefits of the update.
What is the OceanWP 4 Update About
OceanWP 4 update brings a new customization enhancement that’ll level up your user experience and help you customize any WordPress website in a breeze.
These are the OceanWP 4 changes in a nutshell:
- Updated Customizer Library: the new OceanWP 4 Customizer is built entirely with React JS, a library already included in WordPress, making the theme more lightweight for improved performance and enhanced experience.
- Grouped Panels: we dismantled the old Customizer panels entirely and regrouped panels in multiple ways to help you navigate the Customizer with ease and find all options faster than before:
- based on their general functionality (Typography, Colors, Site Settings, Pages & Special Pages, etc),
- based on the website elements from top to bottom (from Top Bar to Footer Copyright),
- based on the plugins type (pro and free).
- Customizer Settings Reorganization: we reorganized the old settings and ensured all settings are now at your fingertips, easy to see, locate and apply.
- New Customizer Options: we added new options based on what our users usually needed to change and required custom CSS in order to do so.
- Customizer Documentation: we covered all Customizer options with detailed documentation and explanations. In fact, we went a few steps ahead and also included basic to advanced WordPress tuts, tips and tricks that’ll help you not only understand OceanWP, but WordPress and WordPress websites in general.
How to Prepare for the OceanWP 4 Update
OceanWP 4 version is a core update.
You’ll have to go through the entire process most users usually consider boring:
- Test update on staging / test / localhost: before updating your live site, test the update on a staging, test or localhost environment to ensure there are no changes, technical or visual. Perform tests by accessing the Customizer:
- ensure all Customizer controls work and function well, ie. controls don’t look like they’re missing a stylesheet or look broken.
- ensure there are no visual changes on your website (typography, colors, etc), especially changes you cannot quickly resolve using the new Customizer options.
- ensure options work on your website by trying to change a thing a few and see if these are applied properly on the website front end once changes are published.
- Backup: once you’re sure everything is running smoothly, remember to backup the live website before the update process, both locally and hosting-wise. Do not rely on one backup solution only, because backups can sometimes be incomplete or broken.
Check out our support document for detailed information on how to safely update a WordPress website like a true pro.
In case of any problems found during the testing phase, open a support or a prepruchase ticket with us and share as much information and details as possible.
Older OceanWP product versions will also be available for you to download and rollback, if necessary.
Premium users with active licenses can open a support ticket with us and we’ll send them the premium plugin rollback versions according to their plans and purchases.
How to Update a Live Website with OceanWP 4
We recommend to update your live website only after a thorough test and backup. If you’re not in the position to perform tests, wait about 2 or 3 weeks before updating until proper feedback on the upgrade process and potential issues has been collected.
Update OceanWP products in the following order:
- OceanWP theme,
- Ocean Extra plugin,
- followed by other free and premium OceanWP plugins.
To ensure the process is complete and transition goes well, you must update all OceanWP products.
In case you experience problems with typography, ie. you see the font has changed, it might be due to our new settings which disables Google Fonts by default. In that case, Enable Google Fonts via Customize > Typography > Google Font Settings and apply desired font families where and if needed.
Once you update everything and run a few tests, regenerate CSS if necessary (especially if you’re using Elementor, via Elementor > Tools > Regenerate CSS) and clear cache on levels: website, CDN, browser.
You can also clean and optimize your website’s database using plugins like WP Optimize.
What Products are Related to the OceanWP 4 Update
Here’s a list of all OceanWP products included in the Customizer upgrade:
- OceanWP 4.0.0
- Ocean Extra 2.4.0
- Ocean Modal Window 2.3.0
- Ocean Social Sharing 2.2.0
- Ocean Product Sharing 2.2.0
- Ocean Sticky Header 2.2.0
- Ocean Popup Login 2.2.0
- Ocean Side Panel 2.2.0
- Ocean Portfolio 2.3.0
- Ocean Footer Callout 2.2.0
- Ocean Sticky Footer 2.1.0
- Ocean Cookie Notice 2.2.0
- Ocean Woo Popup 2.1.0
- Ocean eCommerce Pro (Ocean eComm Treasure Box) 1.5.0
A special attention is required by everybody hosting their websites with WP Engine. Due to issues WP Engine is currently experiencing and which include no access to the official WordPress repository, you will need to download the OceanWP theme and all plugins manually, then upload the downloaded zip files for updates to take place.
Likewise, if you’re using a child theme, but have made a mistake and copied all OceanWP parent theme files into the child theme, including soon-to-be old Customizer files, you will have to resolve to a bit of investigation in which you’ll identify files you edited and changed and keep those files only, while replacing everything else.
However, we do encourage you to use the correct approach for child themes in order to avoid such problems in the future. Learn more about the child themes and their purpose in the article OceanWP team members wrote for Indystack.
Test OceanWP 4 Before the Official Launch
You can perform tests with the OceanWP theme and free plugins before the official launch, by downloading the dev versions from our GitHub repository:
- OceanWP 4 dev,
- Ocean Extra dev,
- Ocean Modal Window dev,
- Ocean Social Sharing dev,
- Ocean Product Sharing dev.
Download each file by hitting the green ‘Code’ button and choose the option: Download ZIP.
Extract the downloaded zip files on your PC, then replace all files for the theme and plugins using the sFTP method (like FileZilla) or the File Manager from within your hosting account panel (depending on your hosting plan and available options).
Premium Plugins Compatibility with OceanWP 4
All OceanWP premium clients with active licenses will receive premium plugin updates as usual, therefore have nothing to worry about except prepare their websites properly for the upcoming update.
Users with expired licenses for OceanWP premium products must ensure compatibility with the latest OceanWP 4 version, by renewing, upgrading or getting a brand new plan, based on their needs:
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OceanWP 4 Release Date
And last, but not least, save the date!
OceanWP 4 estimated release date is set for Wednesday, October 16th 2024.
Update your websites like a pro and enjoy the first-class ride with the new OceanWP Customizer.
In the meantime, we’ll work on a brand new OceanWP premium plugin suit, new designs and features. Subscribe to our newsletter and be the first to learn all the juicy new information we’re about to share.
For support and occasional chit-chat, we invite you to join the Official OceanWP Community on Facebook. Let’s hang out and help you get to know OceanWP.
Enjoy building your WordPress website with OceanWP!
