WordPress website developer, you may often need to display a set of information repeatedly on the website you are developing. For example, if you are working on a car sales website, you will need to display a lot of information about each car in the car card that is displayed between the cards on the main page. Or on the page for each car, for example.
In this case, you will need to create an advanced dynamic page on the site to be able to display this information. This will save you from creating a static page for the information of each car that you display on the site. Here, WordPress helps you as a content management system, as it can create a website whose pages are a mixture of static and dynamic. But what is the difference between static and dynamic sites, and how can we create an advanced dynamic WordPress site?
This is what we will learn about in this article.
The difference between static sites and dynamic sites
Static sites take their name from their fixed code, because if the programmer or site developer does not make changes to the code, nothing will change on the site. Static sites usually have a small, fixed number of pages that are predetermined, and these pages have the same appearance and content for all visitors to the site. The content does not change in response to user actions on the site.
Static websites are usually written in HTML format, CSS and JavaScript programming languages, as their content does not require many permanent modifications, and of course they are small websites that do not take a lot of time, effort or money to build.
Only the actual static pages of the site are stored on static sites. There are no users, comments, publications, or any kind of interaction with the site. Examples of static pages are the home, services, about us, and contact us pages.
As for dynamic sites, they are interactive because they display their contents to each user in a different way based on the user’s interaction with the site, his geographical location, and other factors. Dynamic websites are written in programming languages such as PHP and ASP.NET, which rely on advanced databases, of course, in addition to HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
The blog home page is one of the most famous and simplest examples of dynamic pages, as its content changes based on new articles that are added. These articles usually appear in chronological order from newest to oldest on the blog page.
Based on the above, sites that rely on content management systems such as WordPress are considered dynamic sites, but if we want to do something larger and more complex than a blog page, such as a site for displaying cars or books, then we will need plugins that help us create an advanced, dynamic WordPress site.
The best plugins for creating dynamic WordPress sites
There are several plugins that help you create a completely dynamic WordPress website or by setting specific features to make a dynamic website. The most famous of these plugins are the following:
- Advance Custom Files ACF is a very popular add-on for creating dynamic WordPress sites from WP Engine. This add-on provides the feature of creating fields for free, in addition to advanced paid features such as recurring fields, blocks, options page, and others.
- Toolset plugin : A paid plugin for creating dynamic WordPress sites. There is no free version of it. The plugin works mainly with the Gutenberg plugin editor, and through it you can create custom post types and fields in addition to the ability to create relationships between posts, templates and custom archive pages. It is also integrated with WooCommerce. .
- Pods plugin : A free plugin that enables you to add custom fields to the default post types in WordPress (pages and posts) and also to the default categories (categories and tags). By adding Pods, you can also create a custom post type and add a custom field set to it
- JetEngine plugin : The JetEngine plugin helps in creating advanced dynamic WordPress sites. It has more than 15 dynamic features, but it is not necessary to use all of these features together at the same time. In this article, we will focus on explaining this plugin in creating a dynamic WordPress website.
You can view these add-ons, users’ experiences with them, and the features they offer in exchange for the monthly subscription that the add-on costs, and choose the most appropriate one for you to build a professional, dynamic website.
We will take one of these add-ons as an example, which is the JetEngine add-on, because of the valuable features it offers in building a dynamic website, and we will review some of the features that you can get, making it clear that the value you will get from the required features is more important than the tool itself.
In general, through dynamic websites, there are several valuable features through which you can more effectively control the display of your content in a manner tailored to what you want to show to site visitors in a valuable manner. The most prominent characteristics that prompt website owners to use dynamic website additions are the following:
1. Create a Custom Post Type
A custom post is a new post type that we create in WordPress in order to add data and information in its own section, but as we all know, there is one post type (Posts) in WordPress by default, and this type is always used in creating the site’s blog, even if the site is not We need a blog at the moment. It is best to keep the default post type, Posts, reserved to use it for blogging in the future. For example, if we have a website that displays cars for sale, you can create a post type specifically for cars.
2. Create custom Meta fields
By adding JetEngine, we can create custom Meta fields for any type of post on the site, whether for an article post or for any custom post type that we have created, and each of these fields includes its own specific data. For example, on the car site, a field can be created for the car brand, and another field. For car color and so on.
3. Create custom taxonomies
Classifications are very important on any site in order to sort the content of the site, and you can learn how to use them on your site and how to create custom classifications through this article in which we mentioned several additions to create custom classifications, and therefore through dynamic additions you can create custom classifications for all types of publications, whether Pre-existing “articles” or that we have created,
4. Create a Listing Grid
Also, with the magnitude of the content, you will need to create a Listing list that collects the data that we filled in the custom post type into one list that we customize as we want, such as font size, colors, etc., then we display this list as a grid anywhere we want on the site and in the way we want, as we have complete control over it. Customize this list by the number of columns and rows, the size of each card, and other properties.
There are several types of advanced dynamic websites that need this type of customization, such as:
- A site displaying new and used cars for sale
- Bookstore
- Movie website
- Reservation sites such as medical clinic sites, airline tickets, etc
Use the JetEngine add-on
In this article, we will explain the JetEngine add-on as an example of adding value that helps you create a dynamic website. Certainly, the goal is to obtain the wonderful features to create a dynamic website that helps you customize the display of huge content, more than the tool itself, as it may change from time to time.
The JetEngine plugin is considered a family of Jet plugins developed by Crocoblock, which specializes in developing plugins that increase the capabilities of WordPress and the capabilities of website building tools such as Gutenberg, Elementor, and Bricks.
To install JetEngine, you must pay for one of Crocoblock’s subscription plans . You can get a subscription to add JetEngine only, which costs $43 for one site per year and $88 for an unlimited number of sites per year.
After subscribing to one of the plans, go to your Crocoblock account page, and click the Download button next to the add-on name in order to download it to your device.
Now you can install the plugin on WordPress, and if you need more information about how to install a WordPress plugin, you can refer to the article “ How to install a WordPress plugin and activate it on your site correctly. ”
Experience creating a dynamic WordPress website
Now let us assume that we want to create a website dedicated to books, and we need a way to add books in an organized manner on the site, in addition to creating a section on the home page that displays cards containing general information about the book, such as the name of the book, the author’s name, the number of pages, and the cover image. We will use the JetEngine plugin to create the website with the following steps:
1. Create a custom post type with books
From the WordPress dashboard, go to JetEngine and choose Post Types
Click on the Add new tab
The Add New Post Type page will appear
Now we will give a name to the post type in the General Settings section, let it be “Books”, then we will give it a nice name Slug. This name contains numbers and letters in the English language only and is used in the URL, let it be “books”.
To set a specific icon for the publication type, we open the Advanced Settings section, go to Menu Icon, click on the pin icon, and a drop-down list containing a large number of icons will appear. We choose an icon appropriate for the publication type like this:
We come to the most important section, which is Meta fields, and within it we will add custom fields for the post. To create a name field as an example, we click on the New Meta Field button.
In the Label field we will write “book name” and in the “Name/ID” field we will write “book-name”, and we will keep the “Field” option in the Object type, and from “Field type” we will choose “Text” from the drop-down list.
We will add two new fields in the same way, namely “author’s name” and number of pages, bringing the number of fields we added to three:
After we finish adding all the fields we need, we click the “Add Post Type” button at the top
Once you click the “Add Post Type” button, the WordPress control panel will be updated. In the sidebar of the WordPress control panel, the new post type “Books” will appear below the comments.
Now we can add new publications within books in the same way that we add new publications within the articles section. Of course, the main page for articles will not be affected by book publications, as they will not appear there. Rather, we choose the place we want on the page that we want to show book publications, and we can show them in the form A list of cards as we will see shortly.
2. Create additional fields in the book post
Now we want to add a custom field to place the book cover image, as I intended not to add this field in the first step in order to use the Meta Boxes feature in JetEngine, which adds the same type of fields that we added in the first step, but the difference here is that this feature adds unique fields for any existing publication type. Pre-created such as “Articles” or pre-created such as “Books” without creating a special CPT publication type from scratch.
To add the field, we click on Meta Boxes from the JetEngine menu, then we click on the Add New button
We give a name to the group of fields (one or more fields can be created in this group) that we will create, and let it be “Images”
We choose the place (posts, categories, or users) to which we want to add the fields from the Meta Box for drop-down list. In our case here, we will add the fields to the Posts section.
From the Visibillity Conditions section, we choose the post type in which we will activate the fields (Enable For Post Types). In our case here, the post type is “Books,” which we created a moment ago in the first step.
We add the fields we need by clicking on the New Meta Field button in the same way as adding fields in the first step. In our example here, we will add the “Cover Photo” field only.
3. Display book information in the form of cards on the site’s home page
After we create new book posts, we will use the data of these books to create a list that collects this data in the form of a card, and here we must have the Elementor website builder installed, to create and customize this Listing in a distinctive and professional way.
Once again, from the WordPress dashboard, we will go to the JetEngine section, then Listings, and click the Add New button
The Setup Listing Item window appears, and we set its options in the following way:
- We will choose the source (Listing source) to be “Posts”
- We will choose the post type to be “Books” from the drop-down list
- We will give the list a name (Listing itemname) and let it be “Book Card.”
- We will choose Elementor as the Listing view editor.
- Then we will click on the Create Listing Item button
Once you click on the Create Listing Item button the “Book Card” listing page will open in the Elementor editor
We will now insert a group of Listing Elements. We will start with the Dynamic Field, which we will insert three times in order to display the “Name of the Book,” “Author,” and the number of pages.”
Then we will insert the Dynamic Image element to display the “book cover” like this:
After formatting the texts and images appropriately, click the “Update” button at the bottom to save the changes:
Now we will create a grid from the list that we created in the previous step, and we will display this grid on any page we want, let it be the home page.
From the WordPress control panel, we go to the Pages section, and click on Edit with Elementor
The home page will open with the Elementor editor, and then we will insert the Listing Grid element where we want it on the page
We go to the Listing Grid editor and in the Content section, we will select the Listing “Book Card” that we created.
Then we choose the number of columns to be 3
Our list appears like this:
This way we have created a custom post type and displayed it as a custom grid menu on the site’s home page
Of course, the example we have implemented is very simple, and we can benefit from these features by creating a highly advanced, dynamic website.
Questions and answers about dynamic websites
Are static websites better or dynamic ones?
The matter is related to the purpose of the site and the available resources. Many people and even companies may need a simple introductory site. Here, static sites can be a better option for them, while other people prefer dynamic sites so that they can manage them and make modifications to them in the future, in addition to the ability to display content. In an interactive way.
Does whether the site is static or dynamic affect its speed?
Yes, static sites are faster than dynamic sites, and this is normal because dynamic sites require data processing from the server before it sends the page.
Are static sites more expensive or dynamic ones?
The matter depends on the site itself, as the cost varies depending on the method of construction and content. There is no clear answer, especially with the availability of content management systems such as WordPress, which has greatly reduced the cost of creating a dynamic site. However, if we are comparing the cost of an advanced dynamic site and a simple static site, then there is no doubt. The latter would be less expensive.
Is JetEngine a website builder?
No, the plugin does not build pages in WordPress, but it is fully integrated with Gutenberg and Elementor, which will help in building websites with great functionality and features.
What is the effect of adding JetEngine on site performance?
Any plugin, no matter how distinctive, is not without some drawbacks, and adding JetEngine causes a slight slowdown in the site, because the framework used in the JetEngine plugin is somewhat heavy, but with a little experience in optimizing WordPress, the impact of this problem can be mitigated.
Conclusion
In this article, we learned about dynamic sites and the difference between them and static sites. We learned about the JetEngine add-on and how to use its most important features. As we saw, it is a very powerful add-on that contains many features that help us create dynamic, organized and advanced WordPress sites that can be easily managed at the same time.
