Orbit

Orbit moulds some of WordPress' default behaviour to simplify the CMS experience, protect users from changing settings that should be reserved for website developers, and reinforce some areas of the CMS that tend to be a little weak.

The plugin is unapologetically opinionated to fit the needs and preferences of our web agency. We feel the choices we've made (including which ones are even configurable in the CMS) are sensible and pragmatic for the kinds of websites we work on and the control we tend to hold back from CMS users. We understand not everyone will agree with the choices we have made.

Installation

This plugin has no prerequisites. Assuming you're using a modern Composer workflow for WordPress development (such as our Nebula WordPress stack) just run the following command and Orbit will be installed as a must-use plugin:

composer require eighteen73/orbit

If necessary, you may install it manually by downloading a Zip archive from GitHub and extracting it to your plugins directory.

Summary of Features

Branded Emails

• Adds branding to emails that aren't set to be 'text/html'
• Adds branding to Gravity Forms notification emails
• When possible uses WooCommerce email branding for consistenty
• Main email template can be overriden by copying templates/branded-emails/email-template.php into yourtheme/orbit/branded-emails
• Email styles template can be overriden by copying templates/branded-emails/email-styles.php into yourtheme/orbit/branded-emails

UI Cleanup

• Remove unwanted items from the menu (with limited configuration)
• Remove unwanted items from the toolbar (with limited configuration)
• Remove unwanted dashboard widgets
• Replace the login logo (configurable)
• Remove the footer message in CMS
• Adds an environment icon to indicate the configured environment type

Security

• Disable user endpoints in the REST API (configurable)
• Disable XML-RPC (configurable)
• Hide the WordPress version in page markup (configurable)
• Disable/hide unwanted website markup
  • Short links
  • REST API links
  • Oembed links
  • Windows Live Writer manifest links

Capabilities

• Restrict user access based on capabilities (configurable)
• Restrict editor access based on capabilities (configurable)
• Restrict Gravity Forms access based on capabilities (configurable)

Other Safety Measures

• Disallow robot indexing in non-production environments
• Disable updates (configurable via orbit_enable_wordpress_updates)

Other Features

• Adds endpoint "/wp-json/orbit/up" for use as quick website availability check
• Load media files from a production URL in non-production environments (requires ORBIT_REMOTE_FILES_URL environment variable/constant)

Available Filters

Branded Emails

The following filters can be used to override default behaviour/values of branded email features.

• orbit_enable_branded_emails: Enable Orbit's branded emails feature. Default true (enabled).
• orbit_branded_emails_header_logo: Set the logo image in branded emails. Default '' (empty).
• orbit_branded_emails_background_color: Set the background color of branded emails. Default woocommerce_email_background_color || '#ffffff'.
• orbit_branded_emails_body_background_color: Set the body background color of branded emails. Default woocommerce_email_body_background_color || '#ffffff'.
• orbit_branded_emails_body_border_color: Set the border color of branded emails. Default var(--wp--custom--color--border) || '#edeff1'.
• orbit_branded_emails_body_text_color: Set the body text color of branded emails. Default woocommerce_email_text_color || var(--wp--preset--color--contrast) || '#3f474d'.
• orbit_branded_emails_link_color: Set the link color of branded emails. Default woocommerce_email_base_color || var(--wp--custom--color--link) || '#8549ff'.
• orbit_branded_emails_footer_text_color: Set the footer text color of branded emails. Default woocommerce_email_footer_text_color || var(--wp--preset--color--contrast) || '#3F474d'.
• orbit_branded_emails_font_family: Set the font family of branded emails. Default woocommerce_email_font_family || '"Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Roboto, Arial, sans-serif'.
• orbit_branded_emails_logo_image_width: Set the logo image width in branded emails. Default woocommerce_email_header_image_width || 120.

UI Cleanup

The following filters can be used to override the default behavior of certain features. Set the filter to true to enable the feature, or false to disable it.

• orbit_enable_menu_item_dashboard: Control the visibility of the Dashboard menu item. Default true (visible).
• orbit_enable_menu_item_posts: Control the visibility of the Posts menu item. Default true (visible).
• orbit_enable_menu_item_comments: Control the visibility of the Comments menu item and toolbar item. Default false (hidden).
• orbit_enable_toolbar_item_new_content: Control the visibility of the "New Content" item in the toolbar. Default true (visible).
• orbit_enable_login_logo: Enable replacement of the login logo. Default true (enabled).
• orbit_login_logo_url: Provide a URL to replace the default WordPress login logo. No default.
• orbit_enable_admin_environment_name: Control the display of the environment name in the admin area. Default true (enabled).

Security

The following filters can be used to override the default behavior of certain features. Set the filter to true to enable the feature, or false to disable it.

• orbit_enable_rest_api_user_endpoints: Enable or disable REST API user endpoints. Default false (disabled).
• orbit_enable_xmlrpc: Enable or disable XML-RPC functionality. Default false (disabled).
• orbit_enable_expose_wordpress_version: Show or hide the WordPress version in the site's frontend markup. Default false (hidden).

Capabilities

The following filters can be used to override the default behavior of certain features. Set the filter to true to enable the feature, or false to disable it.

• orbit_enable_user_caps_access: Enable Orbit's user capability restrictions. Default true (enabled).
• orbit_enable_editor_caps_access: Enable Orbit's editor capability restrictions. Default true (enabled).
• orbit_enable_gravity_forms_access: Enable Orbit's Gravity Forms capability restrictions. Default true (enabled).

Other Safety Measures

The following filters can be used to override the default behavior of certain features. Set the filter to true to enable the feature, or false to disable it.

• orbit_enable_wordpress_updates: Control the visibility of the WordPress updates item in the toolbar. Default false (hidden).

Other Features

• orbit_remote_files_url: Override the production URL used for loading remote media files. Default value comes from ORBIT_REMOTE_FILES_URL.

Examples

You can use standard WordPress functions like __return_true and __return_false to easily toggle these features. Add the following lines to your theme or a custom plugin:

// Example: Enable XML-RPC (Orbit disables it by default)
add_filter( 'orbit_enable_xmlrpc', '__return_true' );

// Example: Show the WordPress version in the site markup (Orbit hides it by default)
add_filter( 'orbit_enable_expose_wordpress_version', '__return_true' );

// Example: Disable the Posts menu item (Orbit shows it by default)
add_filter( 'orbit_enable_menu_item_posts', '__return_false' );

// Example: Disable the login logo replacement (Orbit enables it by default)
add_filter( 'orbit_enable_login_logo', '__return_false' );