Cookie Consent is one of the simplest and most popular cookie notification plugins out there. It’s been actively developed and supported since 2012 and is rated 4.8 / 5 by WordPress users with over 200,000 active installations.

You can download the plugin from the repository here.

Support

Any support questions, please post them to the forum.

Demo

You can see the plugin in action here.

Activation

One of the most popular aspects of the plugin is its simplicity of use. The new version is no different – simply install and activate the plugin to automatically add the cookie consent notification bar without any need to configure it. On activation, the plugin creates and populates a page on your site with information about your cookie policy and automatically links to the page from the notification bar. So if you’re using the default settings, it’s a matter of seconds to get up and running.

New Features

We’ve extended the options with the plugin and in version 2.0, we’ve added many new features, including:

• Choice of dismissal method – either on click by the user or timed or on scroll
• Choice of dismissal element – either button or ‘x’ close
• Option to show the notification on the first page only – subsequent pages visited by the user will not display the message
• Option to hide the notification on selected pages and posts
• Choice of position – either top or bottom bar, or floating in one of the corners of the screen
• Better translation support – officially WPML compatible
• Better responsive support
• More customization options – including the ability to update styles from within the customizer
• Inherits your theme styles where possible
• The option to use an absolute or external URL to link to for further information
• Set the cookie duration
• Set the cookie version – updating a version will reset the cookie on all user sites

Settings

Settings can be found at Settings > Cookie Consent:

General

Close

Determine how the user can dismiss the notification – either by clicking, scrolling or automatically after a set time

First Page Only

Only display the notification on the first page the user visits

Selectively Exclude Pages

Check this option to enable a metafield on all pages and posts. Selecting the metafield will hide the notification on that page or post.

Notification Duration

If you have set ‘Close’ to ‘Timed’ you can specify how many seconds the notification will display before automatically closing

Cookie Expiry

Set how many days the cookie should be valid for

Cookie Version

Set a version number for the cookie. Updating the version will reset the cookie for every user – this can be useful if you update terms

Content

Heading Text

If you are using the floating corner notification style, you can add a heading.

Notification Text

This first part of the notification message

More Info Text

This forms the anchor text when linking to a page for further information

More Info Page

Select a page from your site

More Info URL

Add an absolute URL to a page on your site or on an external site. This will override the More Info Page setting

More Info Target

Whether to open the page in the same tab or a new tab

Accept Text

If you have a button to dismiss the notification, this is the button text

Styles

You can update these settings here or live in the Customizer.

Position

Where to display the notification

Container Class

Optional class to add to the notification

Include Stylesheet

Deselect this if you are using your own styles

Rounded Corners

Round the corners on the block-style notification only

Drop Shadow

Only on the block-style notification

Use X Close

Hide the close button and use a simple ‘x’ icon instead

Text Color

The color for the text in the notification. By default will inherit from the theme

Background Color

The notification background color

Link Color

The link color. By default will inherit from the theme

Button Color

The text color for the button. By default will inherit from the theme

Button Background

The background color for the button. By default will inherit from the theme

Implied Consent

We think this is the simplest but most effective method of dealing with the legislation – a straightforward approach to help you comply with the EU directive regarding usage of website cookies. It follows the notion of “implied consent” and makes the assumption that most users who choose not to accept cookies will do so for all websites. A user to your site is presented with a clear yet unobtrusive notification that the site is using cookies and may then acknowledge and dismiss the notification or click to find out more. The plug-in automatically creates a new page with pre-populated information on cookies and how to disable them, which you may edit further if you wish.

Importantly, the plug-in does not disable cookies on your site or prevent the user from continuing to browse the site. Several plug-ins have adopted the “explicit consent” approach which obliges users to opt in to cookies on your site. This is likely to deter visitors.

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Author Profile

This widget will only display on a post and will feature the post author name, gravatar and bio.

Image Text Banner

Create a banner with background image, text overlays, and optional button. Enter a heading, choose a heading style, choose an optional subheading and style, create a button with URL, and upload your image. This widget works well for banner images, like ads, in the sidebar as well as in full-width widget areas.

MailChimp Form

Add a subscription form to your sidebar or footer – a super effective way to build a mailing list.

To obtain the form action URL for the MailChimp Form:

• Go to your MailChimp account
• Click Lists then select the list you want to use
• From the dropdown menu, select ‘Signup forms’
• Find ‘Embedded forms’ then click ‘Select’
• Click the ‘Naked’ tab
• Select the ‘Copy/paste onto your site’ area
• Paste the contents of this area into Notepad or similar text editor
• Select the URL in the form action
• Insert this into the Form Action field in the widget

Recent Comments with Gravatars

This displays comment authors’ gravatars next to an excerpt of their comment. You can select how many of the most recent comments to display, how many words to truncate the excerpts to, and select a style for the gravatar.

Recent Posts Horizontal

This widget is intended specifically for full-width widget areas. It will lay out the specified number of recent posts in a grid, according to the number of columns you select, across the full width of the page.

Recent Posts Thumbnails

This recent posts widget works better in the sidebar. It adds the thumbnail to the standard recent posts widget.

Shortcode Widget

Extend your widget possibilities by adding shortcode capabilities. This widget runs the standard text widget through the shortcode parser, allowing you to embed any content via shortcode.

The post Better Widgets Pack appeared first on Plugin Republic.