WordPress Gutenberg editor offers plenty of blocks for adding different type of content on your article. In addition to adding your own content, you can use embed blocks to insert content from third party websites. Many WordPress users may aware that you can easily embed YouTube videos. However, WordPress allows you to embed content from almost 30 service providers and one of the unknown embed services is WordPress itself. In this article we will explain how to embed plugin and theme details in WordPress from repository.
Related: 5 ways to add videos in WordPress?
oEmbed Function
WordPress uses oEmbed protocol to pull required parameters and display on your site. This technology uses oEmbed API to get the presentation parameters accepted by the service provider. WordPress then arrange the parameters and display in a beautiful view on your site.
WordPress.org is one of the service providers allowing you to embed plugin and theme details on your site.
Embedding WordPress Plugin and Theme Details
Many bloggers write articles comparing plugins and themes. Articles with list of plugin or theme collection is also popular when writing WordPress tutorials. One of the big problems in this type of article is to provide the statistics of the item. For example, you can mention 500 user ratings with average 4.5 star when you publish the article. However, over the period this numbers can change and make your article obsolete. You can easily overcome this issue by simply embedding the plugin or theme page. In this way, you do not need to update the article frequently as the embedded content will automatically pull the content from WordPress repository.
How to Embed Plugins and Themes in WordPress?
You can use the “Embed” block in Gutenberg editor to insert WordPress plugin and theme pages. Before using the embed block, you have to get the URL of the plugin or theme you want to embed.
Plugin or Theme URL for Embedding
Go to WordPress.org plugin or theme repository and get the page URL handy. For example, the embed URL for Yoast SEO plugin is “https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-seo/” that you can simply copy from the browser’s address bar.
Similarly, you can get the theme URL from the theme repository. For example, the embed URL for Astra theme is “https://wordpress.org/themes/astra/”.
Related: How to use embed code element in Weebly site?
Using Embed Block in Gutenberg
The simplest way to embed plugin or theme page is to simply copy the URL on the editor. This will convert the URL to an embed and show the content accordingly. If you don’t like to paste the URL, there are multiple ways to use embed block in Gutenberg editor.
1. Find WordPress Embed
When you are in post editor, press / and type WordPress to filter the relevant blocks. Click on “WordPress” embed option that appears first in the list.
2. Insert Embed Block with +
Second option is by clicking the + icon on the editor and select the “Embed” option. You can also select “WordPress” block by searching.
3. Select from All Blocks
Last option is to click on “Browse all” or click on the + icon on top left corner inside the editor to find embed blocks.
Inserting Embed URL
When you have inserted “Embed” block, you will see the box like below.
If you have selected “WordPress” block then you will see similar box to embed URL like below:
Paste the plugin or theme URL you have copied from WordPress repository in the box and click “Embed” button. You will see the plugin or theme details inserted using oEmbed API.
Below is how the Yoast SEO plugin embed will look like on your site:
And below is how the Astra theme embed will look like:
Details Shown in the Embed
As you can see WordPress will show the following details for the plugin embed:
- Plugin icon
- Name with link to repository
- Link to plugin’s author
- Plugin description
- Get this plugin button with the plugin URL
- Tested with WordPress version
- Share button to get the content for WordPress or HTML embed
However, the theme embed will show limited details in a completely different presentation view.
- Large picture linking to theme URL
- Theme description with theme link
- WordPress theme repository link
- Share button to get HTML or WordPress embed
You can insert plugins or themes side by side and write comparison articles easily. And the best part is the details will be automatically updated from the WordPress repository page.
Why You Should Disable Embeds in WordPress?
Now that you know how to embed plugin and theme details in WordPress. However, as you can see we did not show the real embeds and show screenshots above. The reason is that we have disabled embeds on our site. Using third party embedding like WordPress, YouTube and Gravatar will delay the page loading time. Hence, it is a good idea to disable the embeds if you are not using the feature.
How to Disable Embeds in WordPress?
Almost every caching and optimization plugin out there offers this feature. We use WP Rocket and you can go to “Media” section to disable the embeds.
Final Words
WordPress allows you to embed plugin and theme pages directly on your site using oEmbed API. This is a useful function when you write tutorial articles listing plugins or themes. It is also useful when you compare themes and plugins side by side. However, embedding third party content from WordPress.org site will affect the site speed. Therefore, you can disable the embed when you not using with the help of caching plugin.
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