BoldSlider

Description

BoldSlider is a lightweight, fully-responsive slider builder for WordPress with a real visual editor — drag layers on a canvas, set per-device overrides, and embed via shortcode or Gutenberg block.

Free version highlights

  • Visual builder — drag, resize, rotate layers on a real canvas. Eight resize handles. Keyboard nudge + delete.
  • Per-device responsive — override layer position, size, font size, color, and visibility separately for Desktop / Tablet / Mobile.
  • Layer types (7 free): Heading, Paragraph, Image, Button, Shape, YouTube embed, Vimeo embed.
  • Slider effects: Slide, Fade, Cube, Coverflow, Flip, Cards.
  • Backgrounds: image (with cover/contain/percentage/auto fit, repeat, 9-grid + custom position), color, uploaded MP4 video.
  • Background animations: Ken Burns, Zoom In, Zoom Out, Pan Left, Pan Right.
  • Navigation arrows with placement (inside/outside) + position (top/middle/bottom) + size + offset + colors + hover styles.
  • Pagination (bullets / fraction / progress bar) with placement, position, bullet size/gap, clickable, active + inactive colors.
  • Thumbnail strip (Swiper Thumbs).
  • Autoplay with delay + pause-on-hover.
  • Layer animations — 8 CSS-based entrance presets (fade, fade-up/down/left/right, zoom-in/out).
  • Button hover styles + 12 built-in arrow icons.
  • Starter templates: Multiple ready-to-use templates (Hero, Business, Portfolio, Testimonials, Promo / Sale, Product Launch, Team, Event, Startup, Minimal, Restaurant, Charity, Welcome).
  • Embed via [boldslider id="your-slider-slug"] shortcode or Gutenberg block.
  • Import / Export sliders as JSON.
  • Duplicate sliders + slides in one click.
  • Slider library page with thumbnail previews + search.
  • Performance: lazy-load images, no jQuery, no external CDN, deferred JS.
  • SEO friendly: semantic <h1><h6> headings, alt and title attributes (Media Library or custom).
  • Accessibility: keyboard navigation, proper ARIA labels.

External services

BoldSlider does not call out to any external services or CDNs. All assets are bundled locally inside the plugin.

Development

Source code

The compiled/minified JavaScript and CSS files in assets/dist/ are built from the uncompressed source code included in this plugin:

  • Editor UI (React): editor/src/ — JSX components, store, hooks, views, and SCSS styles.
  • Frontend runtime: editor/src/frontend.js — Swiper initialization and layer animations.
  • Block editor script: editor/src/block.js — Gutenberg block registration.
  • Stylesheets: editor/src/editor.scss and editor/src/frontend.scss.

Build instructions

Prerequisites: Node.js 18+ and npm 9+.

  1. Navigate to the plugin directory: cd boldslider
  2. Install dependencies: npm install
  3. Build production assets: npm run build
  4. For development with live rebuild: npm run start

The build pipeline uses @wordpress/scripts (webpack-based).

Third-party libraries

  • Swiper v11 — MIT License — touch-enabled slider engine.

Installation

  1. Upload the boldslider folder to /wp-content/plugins/, or install via the Plugins screen.
  2. Activate the plugin.
  3. Go to BoldSlider in the admin menu.
  4. Click + New Slider, pick a template, name it, then click Create & Edit.
  5. Drag layers, set styling, save.
  6. Embed in any post or page using the shortcode shown in the slider list, or the BoldSlider Gutenberg block.

FAQ

Does the plugin require jQuery?

No. BoldSlider is built with vanilla JavaScript and Swiper. jQuery is not enqueued or required.

Does the plugin call any external services?

No. BoldSlider does not call any third-party CDNs or APIs. All assets (Swiper, fonts, etc.) are served from your own site.

How do I embed a slider?

Two options:

  • Shortcode: [boldslider id="your-slider-slug"] — the slug is shown in the slider’s edit screen and on each card in the slider list.
  • Gutenberg: add the BoldSlider block and pick your slider from the dropdown.

Can I import a slider from another site?

Yes. On the slider list page, hover any card and click Export to download a JSON file. On the destination site, click Import and pick the JSON file.

Reviews

There are no reviews for this plugin.

Contributors & Developers

“BoldSlider” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

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Interested in development?

Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.

Change log

0.1.0

  • Initial release.