KCSG Kartra Pages

Description

KCSG Kartra Pages (KKP) is a Kartra-specific alternative to Kartra’s original recommendation of using the generic Blank Slate plugin for embedding Kartra Page Builder pages within your WordPress website.

Here is why you should use KKP instead of Blank Slate for embedding Kartra pages in WordPress:

1. Due to a quirk in the way Kartra works, Kartra pages embedded with Blank Slate are known to get stuck in a loop and fail to display for many users on some devices (especially iPhone and iPad users). Blank Slate isn’t to blame for the issue, but it’s generic, whereas KKP is Kartra-specific, accounts for the quirk, and does not have this issue.
2. KKP provides enhanced SEO and OpenGraph support (so that links on social media display properly, for example).
3. KKP displays the Kartra content with fewer network requests and with less overhead meant for displaying WordPress pages that is not used when displaying Kartra pages.
4. KKP offers the option to easily download Kartra pages and store them in the WordPress database to be served directly from WordPress.
5. KKP can also work with Kartra tracking links (including split-testing links and conditional-redirection links), making their capabilities conveniently available from your WordPress domain.
6. In the Kartra template modes (see the Operation and related sections), KKP uses your WordPress site icon configuration so that you don’t need to assign your Kartra pages to a custom domain in order to get your custom site icons.

For the latest news and information, please join the KCSG Tools For Kartra Facebook group.

Operation

1. Create a new page or edit an existing page where you want your Kartra page to appear (the template and controls are only available for pages, not for posts).
2. Select the “KCSG Kartra Page” template from the Template drop-down in the Page Attributes section and save or update the page. Do NOT use the KCSG Kartra Pages “Apply” button for this step.
3. Locate the “KCSG Kartra Pages” controls section below the page content and click the open arrow to open it if necessary.
4. Choose the desired template mode (“WordPress” Mode, “Kartra Live” Mode, or “Kartra Download” Mode). See the sections with the corresponding names for details on each mode.
5. In order to use the Kartra modes, you must supply a source URL. You can paste any portion of Kartra’s page loader Embed code for the corresponding Kartra page as long as it includes the full source URL. KKP will extract the URL and discard the rest. This value will be remembered, so you don’t need to supply it again unless you want to change it.
6. Click the “Apply” button in the KCSG Kartra Pages control section. The SEO and OpenGraph information (in Kartra Live Mode) or the entire page (in Kartra Download mode) will be retrieved from the latest published version of your Kartra page and stored in WordPress. When successful, you will see a “Request complete” message.

“WordPress” Mode

In WordPress mode (the default), KKP just displays the native WordPress content on a minimal page. This mode is equivalent to the Blank Slate plugin by Aaron Reimann et al.

This mode is only intended to be a “reasonable fallback” when the template has insufficient information to deliver anything else.

While not recommended, it is possible to display a Kartra page in this mode by copying-and-pasting Kartra’s “Embed code” into a WordPress custom HTML block.

Once set up, a WordPress visitor’s browser would display the Kartra page by following this four-step process:

1. The browser loads the Kartra embed code from the WordPress custom HTML block
2. The browser loads a page-loader script from Kartra based on the embed code
3. The browser loads the Kartra page from Kartra based on the page-loader script
4. The browser loads any additional assets referenced by the Kartra page

“Kartra Live” Mode

Kartra Live mode produces a “live Kartra page in an iframe” result similar
to WordPress mode, but with a couple of differences:

1. You paste the Kartra Embed code (or URL portion from it, or a Kartra tracking link URL) into the Embed code/URL input of the KCSG Kartra Pages controls area in the page editor instead of into a custom HTML block.
2. When you select the Kartra Live option and click Apply, KKP saves a copy of SEO settings and Open Graph data from Kartra in WordPress.
3. The custom page loader includes the SEO and Open Graph data previously fetched from Kartra and serves the second-stage page loader script directly from WordPress.
4. The custom page loader uses your WordPress site icons instead of the Kartra site icons (so you won’t need to associate your Kartra pages with a custom domain in order to get the site icon branding that’s already on your WordPress domain).

Once set up, A WordPress visitor’s browser will display a Kartra page in Kartra Live mode by following this three-step process:

1. The browser loads a custom page-loader script from WordPress
2. The browser loads the Kartra page from Kartra based on the page-loader script
3. The browser loads any additional assets referenced by the Kartra page

In this mode, you do not need to do anything in WordPress when you publish page changes in Kartra unless you update SEO and/or Open Graph settings (in which case you’ll need to click “Apply” to update the settings stored in WordPress).

Note 1: Because this mode is tuned for displaying Kartra-built pages, it elminates most of the overhead for supporting WordPress pages. A consequence of this is that any WordPress configuration for applying things like pixels, tracking, analytics, etc. will likely not work in Kartra Live mode. Use the corresponding Kartra page settings instead.

Note 2: When using this mode with Kartra split-test or conditional tracking link URLs, the embedded iframe page content may potentially vary from visit to visit. As only the single most recent snapshot of SEO and OG data is kept, it will not. Please keep this in mind when configuring your Kartra page settings in such situations.

“Kartra Download” Mode

In Kartra Download mode, a snapshot of the most recently published Kartra page (but with your WordPress site icons instead of Kartra site icons) is stored in, and served directly from, the WordPress database.

To configure:

1. Paste the Kartra Embed code (or URL portion from it) into the Embed code/URL input of the KCSG Kartra Pages controls area in the page editor.
2. When you select the Kartra Download option and click Apply, KKP downloads and stores the most recently published version of the Kartra Page in the WordPress database. (Whenever you publish changes on Kartra, just click Apply again in the WordPress page editor to update the version saved in WordPress.)

Once set up, a WordPress visitor’s browser will display a Kartra page in Kartra Download mode by following this two-step process:

1. The browser loads the downloaded-and-saved Kartra page directly from WordPress
2. The browser loads any additional assets referenced by the Kartra page

Troubleshooting

Why do I get “Page Not Found”?

This usually indicates that you have not changed the page template to KCSG Kartra Page and then saved/updated the page.

Why do I get “No contents found”?

This usually indicates that the “CURL” PHP functions are disabled on your system. Check your php.ini configuration file or control panel, or contact your ISP to make sure they’re enabled, as appropriate.

Privacy Policy

This plugin collects and uses the Kartra page URLs you enter, along with associated alternative URLs and published Kartra page content, for the sole purpose of displaying the specified Kartra pages to your WordPress website visitors.

No other information is collected, used, or disclosed.

Disclaimer

KCSG Kartra Pages is a free plugin by Brian Katzung of Kappa Computer Solutions, LLC and BusRes.com Business Resources. It is not affiliated with, endorsed, or supported by Kartra or Genesis Digital.

Videos

Here’s a demonstration of installation and operation:

Screenshots

Installation

1. Upload the plugin files to the “/wp-content/plugins/kcsg-kartra-pages” directory, or install the plugin via the WordPress plugins screen.
2. Activate the plugin via the WordPress plugins screen.

See the “Operation” section for operating instructions.

FAQ

What are the advantages of Kartra Live mode over Kartra Download mode?

In Live mode, the displayed content is always loaded directly from Kartra’s infrastructure, so visitors will always get the most recently published version without any additional action required on your part.

The only exception to the above is the page SEO and OpenGraph information, which is stored in WordPress so that it can be presented to search engines and websites that do not execute JavaScript. You will need to click on the Apply button to refresh this information if you change it in Kartra.

Content is delivered in iframes using the standard kartra domains, so tracking and analytics should all work as normal.

What are the advantages of Kartra Download mode over Kartra Live mode?

Since your content is being served directly from your WordPress domain, it will definitely be attributed to your WordPress domain by search engines. (In Live mode, search engines might attribute your content to your Kartra domain.)

Since Download-mode content is regular HTML and doesn’t involve several levels of JavaScript indirection, search engines that don’t understand JavaScript will still be able to index your content.

Download mode does more work in advance so that fewer steps and fewer network requests and responses are required to display the final page.

Important: Per Kartra, due to cross-domain cookie restrictions, some tracking might not be accurate in download-to-server configurations (including KKP’s Kartra Download mode). On pages where this is a concern, please use Kartra Live mode instead.

Can I use WordPress SEO (Search Engine Optimization) features with KCSG Kartra Pages?

KKP only includes the standard WordPress header and footer code in WordPress mode as that is the only mode that displays native WordPress content.

Any WordPress SEO (or other) features that are added to pages via the WordPress header (as most are) will therefore not be applied to pages in the Live or Download modes.

Any “off-page” features (such as XML sitemaps) should still work.

Why don’t the Kartra modes include the WordPress header and footer?

Several reasons:

Loading the WordPress header and footer content could slow down the page loading process by loading either unncessary or duplicate assets, or in some cases even break the page display by loading conflicting assets.

In Kartra Live mode, any included SEO settings would end up being applied to a light-weight framework that’s only responsible for loading the real (Kartra) content in an “iframe” and which contains no useful content of its own.

How does KCSG Kartra Pages compare to Aaron Reimann’s Blank Slate?

KKP’s WordPress mode should be virtually identical in function to Blank Slate.

In comparison, KKP’s Kartra Live mode…

• Uses a very-low-overhead, Kartra-tuned page-loading process
• Is designed to reduce the chances of page-loading loops sometimes observed when using Blank Slate
• Saves a custom page loader in WordPress, saving a step in the display process
• Provides SEO and Open Graph information even without JavaScript execution (improving SEO and allowing things like Facebook link details to display properly)
• Uses your WordPress site icons instead of Kartra site icons

KKP’s Kartra Download mode:

• Saves a snapshot of your published Katra page (also including SEO and Open Graph information) directly in the WordPress database, eliminating several steps in the display process
• Also uses your WordPress site icons instead of Kartra site icons
• Ensures SEO efforts will be attributed to your WordPress domain

Where can I get support or more information?

For support, please use the help desk on the Tools For Kartra page. For general information and announcements, please join the KCSG Tools For Kartra Facebook group.

Be advised that this is a free plugin provided on an “as-is” basis, not a commercially supported product. The author(s) will do their best to provide support in their available time.

Reviews

Incredible Find!

dsmithey April 30, 2020

Thank you so much for creating this Word Press Plug In! I was trying to integrate a Kartra page inside our company website (built with Word Press) using “Blank Slate” and I was getting the infinite loop error you described. I searched for a solution, the original recommendation for “Blank Slate” was provided by Kartra and lives within their Kartranaut help blog. I wrote up my issue and submitted it to them asking if there was another plug in I could try. Not willing to be patient I continued to search the web and youtube until I found your video. I quickly added your KCSG Kartra Pages WordPress plugin and it instantly worked. I really appreciate the great work you have done and Kartra should be recommending your plug-in and rewriting their blog. I promise to bring it up during the next Kartra webinar. I would have gladly paid for this solution, it is elegant, easy to install, fast and works just as advertised. OH, did I say thank you!

Excellent Support

tarrud April 13, 2020

I recently installed this plugin but was having troubles making it work. I posted about it in the Facebook support group and the developer, Brian, got in touch with me and helped me through it. Even contacted my template designer about this issue. We found a way to resolve it. He was knowledgeable, friendly and really helpful. The plugin is fantastic and I highly recommend it.

Absolutely Brilliant

dustinhcannon March 6, 2020

This plug-in works great and has made life with Kartra much easier. I can build pages more quickly and they actually load faster. This plug-in has been directly responsible for improving my conversions.

Great Plugin

vincentscully March 5, 2020

If you are using Kartra with your WordPress Site then this plugin is a must. It makes the whole Kartra page integration a breeze. The developer updates the plugin regularly making it better every time. Definitely worth the 5 star rating! Also the Chrome Extension that accompanies this for editing pages in Kartra is something every Kartra user must have! Great work Brian!

Contributors & Developers

Changelog

1.0.19

Tested on WP 6.0.

1.0.18

Tested on WP 5.9.3.

1.0.17

Tested on WP 5.8.3. Added GTM support for live mode.

1.0.16

Tested on WP 5.8.

1.0.15

“Unqualified” references to Kartra JavaScript assets now have //app.kartra.com added to prevent issues with caching systems that don’t understand .

1.0.13

Tested on WP 5.7.

1.0.7

A tag is now added to the saved page in Kartra Download mode as Kartra code is now referencing some assets with relative paths.

1.0.5

Add data-cfasync=’false’ to the template page loader script so that it doesn’t get broken by Cloudflare’s Rocket Loader feature (resulting in pages coming up blank).

1.0.4

Download Kartra content using CURL instead of file_get_contents in order to avoid the need for the PHP allow_url_fopen option to be enabled.

1.0.3

• Documentation changes

1.0.2

• Now also works with a Kartra tracking link as the Page URL.

1.0.0

• Post-beta release with updated documentation.

0.1.3

• Fixed WordPress-mode closing tag.

0.1.2

• Fixed default template mode selection.

0.1.1

• Improve compatibility with classic editor.

0.1.0

• Kartra Live mode now caches SEO and Open Graph information in WordPress

0.0.11

• Changed the template settings implementation to be backward-compatible with the classic editor.

0.0.10

• Added demonstration video

0.0.9

• Documentation update regarding WordPress pixels/tracking/analytics in Kartra Live mode.

0.0.8

• Correction to Operation documentation and general formatting.

0.0.7

• Revised page content escaping per *_post_meta documentation.

0.0.6

• Update 1 for WordPress coding standards/review

0.0.5

• Remove mode from database when “blank” and URL from database when blank.

0.0.4

• Store just the page URL and not the page loader in script/live mode
• Improve URL validation
• Accept kartra.com page links as well as embed codes or URLs

0.0.3

• Added internationalization support
• Changed blank, script, and cache modes in the user interface to be WordPress, Kartra Live, and Kartra Download to be more clear and less technical
• Changed script/live mode to cache a custom, second-stage page loader instead of using a mostly-stock, first-stage embed script
• Removed unused post support (since it only works for pages)

0.0.2

• First release to beta testers