Please use standard WordPress Notice styling and classes

Indeed, as you say, the tone of your message shows a strong reaction. There are a few things you may not be aware of…

In an effort to be less obtrusive, WPSSO moves most of its notices (notice-inf, notice-warn, and notice-err) out of the way in an SSO notification drop-down in the top admin toolbar.

The notice-upd and notice-nag notifications are both left to WordPress to display as it does by default. WPSSO does not change the default behavior of WordPress when displaying these notices. WordPress shows notice-upd notifications bellow the h2 title, and shows notice-nag notifications in a big box above the h2 title. The notice-nag you mentioned is the default notice-nag behavior of WordPress.

Yes, WPSSO does control the text and colors of its notices — this is why we add additional CSS classes to the notices, otherwise we would be changing the color of all notices, not just the WPSSO notices. The original notice classes of WordPress are left as-is (they’re actually required for WordPress to position its notices).

Except for critical notices that need immediate action to fix a problem, all notices from WPSSO are dismissable, including the one above. It’s worth mentioning that the notice above is shown once, after the core plugin or an add-on has been used for more than a week. It can be dismissed by clicking either button. It sounds like this was not obvious, so I’ve added an additional WPSSO dismiss link in the top-right corner in the next WPSSO Core version. Meanwhile, you may permanently dismiss that notice with either button. ??

I’m surprised you had such a strong reaction to a request to rate a plugin you use. Personally, when I value a plugin and it asks for a rating, I’m happy to help out — it only takes a moment and is a small thing compared to the value I get from that plugin. Obviously, everyone is different, but I will continue to believe that most WordPress users enjoy helping and supporting their developers.

Thanks for your comments,

js.

Thank you for the fast reply.

I use a few external plugins, and obviously each author has their own aesthetic sensibilities. However integration is the name of the game. Some authors only control/change the layout of their own plugin pages. Or the styling inside their notices (appearing on all pages).

I’m surprised you had such a strong reaction to a request to rate a plugin you use.

The reaction was not to the content of the notice. Your wish to promote the plugin is acceptable and understandable. However, not keeping margins from WordPress core’s update notice feels like inattention/not-caring about a user’s experience. Or just not understanding design and user interfaces on a fundamental level.

Keeping WordPress core’s notice styling (strong fixed-4px-width color border on the left and non-colored borders all around) helps a lot when multiple plugins from multiple authors are installed. Each with its own design paradigm. As well as the default is-dismissible (x) button in the corner.

Simply transforming .wpsso-notice.wpsso-dismissible into .notice.is-dismissible in the browser made the notice more pleasant and better integrates with other plugins. It’s still big and prominent. You can still add styling (like background color) to the <p> tag inside the notice. So long as the notices themselves get their styling from WordPress core.

As a designer these are considerations I am acutely aware off. And I work on trying to produce a seamless experience as possible for my clients. On the front- and back-end. So when an external plugin that my client needs, and is outside of my control, breaks the admin interface – it rubs me the wrong way.

Again, integration and consistency is the name of the game. If you use WordPress core’s classes and styles for the notices themselves – and only apply custom styling inside the notices and on WPSSO pages (the pages, unlike the notices, are consistent and unobtrusively designed) – this will go a long way for people with my sensibilities.

As I mentioned previously, an additional dismiss link will be added to the top-right corner of the notice to make sure users understand that this notice can be dismissed (in case they do not wish to click either button).

Thanks for your comments,

js.