Avada 5.0 features new Fusion Builder
Recently the best-selling WordPress theme Avada has been updated to 5.0. The version features Fusion Builder which has been re-built from the ground up to be significantly improved in every way.
Actually, I updated old Avada to 5.0 and found that Fusion Builder has been redesigned. Most especially, I felt that the performance was improved when editing posts or pages with the new page builder. Now the user experience has been greatly improved with faster speed.
Avada 5.0 also includes some new demos including Health, Technology, Wedding and Resume, now becoming 22 demos in total as of Oct 12, 2016.
Avada is easy to use even if you are not familiar with any programming language or do not have coding knowledge. It provides users with really many theme options, which enables beginners to create professional looking websites.
Update to Avada 5.0
To update or install the new Avada theme, you need to download the installation file (in zip format) from the themeforest site. After unzipping the zip compressed file, I uploaded all files and folders via FTP to overwrite the older Avada files. Then, the following screen will appear when you access your blog:
The conversion process should be done to update your old shortcodes to the new syntax. You can download Avada 4.0.3 by clicking "download Avada 4.0.3 here" in the figure above. If the update fails, the old Aavda files will be needed. Please also do not forget to backup your database before proceeding the update process.
After the conversion is complete, the following screen appears:
When you click on the Update Required Plugins button, you will be redirected to the install plugins page.
You need to update Fusion Core, and then install Fusion Builder. After finishing the installation and the update, updating to the new version is complete.
When you click "Fusion Builder" to choose Fusion Builder as an editor in the page or post editing screen, you will see the following screen:
The UIs have been changed in the new Fusion Builder. Most especially, a new tab "Library" has been added. If you click "Library", you can save current page layout as a template.
If you click on "Container" to add a container in Figure 5, the following popup appears:
You can choose a container to add. After adding a container, it will be added as follows:
Now you can add an element by clicking "+ Element." When clicking it, the Select Element screen appears.
It seems that the new Fusion Builder works much faster than the older version in my system environment.
If you fail to update to Avada 5.0
For some reasons such as PHP version requirement, the update might will fail. In this case, you need to delete the new Avada folder and copy the old Avada folder to your server. And then, you can restore DB with a backup. You can download Avada 4.0.3 by clicking the link "download Avada 4.0.3 here" in Figure 2.
If you got the following error message:
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_PAAMAYIM_NEKUDOTAYIM in /home/XXXXX/public_html/wp-content/themes/Avada/includes/class-avada-product-registration.php on line 167
Then, please install the newer Avada version. If it does not work, please update your PHP version to 5.6 or higher.