Better Font Awesome

by Mickey Kay

Description

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Better Font Awesome allows you to automatically integrate the latest available version of Font Awesome into your WordPress project, along with accompanying CSS, shortcodes, and TinyMCE icon shortcode generator.

Features

Always up-to-date – automatically fetches the most recent available version of Font Awesome, meaning you no longer need to manually update the version included in your theme/plugin.
Backwards compatible – shortcode output is automatically updated depending on which version of Font Awesome you choose, meaning that you can switch versions without having to modify your shortcodes.
Compatible with other plugins – designed to work with shortcodes generated with plugins like Font Awesome Icons, Font Awesome More Icons, and Font Awesome Shortcodes, so you can switch to Better Font Awesome and your existing shortcodes will still work.
CDN speeds – Font Awesome CSS is pulled from the super-fast and reliable jsDelivr CDN.
Shortcode generator – includes an easy-to-use TinyMCE dropdown shortcode generator.

Settings

All settings can be adjusted via Settings → Better Font Awesome.

Usage

Better Font Awesome can be used in 3 different ways: shortcode, HTML, and TinyMCE

1. Shortcode

[icon name="flag" class="2x spin border" unprefixed_class="my-custom-class"]

Note that prefixes (fa- and icon-) are not required, but if you do include them things will still work just fine! Better Font Awesome is smart enough to know what version of Font Awesome you’re using and correct of the appropriate prefix.

That means that all of the following shortcodes will work, regardless of what version of Font Awesome you choose:
[icon name=”flag” class=”2x spin border”]
[icon name=”icon-flag” class=”icon-2x icon-spin icon-border”]
[icon name=”fa-flag” class=”fa-2x fa-spin fa-border”]
[icon name=”icon-flag” class=”fa-2x spin icon-border”]

You can read more about shortcode usage on Github

2. TinyMCE

Better Font Awesome also provides you with an easy-to-use drop down menu when editing in TinyMCE’s visual mode. Check out our Screenshots to see what it looks like.

3. HTML

Note that prefixes are required for HTML usage, and are version-specific. For this reason, shortcode usage is encouraged over HTML. If you do want to use HTML, however, you can read more on the Font Awesome site.

Advanced / Integration

Better Font Awesome is built around the Better Font Awesome Library. This library allows you to integrate Better Font Awesome into any custom project you want to create (perhaps a theme or plugin with a constantly up-to-date icon list), and includes all the filters you might need.

Languages / Translations

English
French (thanks to David Tisserand)

Credits

Many thanks to the following plugins and their authors:

Font Awesome Icons by Rachel Baker
Font Awesome More Icons by Web Guys
Font Awesome Shortcodes by FoolsRun
Dmitriy Akulov and the awesome folks at jsDelivr

And many thanks to the following folks who helped with testing and QA:

Installation

This section describes how to install the plugin and get it working.

Upload Better Font Awesome to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory.
Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress.
That’s it! Now you can use 3 different methods (shortcode, HTML, TinyMCE) to insert Font Awesome icons, all outlined in the Description section.

Screenshots

The icon shortcode dropdown selector
Better Font Awesome settings, accessed via Settings → Better Font Awesome

Faq

How is this plugin different from other Font Awesome plugins?

This plugin is unique in that it automatically pulls in all available versions of Font Awesome, meaning you never have to wait for the plugin developer to add the latest version. Furthermore, Better Font Awesome is designed to work with a wide variety of shortcode formats used by other Font Awesome plugins – this means that you can easily switch to Better Font Awesome (if, for example, you need to include icons from the most recent version of Font Awesome, which isn’t always available with other plugins), and they will still work.

Do I have to install any font files?

Nope. Better Font Awesome automatically pulls in everything you need, and it does it from the lightning-fast jsDelivr CDN.

What happens if I have another plugin/theme that uses Font Awesome?

Better Font Awesome does it’s best to load after any existing Font Awesome CSS, which can minimize conflicts. If you are experiencing any unexpected behavior resulting from plugin/theme conflicts, you can try checking the box to “Remove existing Font Awesome styles” in under Settings → Better Font Awesome.

Reviews

Search typing no working

By luisserrano on September 13, 2022

Cant type in search form from Better Font Awesome By Mickey Kay. Click in search bar to start typing is not working. Cant attach Youtube link so you can find the video searching there for: "Wordpress plugin Better Font Awesome By Mickey Kay"

Filter not working in WP v5.9

By puciriusanikola on February 8, 2022

The filter in TinyMCE editor for Better Font Awesome isn't working (unresponsive). Will this issue be resolved in any time soon?

Does not work - here is what does

By Kristian Yngve (kristianngve) on May 5, 2021

Something simple like [icon name="facebook-f"] And nope - sh*t plugin. Do NOT recommend it. Here is what worked for me despite older and less updated plugin - works better than this plugin: WP SVG Icons

Good job

By alexio on March 11, 2021

Developer is busy but working on the plugin as much as he has time. Very appreciated.

Big Problem + Bad Support ... Upgrade: Fine

By merlin1764 on March 6, 2021

Sad about this 🙁 After the new release (2.x) all seems to work fine.

Badder Font Awfull

By Reiner1957 on February 17, 2021

Nach dem Update fehlerhaft - seit über einer Woche nicht nachgebessert. Keine Reaktion. Miserabler Support! Buggy after update - not fixed for more than one week now. No reaction. Very bad support!

This Plugin is a NON-WORKING Hot Mess

By marcfuller (MarcFuller) on February 7, 2021

I hate to say it, this used to be a great plugin for Font Awesome, but not anymore. AVOID IT! WordPress 5.6x killed it and the author shows no interest in fixing it. The plugin's current version does not work. None of the betas work.

Many bugs because use old jQuery library

By Denis66 on December 23, 2020

Hello, BE CAREFULL: Many bugs with WordPress 5.6 !! Good when it works but causes problems because its code is not up to date !!! According to the jQuery Migrate plugin, Better Font Awesome, a plugin which allows to display icons causes problems because it uses the old jQuery library that the latest version of WordPress no longer uses. I have used many such icons and therefore many pages or articles are affected. For example, the WP Flatsome theme that uses this plugin is affected... It seems that these dysfunctions were not anticipated by theme editors like Flatsoome and plugin editor as Better Font Awesome plugin editor. By the way, it must not be the only theme having problems. Indeed, there is a big update of the jQuery script library which can affect the themes but also the plugins ! After implementing a temporary fix with Patch 5.5.1, WordPress resumes its updater for jQuery, the JavaScript library that makes it easy to write scripts in HTML code. The delivery of WordPress 5.6 is indeed the opportunity for the CMS to launch the 2nd stage of its 3-phase program, as announced last June 2020. The goal: to consolidate and keep up to date the most recent versions of jQuery in order to ensure the sustainability of the scripts. But can cause big operational problems with themes and plugins. This is also the case for publishing with Better Font Awesome plugin…

Great Plugin!

By davywavy on October 18, 2020

Works as advertised

Is this plugin still alive?

By pathfinderjo on April 14, 2020

Hi there, Wordfence alerts that this plugin is abandoned? Please advise if we can still use it safely?

Changelog

2.0.4

Bump BFAL to properly esc attributes
Add unit tests

2.0.3

Bugfix: fix broken icon text selection
Improve admin settings success/error message logic

2.0.2

Bugfix: fix CSRF vulnerability

2.0.1

Bugfix: add necessary @font-face mappings to ensure site-specific CSS and pseudo-elements render correctly

2.0.0

Add support for Font Awesome v5
Integration with Font Awesome GraphQL API for all data fetching (improve performance)
Integrate with Font Awesome CDN for all CSS
Add option to include the v4 Font Awesome CSS shim to support older icons (default on for upgrades)
Updatee hard-coded fallback Font Awesome version
Modify version check frequency to a saner 24 hour interval
Ensure admin notices are dismissible
Lower data fetch timeout to mitigate performance risks
Remove legacy options that are no longer relevant (version select, minification opt-out)
Add more/better unit tests to ensure things are working as expected

1.7.6

Fix: revert to 1.7.4 codebase.
Fix: remove calls to ready() jQuery method to support latest jQuery versions.

1.7.5

(BAD BUILD)
* Fix: remove calls to ready() jQuery method to support latest jQuery versions.
* Fix: update fontawesome-iconpicker dependency to repair broken icon select functionality.

1.7.4

Fix: revert accidental bump to underlying Better Font Awesome Library dependency.

1.7.3

Add admin notice to invite beta testers.

1.7.2

Bump “tested up to” value to 5.5.

1.7.1

Fix functionality to hide/show admin notices.

1.7.0

Update fallback Font Awesome to v4.7.0.
Switch from using git submodules to composer dependency management for core library inclusion.