We are thrilled to introduce the Hello Elementor Theme version 3.0 This version includes improvements made to disable additional theme features and further optimize website performance.
Hello is already a lightweight and minimalist theme. Nevertheless, its minified CSS files loaded on a website’s frontend continues to shrink. In version 2.7, released in March 2023, the total size of the CSS was reduced by 17%, from 21kb to 18kb. With minor setting adjustments, version 3.0 provides the option to further reduce the loaded CSS size by an additional 40%, to only 10kb!
Moreover, the theme no longer relies on jQuery and as of this release the JS is not loaded when disabling some theme features.
New Theme Setting – Disable Cross-Site Header & Footer
The “Theme Settings” page has a new option that allows you to remove the cross-site header and footer sections, which are active by default on all websites. Disabling this feature will prevent the theme from loading the HTML markup and CSS file associated with cross-site header & footer functionality.
Cross-Site Header & Footer
Hello Theme offers basic header & footer functionality for simple websites that can benefit from a lightweight theme. Hello Theme allows you to add cross-site headers with a site logo, tagline, and menu; and a cross-site footer area that includes a logo, menu, and copyright text.
When using page builders, you can style unique layouts. Elementor Pro, for example, offers the “Theme Builder” that lets you do exactly that. However, many websites use the free version of Elementor and incorporate the cross-site header & footer functionality that comes with the theme.
When to Disable Headers & Footers?
The theme offers basic functionality, which is mainly useful for websites that look for minimal themes, and need a basic header & footer. It’s quite simple, but does the job.
You should disable the built-in cross-site header & footer feature, when the website either doesn’t need a header & footer or when the website uses unique custom layouts created using, for example, Elementor Pro’s Theme Builder.
Performance Improvement – Less Unused CSS
By splitting the CSS files into smaller, more focused, and manageable files, the theme offers web creators the ability to create more performant websites. By loading styles only for features in use, the site loads fewer resources, improves “unused CSS” metrics, runs faster, and improves overall site performance.
Theme Style Sheets
Hello Theme is a lightweight WordPress theme. It loads only two stylesheets that weigh only 18kb; style.min.css (6kb) includes CSS reset rules and theme.min.css (12kb) includes general WordPress styles, as well as the cross-site header & footer styles.
As of this version, the theme.min.css file was split. Styles responsible for header & footer design have been moved to a new file. The total size of the combined stylesheets wasn’t changed (18kb), but now the theme has 3 CSS files – style.min.css (6kb), theme.min.css (5kb), and header-footer.min.css (7kb).
Conditional Assets Loading
Both style.min.css and theme.min.css are always loaded on all pages. However, the header-footer.min.css is now loaded conditionally. When disabling the theme’s header & footer from the theme’s settings screen, the CSS is not loaded.
Previously, when websites didn’t use the theme’s header & footer functionality, the styles continued to be loaded as they were part of theme.min.css. It increased unused CSS as neither the header nor the footer were displayed on the site and negatively affected the overall site performance.
As of version 3.0.0, when you disable the theme’s header & footer, the styles are not loaded as they are in a separate header-footer.min.css file. This conditional loading has the potential to improve the overall site performance. It reduces the total size of loaded CSS files by 40%, from 18kb to only 10kb.
Performance Improvement – JavaScript
The JavaScript loaded in the frontend has been rewritten. The script is loaded conditionally, only when the cross-site header & footer functionality is in use. Moreover, the rewritten JavaScript code no longer uses jQuery, removing dependency on an external library.
Conditional Assets Loading
The theme functionality in the frontend is loaded in the hello-frontend.min.js file. This file is loaded on all pages. The code in this file was rewritten and as of this version it handles only the cross-site header & footer functionality.
When disabling the theme’s header & footer from the theme’s settings screen, this JS file is no longer loaded. This conditional loading has the potential to improve the site performance, by eliminating additional JS which was previously loaded on all pages.
Remove jQuery
Hello Theme 3.0.0 no longer depends on jQuery. All the JavaScript code written using jQuery has been re-written in Vanilla JavaScript. Both in the WordPress admin and on the frontend.
The theme became even lighter compared to previous versions, as it no longer relies on other JS libraries and requires less assets to operate. Advanced developers can now further optimize their websites by unregistering jQuery, eliminating another 60kb. This was not possible in previous versions.
Please note that if your website keeps loading jQuery, it’s probably loaded by a plugin, not by the Hello theme. Before unregistering jQuery, check the website’s plugins and their dependencies.
PHP Version Requirements
Hello Theme continues the gradual transition to newer and faster PHP versions, dropping support for older unsupported versions. This is part of Elementor’s Roadmap to Upgrade PHP Versions.
Hello Theme 2.8.0 dropped PHP 5.x support and set the new minimum required version to PHP 7.0. Hello Theme 3.0.0 drops support for PHP 7.0, 7.1, and 7.2 and sets the new minimum requirement to PHP 7.3. Looking ahead to 2024, the theme will embrace PHP 7.4 and then PHP 8.x.
Using the latest technologies on your website is vital for its security and performance. Elementor is committed to providing a smooth transition to newer technologies on all its products, including the Hello Theme, while giving our users the best experience possible. We encourage all users to update their server configuration to make their websites faster and more secure.
Translate to Your Language
Hello Elementor is a global theme and is available in over 60 languages. The community drives the translation effort and everyone is welcome to participate in translating the theme into additional languages.
The translation efforts include improving existing translation strings to your native language or expanding the language support by translating the theme to new languages that were not previously available.
We are seeking native speakers of the following languages: Slovak, Greek, Vietnamese, Croatian, Albanian, Thai, Malay, Afrikaans, Bulgarian, Korean, Panjabi, and many others.
If you can contribute and help improve the experience for these native languages, please head over to translate.wordpress.org, and submit your translations. To assist you, we’ve built a short guide explaining how to translate and localize Elementor. It’s for the Elementor plugin, but it applies to the Hello Theme as well.
To Conclude
With millions of active installs, Hello Elementor Theme is the most popular theme in the WordPress theme repository. The theme offers a lightweight and minimalist WordPress theme, with excellent performance.
Over the last year, the theme has added some options to provide more customization capabilities, performance improvements, and more. This release adds an important milestone, making your websites even leaner and faster.
