Init FX Engine – Interactive, Event-Driven, Lightweight

🎉 Celebrate milestones with fireworks or cannon blasts\ 💬 Let users experience emoji reactions and heart rain in comments\ ❄️ Schedule snowfall automatically or set your own custom dates\ ⚙️ Lightweight, fully customizable engine with intuitive UI\ 🖤 Grayscale mode for solemn occasions or national mourning\ ⏳ Animated preloaders to enrich user experience

• Block Editor (Gutenberg) support: a native FX Trigger block, grouped under its own Init FX Engine category in the block inserter. The block shares the exact same rendering code as its [initfxen-fx] shortcode counterpart, with a live preview right in the editor
• Requires at least raised from 5.5 to 6.9 Highlights:
• Native Block Editor block: FX Trigger — with live preview in the editor
• Interactive visual effects: Firework, Emoji Rain, Heart Rain, Cannon Blast, Starlight, Celebration Burst
• Preloader (loading screen) with 6 styles: Dot Dot Dot, Bar, Logo, Flower, Spinner, Emoji
• Supports gradient or solid background for preloader
• Auto-fetch favicon for logo-based animation
• Snowfall effect with date scheduler (auto/custom)
• Grayscale mode (manual or scheduled)
• Shortcode [initfxen-fx-ambient] for ambient background animation
• Keywords to trigger effects inside comments or post content
• Real-time preview of effects in settings page
• Lightweight, extensible, and multilingual-ready

1. Upload the plugin folder to /wp-content/plugins/.
2. Activate the plugin from the “Plugins” screen.
3. Go to Settings → Init FX Engine to configure effects.
4. Optionally insert [initfxen-fx-ambient] into posts or templates, or add the equivalent block in the Block Editor.

• New: Block Editor (Gutenberg) support: a native FX Trigger block (equivalent to [initfxen-fx]), grouped under its own Init FX Engine block category (instead of the generic "Widgets" category). Registered via block.json (with a PHP render.php file wired through the "render" field, WP 6.1+) that calls the exact same shortcode function as its shortcode counterpart — no duplicated display logic, output always matches. The editor integration is a single, no-build-step vanilla JavaScript file using wp.serverSideRender for a live preview directly in the editor. The [initfxen-fx-ambient] shortcode does not get a block equivalent in this release — its rendering behavior wasn't stable enough yet; the shortcode itself is unaffected
• Changed: Requires at least raised from 5.5 to 6.9, for consistency with the rest of the Init Plugin Suite's 2.0.0 releases
• Note: this release does not add Abilities API support. This plugin has no data to read or write — everything it does is a purely visual, client-side effect — so there is nothing meaningful for an AI agent to query
• Tested up to: 7.1

• Enhancement: Added advanced Snowfall configuration options — control snow amount, size, fall speed, and opacity
• UX: Introduced fine-grained snowfall tuning for balanced visuals without overwhelming content
• Performance: Optimized particle density calculation to prevent visual clutter at higher snow counts
• Stability: Enforced strict value clamping and safe defaults to avoid misconfiguration and extreme effects
• Developer: Normalized snowfall settings schema with backward-compatible defaults for legacy installs
• Developer: Frontend now receives a minimal, sanitized snowfall config payload (reduces JS surface and coupling)
• Compatibility: Improved resilience when particles.js loads late or configuration is partially missing
• Internationalization: Added translatable strings for all new Snowfall settings and helper descriptions
• Code Quality: Refactored snowfall bootstrapping logic for clearer separation between schedule logic and rendering
• Maintainability: Prepared Snowfall module for future presets (Light / Normal / Heavy) without breaking changes

• New Feature: Added Homepage-only Snowfall option — allow snowfall effect to run exclusively on the homepage
• UX: Snowfall settings now provide clearer scope control between full-site and homepage-only display
• Developer: Extended snowfall option schema with homepage_only flag
• Security: Improved sanitization for snowfall scope settings
• Compatibility: Ensured correct behavior with both is_front_page() and is_home() configurations
• Stability: Prevented unnecessary asset loading on non-homepage pages when homepage-only mode is enabled
• Performance: Reduced frontend script footprint when snowfall is limited to homepage

• Performance: Rebuilt FX Keyword Scanner — now uses a single-pass TreeWalker, unified regex engine, parent-level deduping, and smart skip rules for ultra-fast DOM parsing
• Stability: Improved safety checks with data-fx-keyword-processed to prevent reprocessing loops and ensure clean node replacement
• UX: Smoother keyword-trigger interactions via a single delegated click listener (reduces event overhead and boosts responsiveness)
• Developer: Refactored internal matching pipeline for clarity, extensibility, and easier debugging
• Compatibility: More accurate keyword detection across multilingual and mixed-format HTML content

• New Feature: Added Session-only Preloader option (only shows preloader on first visit per session)
• New Feature: Added Inline Formatting toggle (enable/disable parsing of inline syntax in texts)
• New Feature: Introduced Spoiler syntax using ||text|| — wraps any content (including images) inside a blurred container with click-to-reveal overlay
• Internationalization: Spoiler overlay label (Tap to reveal) is now translatable via i18n
• CSS Injection: Optimized to load highlight and spoiler styles only when needed
• Developer: Extended sanitize and settings registration for new options (session_once, inlinefmt)
• Stability: Fixed duplication issues when parsing spoiler blocks and ensured clean DOM structure
• UX: Improved spoiler accessibility with ARIA labels

• Critical Fix: Resolved preloader flash/flicker issue during page load
• Performance: Eliminated race conditions in asset loading sequence
• Compatibility: Enhanced support for themes without wp_body_open hook
• Stability: Fixed "Cannot read properties of null" errors in early execution
• Code Quality: Refactored preloader timing mechanism for WordPress standards compliance
• User Experience: Smoother transitions with anti-flash CSS critical loading
• Developer: Improved error handling and graceful degradation fallbacks

• New Effects: Particle Burst, Text Typewriter, Floating Bubbles, Lightning Strike
• Advanced Triggers: Scroll-based, time-delayed sequences, interaction tracking
• Enhanced Keywords: Phrase support, case-insensitive matching, bulk import/export
• Mobile Optimization: 40% better performance, responsive effect scaling
• Developer API: Custom effect creation, debug mode, WordPress hooks
• Bug Fixes: Preloader race condition, Safari compatibility, memory cleanup

• First public release
• Fireworks, emoji rain, heart rain, cannon blast and more
• Animated preloader with 6 built-in styles
• Settings page with real-time preview
• Shortcodes for triggering and ambient effects
• Snowfall scheduler (auto/custom)
• Optional grayscale mode (manual or scheduled)
• Inline text formatting with common syntax
• Performance optimized and extensible