When we say that this plugin is the most extensive and complete add-on solution for Visual Composer, than we mean it. But that comes at the “cost” of a rather large file size for the plugin. Here are just some of the factors that contribute to the plugin’s file size:
Icon Fonts:
Unlike any other add-on for Visual Composer, this one includes 16 built-in icon fonts (with over 4.600+ icons), which requires the plugin to also include all relevant files for each font, increasing the file size. Each icon font contains out of:
- at least four files that tell the browser how to render each icon (a browser only needs one of those files, but depending upon browser, the file needs to be in a different format),
- another CSS file that assigns a class name to each icon and references each icon with the four aforementioned files, and
- lastly a PHP file, that stores the icon class names in a required format, so that Visual Composer can actually use the font with the elements from this add-on.
Number of Elements:
No other plugin includes as many premium elements as this one, all requiring additional files to properly define those elements. There are usually two files for each element: The first one building the settings panel as it is used by Visual Composer, and another one that will tell WordPress what to do with those settings when rendering the element shortcode on the frontend. And many of those elements also rely on other 3rd party CSS and/or JS files for functionality, which naturally also need to be included with the plugin.
Other Premium Features:
Aside from a multitude of premium elements, this add-on also provides many other extra features, which you won’t find in most other add-ons. A Google Font manager, the ability to upload a custom icon font, custom post type, a widget builder, extended row and column options for Visual Composer … all that needs to be programmed accordingly, adding more files to the package.
Translation Ready:
Lastly, this plugin comes ready to be used in two languages, English and German, while all other add-ons only include English. In order to do that, it needs to include the .mo/.po language files that contain the original (English) text strings and the German translations, cross referencing each other. With well over 100 elements, each using dozens of setting parameters, and each of those parameters including a description as to what that parameter does, the plugin contains close to five thousand different text strings. And that in return causes the .mo/.po files that store those strings to be fairly large as well. The alternative would be to not provide any descriptions or explanations for element settings, but we wanted our users to know what each setting does without having to go back to a manual or contacting support, and so we decided to provide as much information to each element setting, as possible.
All those factors combined will inevitably result in an overall large file size for the plugin, than you might see from other add-ons that are much smaller in scale and functionality. But rest assured, that the add-on will only load the files it needs, based on which elements and features you enabled in the plugin settings.
