WP Bannerize Pro v1.13.0 — Your Banners Just Got Sharper, Safer, and More Flexible

#wordpress

WebP support, 6 security hardening fixes, responsive flexbox layouts, and PHP 7.4 compatibility — the biggest quality release yet.

Introduction

A user asked: "Would it be possible to consider adding support for WebP banners?" — and that request kicked off a deep dive into the entire codebase. What started as a simple format addition turned into a comprehensive quality release: 6 security hardening fixes, 9 bug fixes, a complete layout redesign, and full PHP 7.4 compatibility. Whether you've been running Bannerize for years or you're evaluating it for the first time, v1.13.0 is the most solid release we've shipped.

What's New in 1.13.0

✨ WebP Image Support

The most requested feature is here. You can now create banners using WebP images — both from your WordPress media library and from external URLs. WebP delivers significantly smaller file sizes than JPEG or PNG at comparable quality, which means faster page loads and better Core Web Vitals scores for your site.

No configuration needed — just upload a .webp file or paste a WebP URL, and Bannerize handles the rest. The format is fully supported across the media library picker, remote image validation, and banner rendering.

🔒 Security Improvements

This release includes 6 targeted security hardening fixes across the analytics and query systems:

All analytics database queries now use parameterized placeholders instead of string interpolation
The banner query builder uses prepared statements for all meta key joins
SQL export functions properly escape table names
Admin error notices are restricted to users with the correct capabilities

These are proactive hardening measures — we identified and fixed these patterns during a comprehensive code review. Your site data has always been safe, and now the code follows WordPress security best practices even more strictly.

🐛 Bug Fixes That Matter

For everyone:

The Gutenberg block now works correctly with the WordPress REST API (fixed a missing schema type that caused console warnings)
Banner layouts respect the layout parameter properly — horizontal actually means horizontal now
Banners with null campaign assignments no longer crash the data tables

For developers on PHP 7.4:

Removed a PHP 8.0-only function (str_starts_with) that could cause fatal errors on older PHP versions
The plugin is now verified compatible with PHP 7.4 through 8.3

For power users:

Max impressions and max clicks display correctly in the banner list columns
Image size detection failures no longer cause fatal errors during banner save

🚀 Responsive Layout Redesign

The banner display layout has been completely rewritten using modern CSS flexbox:

Horizontal layout: Banners automatically wrap into 2+ columns on wide screens and stack into a single column on mobile (below 600px)
Vertical layout: Consistent gap spacing between banners
All images: Fully responsive with max-width: 100% — no more overflow on small screens

The old float: left approach is gone. If you've been struggling with banner alignment on mobile devices, this update fixes it.

Getting Started

New to Bannerize? Install it directly from your WordPress dashboard:

Go to Plugins > Add New
Search for "WP Bannerize Pro"
Click Install Now, then Activate
Navigate to WP Bannerize in your admin sidebar to create your first banner

Already using Bannerize? Update from your WordPress dashboard — your banners, campaigns, and analytics data are fully preserved.

Built with WPBones

WP Bannerize Pro is built on the WPBones framework — a Laravel-style architecture for WordPress plugin development. WPBones provides IoC container, service providers, Blade templating, and modern development tools that make building robust WordPress plugins a pleasure.

👉 Learn more about WPBones | GitHub