=== Benevolent ===

Contributors: raratheme
Requires at least: 6.2
Requires PHP: 7.4
Tested up to: 6.9
Stable tag: 1.4.1
License: GPLv2 or later
License URI: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html
Tags: blog, two-columns, right-sidebar, footer-widgets, education, custom-background, custom-menu, featured-image-header, featured-images, post-formats, threaded-comments, translation-ready, full-width-template, theme-options, e-commerce

== Description ==

Benevolent is an easy to use, clean modern and  flexible multipurpose theme.   Although the theme was designed with nonprofit organizations in mind , the theme is very versatile and can be used by any business websites, digital agency, consultancy, corporate business, freelancers, and bloggers. The theme is SEO friendly with optimized codes, which  make it easy for your site to rank on Google and other search engines. Benevolent comes with several features to make user-friendly, interactive and visually stunning website. Such features include custom menu with Call to Action Button, advance full width slider,  community section, Stats counter,  Client Section, Banner with Call to Action Button  (CTA),  and social media. It has four footer area and a right sidebar and includes  four custom widgets for the recent posts, popular posts, social media and the featured post. The theme is rigorously tested and optimized for speed and faster page load time and has a secure and clean code. The theme is also translation ready. Designed with visitor engagement in mind, Benevolent helps you to easily and intuitively create professional and appealing websites. Check the demo at https://rarathemes.com/previews/?theme=benevolent/, documentation at https://docs.rarathemes.com/docs/benevolent/ and get support at https://rarathemes.com/support-forum/.


== Installation ==
        
1. In your admin panel, go to Appearance > Themes and click the Add New button.
2. Click Upload and Choose File, then select the theme's .zip file. Click Install Now.
3. Click Activate to use your new theme right away.

== Documentations ==
1. Setting up the Homepage
    * To set up the homepage you must first create a new page. 
    * Create a new Page
    * Go to Pages > Add New.
    * Enter the Page Title for the Page
    * You do not require to enter anything in the content section for creating a home page. 
    * Select the Homepage Template from the Page Attributes section 
    * Click Publish.

2. Intro Section
    * Go to Appearance>Customizer>Home Page Settings>Intro Section
    * Check Enable Intro Section
    * Enter  Intro Section Title, Intro SectionContent,Intro Titles, Intro Link Labels, Intro URLs and their respective Logos and Images. 
    * Click Save & Publish.

3. Community Section
    * Go to Appearance>Customizer>Home Page Settings>Community Section
    * Check Enable Community Section.
    * EnterCommunity Section Title 
    * Select Post One, Post Two,  Post Three and Post Four.  The Feature Image of the selected posts will be displayed under the section on the Homepage.
    * If the selected post don't have featured image the post will not be displayed in Community section. So, the featured image must be added to the respective posts.
    * Click Save & Publish.

4. Stats Counter Section
    * Go to Appearance>Customizer>Home Page Settings>Stats Counter Section
    * Check Enable Stats Counter Section.
    * Enter Stats Counter Numbers and Stats Counter Titles
    * Click Save & Publish.

5. Blog Section:
    * Go to Appearance>Customizer>Home Page Settings>Blog Section
    * Check Enable Blog Section.
    * Check Show Blog Date to display the published date 
    * Enter Blog Section Title, Blog Section Contentand Blog Section read more Text
    * Click Save & Publish.

6. Sponser Section
    * Go to Appearance>Customizer>Home Page Settings>Sponser Section
    * Check Enable Sponser Section.
    * Upload Logo and enter Logo URL
    * Click Save & Publish.

7. Promotional Section
    * Go to Appearance>Customizer>Home Page Settings>Promotional Section
    * Check Enable Promotional Section
    * Enter Promotional Section Title, Button text and Button URL.
    * Upload Background Image.
    * Click Save & Publish.

8. Donate Button
    * Go to Appearance>Customize>Donate Button.
    * Enter Button Text and Button URL
    * Enter Save & Publish.

9. Slider Settings
    * Go to Appearance >Customize>Slider Settings.
    * Check Enable Home Page Slider to show the featured slider the homepage
    * Select the category of posts which you want to display in the slider. (Featured images of the posts of the selected category will be displayed as slider images. )
    * Featured images of posts should be at least 1920 px in width and 970px in the height for displaying slider images properly.
    * Use regenerate thumbnail plugin to crop all the images if you have already uploaded the Images.
    * Click Save & Publish

10. Configuring Slider 
    * Check Enable Slider to Auto Transition for the slides to transition automatically (auto-scroll) without a click. 
    * Check Enable Slider Loop to continue the slide transition in the loop
    * Check Enable Slider Control to allowmanual navigation for paging control of each slide?
    * Check Enable Slider Caption to show the post title to appear on the slider post image
    * Check Enable Slider Thumbnailto show the tiny thumbnail feature images of the slider Posts to appear at the bottom
    * Select the slider animation type to "fade" or "slide"
    * Enter the Readmore text to set the text of the button  
    * Enter Slider Speed: Set the Interval (in milliseconds) at which the slider should change posts(if automatic transition is enabled). Default: 7000 (7 seconds) 
    * Enter Animation  Speed: Set the speed of animations, in milliseconds. Default: 600  
    * Click Save.
    
11. Breadcrumb Settings
    * Go to Appearance>Customizer>Breadcrumb Settings
    * Check Enable Breadcrumb
    * Check Show Current, if you wish to display the current Page on the breadcrumb.
    * Enter Breadcrumb Home Text
    * Enter Breadcrumb Separator
    * Click Save & Publish.

12. Custom CSS Settings
    * Go to Appearance >Customize>Custom CSS settings.
    * Enter the required custom CSS. For example, to change the body font size to 17 Pixels:body{font-size: 17px}
    * Click Save & Publish.

Webfonts Loader
Benevolent local fonts feature is based on Webfonts Loader by WordPress Themes Team (WPTT). (https://github.com/WPTT/webfont-loader)
License: MIT
Source: https://github.com/WPTT/webfont-loader/blob/master/LICENSE

== Copyrights and License ==

Unless otherwise specified, all the theme files, scripts and images are licensed under GPLv2 or later


External resources linked to the theme.

# Images
All images are under Creative Commons Public Domain deed CC0.    

Source:
    - https://pxhere.com/en/photo/890073

License: CCO
    - https://pxhere.com/en/license

Other images are self taken or self created and are GPL compatible.

# Benevolent bundles the following third-party resources:
 
    * normalize.css, Copyright 2012-2016 Nicolas Gallagher and Jonathan Neal
        - License: MIT
        - Source: https://necolas.github.io/normalize.css/

    * Font Awesome icons, Copyright Dave Gandy
        - Icons License: CC BY 4.0 
        - Fonts License: SIL OFL 1.1 
        - Source: https://fontawesome.io/

    * TGMPA, Copyright (c) 2011, Thomas Griffin
        - License: GPL-2.0+
        - Source: https://tgmpluginactivation.com/

    * Owl-carousel, Copyright 2013-2017 David Deutsch 
        - License : MIT, Version 2.2.1
        - Source  : https://owlcarousel2.github.io/OwlCarousel2

    * Owl Carousel v2 Accessibility Layer, © Geoffrey Roberts 2016
        - License : MIT
        - Source  : https://github.com/rtrvrtg/owlcarousel2-a11ylayer/blob/master/LICENSE

    * Jquery Counterup, Copyright 2013, Benjamin Intal
        - License: GPL-2.0+, Version 1.0
        - Source: https://github.com/bfintal/Counter-Up

    * waypoint, Copyright (c) 2011-2014 Caleb Troughton
        - License: MIT License
        - Source: https://github.com/imakewebthings/jquery-waypoints

All other resources and theme elements are licensed under the GPLv2 or later
Some codes are taken from Twenty Twenty theme - https://wordpress.org/themes/twentytwenty/

Benevolent WordPress Theme, Copyright Rara Theme 2015, rarathemes.com
Benevolent WordPress Theme is distributed under the terms of the GPLv2 or later


*  This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
   but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
   MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
   GNU General Public License for more details.
   
   
== Changelog ==

    1.4.1 - April 01, 2026
    * Fix: Updated PHP to 7.4.

    1.4.0 - Feb 6, 2026
    * Update: Added the security measures for Broken Access Control.

    1.3.9 - January 20, 2026
    * Fix: Translation loading early issue has been fixed.

    1.3.8 - August 09, 2024
    * Update: New dashboard has been implemented for better user experience.

    1.3.7 - March 26, 2024
    * Update: Fontawesome library has been updated supporting new Twitter logo.

    1.3.6 - Feb 8, 2024
    * Update: Admin ajax request issue solved.

    1.3.5 - January 31, 2024
    * Update: Added nonce to the custom admin notice to avoid CSRF vulnerability.

    1.3.4 - June 20, 2023
    * Updated: Relevant tags for the theme has been added.
    
    1.3.3 - April 07, 2023
    * Fixed : Accessibility issue is fixed.
    * Modified: Header markup is modified.
    
    1.3.2- August 09, 2022
    * Update: Updated Font Awesome library to version 6.1.1.
    * Update: Load google font locally.
    * Added: Feature to preload and flush the locally loaded google fonts.
    * Added: Tiktok on social settings and RARA:social links widgets.
    * Fixed: TGMPA plugin installation issue for php 8.
    * Removed: Schema function for single post.

    1.3.1
    * Fixed: Breadcrumb fixes for category
    * Fixed: Fixed escaping issue and theme check issue
    * Modified: Header function made pluggable

    1.3.0
    * Removed widget block editor for WordPress 5.8
    * Fixed menu design issue
    
    1.2.9
    * Fixed jQuery deprecated warnings
    * Added link underline in single page and single post

    1.2.8
    * Fixed empty div issue when button text is empty
    * Fixed typo error
    * Added underline in link in single post and in single page

    1.2.7
    * Fixed counterUp issue 

    1.2.6
    * Fixed menu accessibility
    * Added static page title when hompage sections are disabled

    1.2.5
    * Fixed calendar widget design issue for WordPress 5.4.2
    * Fixed menu accessibility
    * Fixed schema issue 
    * Added static page content when homepage sections are disabled
    * Added tested up to and require php in style header
    * Replaced owl carousel aria with owlcarousel2 a11ylayer
    * Updated breadcrumbs
    * Changed demo link
    * Removed publisher and image from schema

    1.2.4
    * Added fallback svg.
    * Added comment fields as required.
    
    1.2.3
    * Fixed api error in admin screen.
    * Menu accessibility for Microsoft Edge fixed.
    
    1.2.2
    * Added accessibility requirement for Skip Links, Keyboard navigation, Controls and Form labeling..
    * Added Getting started page.
    * Changed Documentation links.

    1.2.1
    * Added wp_body_open action.
    * Validated readme.txt file.
    * Changed raratheme.com to rarathemes.com.

    1.2.0
    * Added feature to open link on new tab in homepage intro section.
    * Added fallback image for homepage blog section.
    * Made footer link no-follow.

    1.1.9
    * Updated fontawesome to version 5.6.3.
    * Responsive devices header improved.

    1.1.8
    * Instagram Icon from the widget issue fixed.
    * benevolent_excerpt_more() function revamp.
    * FontAwesome CSS updated according to the lastest version.
    * Sidr menu replaced with the custom menu.

    1.1.7
    * Font Awesome updated to 5.3.1.
    * Update Blog Section excerpt issue.

    1.1.6
    * Translate text on tmgp file.

    1.1.5
    * Fixed fontawesome issue.
    * Updated screenshot.
    
    1.1.4
    * Privacy Policy link and WP Comment Cookies Consent features were added for WordPress 4.9.6 installation

    1.1.3
    * Replaced lightslider with owl-carousel for slider
    * Added minified files for all js and css
    * Added schema for SEO

    1.1.2
    * Download Zip added in the information links in the customizer.
    * TGMPA added.

    1.1.1
    * Footer responsive fixed.
    * Homepage Label issue fixed after wp version 4.9.
    * Custom CSS settings removed after wp version 4.7.
    * Woocommerce Compatible

    1.1.0
    * Made theme RTL compatible.
    * Added front-page.php so that home page can be setup without choosing page template.
    * Added Footer settings option on customizer.

    1.0.9
    * Fixed unwanted code in the header.
    
    1.0.8
    * Fixed Footer Column.
    * Widgets Updated. 

    1.0.7
    * Remove fixed logo image size. 
    * Added Information section in customizer.
    
    1.0.6
    * Fix minor design issues
    * Fix blank menu icon in responsive design.    
    
    1.0.5
    * Fix the issue of excerpt in the blog section.
    
    1.0.4
    * Changed screenshot
    * Corrected grammatical mistakes in description 

    1.0.3
    * Added social setting and social icons in header.
    * Added secondary navigation in the header.
    * Fix issues mentioned in theme trac.
    
    1.0.2
    * Made string translatable in placeholder of comments.php
    * Data escaped in all widgets.
    * Change the content width to support content in full width.
    
    1.0.1
    * Added Popular Post and Social Links Widgets.
    * Added ability to add Custom CSS in theme options.
    * Added compatibility for custom logo feature.
    * Added comment_template in page.php
    * Updated and integrated new theme tags in style.css