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Page Composer — Basic

By segorev·
Replaces the default editor on Posts and Pages with the Page Composer visual editor.
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Version
1.6.82
Last updated
Aug 30, 2026
Page Composer — Basic

Page Composer — Basic replaces the default editor on Posts and Pages with the Page Composer visual editor. Compose Posts and Pages from real components (Text, Image, WooCommerce blocks) and render them with the bundled PCEditor library.

Features:

  • Page Composer editor on Posts, Pages and the Page Templates post type.
  • Composed content is stored as JSON in post meta and compiled into wp_posts.post_content as an HTML snapshot on every save — so WordPress search, feeds and other plugins see real page text while the live page always renders fresh from the JSON.
  • Native revisions cover both the snapshot and the JSON (WP 6.4+ revisioned meta) — restoring a revision restores the composition.
  • Page Composer → Reindex: rebuild all snapshots after component-template changes (theme overrides, markup edits) without re-saving every post.
  • Rendering via the PCEditor general library, with theme-overridable templates (drop {Component}.php into your theme’s pce_templates/).
  • Per-component CSS (the css_props field) compiled into media queries.
  • Settings (Editor / Components / Reindex tabs): enable the editor (it replaces the WordPress block editor and Site Editor on Posts and Pages), allowed roles, default Row grid, media-query sizes, and CSS output.
  • Detects conflicting page builders (Elementor, WPBakery, Divi, Beaver Builder, …) and disables the editor with a notice while any is active.
  • Load/Save page templates, stored as a custom post type and re-editable in the editor.
  • WooCommerce components (18) via shortcodes — products, recent/featured/sale/ best-selling/top-rated, by category/attribute, single product, related, add to cart (+ URL), cart, checkout, my account, order tracking.
  • WordPress-widget components (13) — Search, Categories, Recent Posts, Tag Cloud, Archives, Calendar, Menu, Meta, Pages, Recent Comments, RSS, Links, Text.
  • Raw HTML and Raw JS components for embedding custom markup and scripts.
  • Contact Form 7 component (own editor tab) — embed a form by its ID and optional title (offered while the Contact Form 7 plugin is active).
  • Content components: Title (configurable tag + font size), Quote, Separator, CTA Button (colors as CSS variables) and Google map (Maps Embed API key in Settings → Components; keyless embed without one).
  • “Page Composer — Full Width” page template (Page Attributes → Template) — the active theme’s header + footer only, content full-width (classic + block themes).
  • Default Row/Col grid stylesheet loaded in the active theme (disable with the pce_load_grid_styles filter, or override the –pce-grid-* custom properties).
  • Configurable Row column-layout presets (Components → Row layouts) — a visual bar builder, fed to the editor as editor.hooks.filters.components.Row.layouts.
  • Yoast SEO content analysis integration.
  • Filters: pce_components, pce_css_field, pce_editor_enabled, pce_load_assets, pce_load_grid_styles, pce_content_meta_key, pce_pre_save_content, pce_load_content.

No account or API key is needed — activate the plugin and the editor works.

WooCommerce support

Page Composer ships ready-made components for WooCommerce stores: products (recent, featured, on sale, best selling, top rated), products by category or attribute, a single product, related products, add to cart (and its URL), cart, checkout, my account and order tracking. They render through WooCommerce’s own shortcodes, so they appear in the editor only while WooCommerce is installed and active, and they follow your WooCommerce templates and styling. WooCommerce itself is not bundled or required — without it, Page Composer simply omits these components.

Page Composer is an independent product. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Automattic or WooCommerce. “WooCommerce” and “WordPress” are trademarks of their respective owners and are used here only to describe compatibility.

External services

The plugin performs no license or activation calls — no account and no API key are needed, and nothing is sent automatically in the background.

Feedback to page-composer.com (user-initiated only). Two optional forms send data to https://page-composer.com/plugin-feedback, and only when an administrator explicitly submits them:

  • Leave a testimonial (linked from a dismissible admin notice): sends the star rating and testimonial text the admin typed.
  • Deactivation survey (shown when deactivating the plugin; fully skippable via “Skip & deactivate”, which sends nothing): sends the selected reason and the optional description.

Both submissions also include the site’s domain name, the plugin version and the WordPress version, so we can reproduce reported problems. No page content, no personal data and no visitor data is ever sent, and nothing is sent without an explicit form submission. This service is operated by Page-composer.com — see our terms (https://page-composer.com/terms) and privacy policy (https://page-composer.com/privacy).

Google Maps (frontend embed, only if you use the Google map component). When a page contains the Google map component, that page embeds a map in an iframe from google.com — through the Google Maps Embed API when a key is configured under Page Composer → Settings → Components, or Google’s keyless classic embed when it is not. The embed is requested by the visitor’s browser when such a page loads, and carries the map address/coordinates you entered in the component plus the standard request headers the browser sends to any site (IP address, user agent, referrer). The plugin itself sends no data to Google from the server, and pages without this component make no Google requests at all. This service is provided by Google: terms of service (https://policies.google.com/terms), privacy policy (https://policies.google.com/privacy), Google Maps Platform terms (https://cloud.google.com/maps-platform/terms).

Source code

The editor bundle shipped in assets/editor/js/pceditor_wp_basic.js is a standard webpack production build of the Page Composer editor. Bundled third-party libraries (React, ReactDOM and small MIT/ISC utilities) are listed with their licenses in assets/editor/js/pceditor_wp_basic.js.LICENSE.txt; the plugin’s own PHP is unminified throughout. Questions about the build are welcome at sergey@page-composer.com.

Storage hooks

By default the composed JSON lives in the _pce_content post meta, and a compiled HTML snapshot of it is written to wp_posts.post_content on every save (that snapshot is what search/feeds/REST consumers read; the live page renders from the JSON). Three filters customise the storage:

pce_content_meta_key — `filter( string $meta_key )`

Rename the post meta key that holds the JSON (default _pce_content). Applied consistently to every read/write, including revisioning and the Reindex tool. Register it before init priority 10 (top-level in your plugin or in the theme’s functions.php / after_setup_theme) and in every context (admin, frontend, cron) — the one-time storage migration and the revisioned meta registration resolve the key there. Adopting the filter on a site with existing content requires copying the _pce_content meta to the new key yourself.

pce_pre_save_content — `filter( bool $handled, string $json, array $postarr )`

Runs on save (inside wp_insert_post_data). Store $json yourself (a custom table, an external service) and return true; the plugin then writes neither the meta nor the snapshot. $json arrives unslashed and JSON-validated (or empty when the composition was cleared).

pce_load_content — `filter( string $json, WP_Post $post )`

Runs wherever the plugin reads a post’s composition (editor metabox, frontend renderer, Yoast analysis). Receives the meta value as the default; return your stored JSON instead.

Example — rename the meta key:

add_filter( 'pce_content_meta_key', fn () => '_my_composition' );

Example — store the JSON in a custom table:

add_filter( 'pce_pre_save_content', function ( $handled, $json, $postarr ) { my_table_store( (int) $postarr['ID'], $json ); return true; }, 10, 3 ); add_filter( 'pce_load_content', function ( $json, $post ) { $stored = my_table_fetch( $post->ID ); return $stored !== null ? $stored : $json; }, 10, 2 );

The saved page templates (Load/Save window) follow the same storage: JSON in the templates CPT’s meta, snapshot in its post_content. Saved component settings (each component’s Load/Save-settings window) are posts of the pce_comp_templates post type — the component name in _pce_component_tag, the settings JSON in _pce_component_json — the same storage the Pro plugin uses, so an upgrade keeps every saved version. (Pre-existing entries in the old pce_components_store option are migrated automatically once; the option is kept as a downgrade backup until uninstall.)

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