Simple Budget Plugin

Simple Budget Plugin is a WordPress plugin for lightweight quote-request flows inside Elementor-based sites. It lets visitors add posts or custom post type items to a local budget cart, review the selected items, remove entries, and send a prebuilt quote request through WhatsApp.

Why It Exists

Many catalog and service websites need quotation requests, not a full WooCommerce checkout. This plugin keeps the site builder workflow intact while adding a focused budget/cart layer for products, services, or any configured custom post type.

Current Capabilities

• Native Elementor widgets:
  • Budget Button for add, toggle, context-aware remove, open cart, close cart, and WhatsApp send actions.
  • Budget Quantity for an accessible numeric input or stepper inside item templates.
  • Budget Listing for built-in or Elementor-templated items, optional calculated summaries, quantity controls, empty state, and item removal.
  • Editor-only Design Preview controls in Budget Listing to emulate cart items while building Elementor templates.
• Contextual Elementor template builder:
  • Create cart modal, budget item, and budget summary templates in Simple Budget > Templates.
  • Compose image, title, description, price, subtotal, adjustment, range, and estimate status with contextual dynamic tags and native Elementor widgets.
  • Select the template directly in a Budget Button configured as Open budget popup.
  • Configure the opener shell as centered modal, side drawer, or bottom sheet.
• Aggregate estimates for fixed, from, range, and hidden prices, including fixed or percentage adjustments and mixed-currency protection.
• Internal setup prompt when an open-cart button has no template selected.
• Configurable allowed post types.
• WhatsApp quote URL generation.
• Modular PHP structure with namespaces and a small autoloader.

Requirements

• WordPress 6.0+
• PHP 7.4+
• Elementor Free 4.0.8 is the compatibility target; Elementor Pro is not required

Setup

1. Copy simple-budget-plugin into wp-content/plugins/.
2. Activate Simple Budget Plugin in WordPress.
3. Open Simple Budget > Configurações SBP and configure the WhatsApp number.
4. Optionally restrict the accepted post types.
5. In Elementor, add Budget Button inside the item/card template.
6. Add Budget Listing where the visitor should review selected items and choose its item and summary modes.
7. Open Simple Budget > Templates to create reusable cart, item, and summary templates, then select them from the corresponding widgets.
8. Add a separate Budget Button configured as Send WhatsApp budget wherever the composition should expose its final action.

Elementor-Only Mode

Version 4 keeps the Elementor-only surface introduced in version 3. The supported surface is now the native Elementor widget flow: Budget Button, Budget Listing, Budget Quantity, and contextual templates managed in Simple Budget > Templates.

If an open-cart button has no template selected, the popup shows a setup prompt that points implementers back to the template builder instead of rendering a legacy cart.

4.0 Migration

The inline WhatsApp submit previously owned by Budget Listing was removed. Existing Listings keep their built-in item layout, but documents that saved show_submit are reported in Simple Budget > Templates until a standalone Budget Button with the Send WhatsApp budget action is added. The plugin does not rewrite Elementor JSON during upgrade.

Repository Status

Version 4.0.0 introduces contextual item and summary templates, dynamic tags, the Budget Quantity widget, aggregate cent-based calculation, composable Listing summaries, stale AJAX response protection, and the explicit inline-send migration described above.

Verification

Run the local verification script before releases:

bash scripts/verify.sh

Set SBP_SKIP_WP_SMOKE=1 to run only syntax and whitespace checks when the local Docker WordPress runtime is unavailable.

License

GPLv2 or later.

Runtime validation and boundaries

The 4.0 server-side smoke suite passed 28 assertions on an isolated WordPress 6.9 / PHP 8.4 / Elementor Free 4.0.8 installation. It exercises template permissions, role validation, contextual rendering, quantity-aware pricing, ranges, mixed currencies, migration detection and fallback rendering. PHP and JavaScript syntax checks also pass. Browser interaction and actual WhatsApp delivery are separate checks; this pass did not send a quote or produce visual captures.

The cart is browser-local state. Calculations are estimates, not an order/payment ledger. WhatsApp submission prepares a link for the visitor; it does not prove delivery or create a checkout transaction.