Let’s start with the start. 

What is Elementor? 

Elementor is a Site/Page builder that gives a Drag/Drop flexibility of creating pages in WordPress. All the design elements in Elementor are created by using functionality called WordPress Widgets  – https://wordpress.org/support/article/wordpress-widgets/

Every widget has the following structure 

• Controller – it’s a PHP script to create all the fields for inserting data and work with them 
• Views – it’s a HTML/PHP File that has the HTML Structure 
• Assets – Images/JS/CSS 

How to create and/or update a Widget?

You may have noticed that you cannot build the website with only Widgets from Elementor – especially for those with a custom design, as you are limited from controller to the HTML Structure, JS animations and so on. 

That’s why you have to create a new widget or to extend the functionality of an existing Widget from Elementor (while even if you may want to extend the functionality for a specific widget there is not enough Widgets), also please note that we don’t suggest to extend the functionality of an existing Elementor Widget, as Elementor is doing quite lot of updates and you may need to always update the code which is something almost impossible to control the website. here is a detailed link on how to create a custom Widget in Elementor – https://developers.elementor.com/creating-a-new-widget/

Where all the new Widgets have to be created? 

Based on WordPress code Standard, any functionalities have to be created and saved in the Plugin Territory. Why so, well because the WordPress Theme have to have only Style Elements and Files and not functionality one. 

So Why we need Aheto?

In the process of the creating new Elementor Widget – you will have to create Controller, Views, and Assets, while Views and Assets can be individual for each Website, in most cases Controller section is similar. 

That’s why we have created 34 Widgets that are needed for any websites, and we are just reusing them by making sure we don’t have to retest them any time we create a new website and by making sure everything is based on WordPress Code Standard. 
Below you can find a list with all the Widgets Aheto has: 

1. banner-slider
2. blockquote
3. button
4. call-to-action
5. clients
6. coming-soon
7. contact-forms
8. contact-info
9. contacts
10. contents
11. custom-post-types
12. features-single
13. features-slider
14. features-tabs
15. features-timeline
16. google-map
17. heading
18. Instagram
19. list
20. media
21. navbar
22. navigation
23. portfolio-nav
24. pricing-tables
25. progress-bar
26. recent-posts
27. social-networks
28. team
29. team-member
30. testimonials
31. time-schedule
32. title-bar
33. twitter
34. video-btn

Please note each Controller/Widget has different Layouts.

How these Widgets are different from Elementor Widgets? 

From a programming perspective, they are not different they use exactly the same structure Elementor suggests, but they have more flexibility and the code we created is a standard code to be used and extended to any other page builders. Right now Widgets are supported by Elementor but can be extended to any other Page builders. Also please note, that we have way more widgets than Elementor which should suit any websites.

Why using Aheto instead of creating all the new widgets in the WordPress theme? 

For different reasons: 

1. – Elementor widgets have to be saved in the WordPress Plugin Territory 
2. – Saving time by not building again all the controllers 
3. – Creating quality Code Standard Widgets (this will be explained a little bit later)
4. – Focus only on FrontEnd and not backEnd. 

What is the Layout in Aheto?

We are calling a layout a specific view in a widget, as same Widget can have different styles and because of that we are creating specific layout for that.

How Aheto is handling Everything and how is it different?

I will try to explain first how other WordPress themes based on Elementor are built and how Aheto is handling differently. You may see that in the fact Aheto is all about Code Standard and time savings. 

1. Let’s assume that we have 60 blocks, for each of them you will have to write CSS and JS code – now the Elementor and most WordPress theme will have 1 CSS and 1 JS with everything included which means you will have way way more CSS and JS than needed. How we solved that? For each page we are generating a new css file that is loaded only for that specific page. If you are planning to have 2 blocks on the page you don’t need all the JS and CSS to be loaded for just 2 blocks you need to use only those 2. 
2. Using Global Style for Colors, Typography  – that significantly saves the size of the CSS and it helps to do quick changes – if you are opening any of our layouts in the theme you may see that the CSS inherits the style from Aheto Global Style (we call it Skins).
3. Global Style for Buttons 
4. Easy Code – Because we split everything in the following structure
   1. Controllers 
   2. Views 
   3. Assets 
   4. In order to do any changes you can just check what’s the layout name and change the style for that specific layout. 
5. Time savings – having already a 34 controllers/widgets ready – your focus is on creating the missing Layouts or updating the actual layouts. 

What else Aheto has? 

Aheto is a multifunctional tool to make the site creation process as creative and easy as possible. The plugin is compatible with the 2 most popular WordPress page builders – Elementor and WPBakery and comes with many features:

• Customize the website form
• Customize the website header – (there is no such functionality in Elementor) – you can drag and drop header without knowing any code. 
• Customize the website footer   – (there is no such functionality in Elementor) – you can drag and drop footer without knowing any code. 
• Customize 404 page template – Easy change the 404 page 
• Lazy Load functionality for images – That improves the page speed 
• Customize site preloader
• Possibility to add custom CSS, JS or custom HTML in HEAD tag ( for analytics tools for example) – that helps as instead of adding the JS from 3rd party in the WordPress theme can be added directly in the Aheto 
• Library with lots of beautiful Template Kits for pages, headers, footers and skins
• Import and Export your settings for re-use on (another) blog

 What if I don’t need all the functionality of Aheto 

   You are able to remove all the layouts and widgets from your website.