Beacon — Announcement Bar & Notice Widget for WordPress

Beacon requires WordPress 6.2 or higher and PHP 8.0 or higher. It is built with clean, namespaced, standards-first code, so no page-builder or third-party framework is needed — just a standard WordPress install meeting those versions.

Beacon supports flexible page targeting, letting you show each bar across the entire site, on the front page only, or on specific posts or pages. You can create unlimited bars and give each one its own targeting rule, so different audiences see only the messages relevant to them.

Each bar has its own optional start and end date/time, so you can schedule a sale or shipping-deadline notice to go live and expire automatically. You can also enable a live countdown timer on any bar, giving visitors a real-time display of how long is left before the deadline.

Yes — each bar can be made dismissible, and Beacon uses a browser cookie to remember the visitor's choice for a configurable number of days. Once dismissed, the bar will not reappear until that cookie expires, preventing the same visitor from seeing it repeatedly.

Beacon provides a shortcode — [beacon id="12"] — that you can drop into any post, page, or template to render a specific bar exactly where you want it. Bars are also displayed automatically via a footer hook if you prefer a hands-off approach without editing templates.

Beacon is built with a clean uninstall routine that removes its data from your database when you delete the plugin. The uninstall process includes an option to control whether plugin data is removed, so you stay in full control of your site's data.