Obituary Assistant

Description

Obituary Assistant is a free plugin that lets you easily add obituaries to your website. It’s used by hundreds of websites including funeral homes, pet cremation facilities, and newspapers.

Features and Highlights

  • Installs in minutes
  • Obituaries fit seamlessly into the look and feel of your website
  • Add and manage obituaries online, no need to login to WordPress
  • Add obituaries yourself or allow visitors to enter them
  • Free to use and earns you money through flowers, memorial trees, and other customizable revenue streams
  • Fully Search Engine Optimized (SEO) which means your obituaries will be found in Google
  • Add all the photos, videos, and live streams you need
  • Your visitors can leave condolences, share memories, and light candles
  • Approve condolences and visitor content manually or automatically
  • Share obituaries via Facebook, Twitter, email, and text
  • Display your obituaries in the language of your choice
  • Your data is stored and backed up securely in the cloud
  • Contact us to import your existing obituaries into Obituary Assistant for free

Support and a Proven Track Record

  • Our plugin is more 8 years old and has had more than 200 updates with new features and solutions
  • Receive responsive and timely assistance from a trusted technology partner with 20-years experience
  • Contact us for help with installation and support

Obituary Assistant makes it easy to honor the lives of loved ones and connect with the family and community to grow your brand and business.

Screenshots

Installation

To Add Obituary Assistant, inside the WordPress dashboard:

  1. In Plugins, click “Add New”
  2. Search for “Obituary Assistant”
  3. Click “Install Now”
  4. Click “Activate” (“Install Now” will turn to “Activate”)
  5. Find Obituary Assistant in your list of of plugins
  6. Click “Settings”
  7. Fill out the form to sign up for an Obituary Assistant account
  8. Your account login is emailed to you
  9. Create your “Obituaries” page inside WordPress, we suggest the url path: “obituaries”
  10. To the “Obituaries” page, add the shortcode “[obituaries]”.
  11. Publish the “Obituaries” page
  12. In the “Setup” tab, choose the “Obituaries” page in the dropdown menu and click “Save all changes”
  13. Contact us if you need help with the installation

To Publish an Obituary To Your Website:

  • Login using the account information you were emailed above.
  • Click on “Add Obituary” and enter the information for the deceased.
  • Visit the Obituaries page on your website. The obituary you just added will be displayed.

FAQ

How do I install and use Obituary Assistant?

Follow the instructions and watch the videos to “Add Obituary Assistant” and “Publish an Obituary

When obituaries are added, they automatically appear on your website without the need to login to WordPress.

Contact us if you need assistance.

How will my obituaries look?

Your obituaries will look like your current website does.

Obituary Assistant sits inside your WordPress theme and maintains the look of your website template.

Is Obituary Assistant free?

Yes, Obituary Assistant is free to all users including funeral homes, pet cremation facilities, and newspapers around the world.

It comes with built in revenue streams that earn you money. Revenue streams can be customized to suit you.

Can I import my current obituaries?

Yes, we will import your obituaries for free.

We need a ‘csv’ (or Excel) file with your current obituaries to load your obituaries.

Please contact us for assistance with imports.

I have a question that is not answered?

Please see our FAQs or contact us.

Reviews

June 2, 2021
I used this plugin to design a website for a customer of mine back in 2019. The support staff at Obituary Assistant was nothing but HELPFUL! Any issue or misunderstanding I had, the staff would reply in a swift manner making sure I got the help I need. I recommend this plugin and plan to use them again for future funeral home websites.
February 26, 2020
This plugin was used to replace a poorly aging system used by a funeral home. I found it to be well built and easy to customize with CSS. It has all of the modern features that a client would want and is simple and intuitive to use. Support is immediate, helpful, and friendly. Highly recommended.
Read all 4 reviews

Contributors & Developers

“Obituary Assistant” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

“Obituary Assistant” has been translated into 1 locale. Thank you to the translators for their contributions.

Translate “Obituary Assistant” into your language.

Interested in development?

Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.

Changelog

7.3.x

  • Fixed some language and functionality related to share by text, directions by text, share by email, directions by email
  • Fixed bug related to theme font color

7.2.x

  • Added new grid view functionality for obituary listings page.

7.1.x

  • Added Useful Links
  • Small css change for consistent maximum width
  • Bug fix related to international trees

7.0.x

  • Upgraded checkout for sites with secure connections
  • Fixed title bug for sites using divi theme
  • Added meta description tag for better seo
  • Added small styling fix for thrive theme

6.15.8

  • load account type in admin to display trees only in flower delivery

6.15.7

  • fix to display option when using [flower_delivery] short code

6.15.4+

  • Various fixes to the Plant A Tree storefront
  • Price shown on Best Sellers
  • Add to card button added
  • Fixed pluralization display issue in shopping cart (1 Trees -> 1 Tree)
  • Bug fix related to page titles on certain themes

6.15.3

  • fix for Submit an Obituary Error

6.15.x

  • Tree and Flower storefront updates
  • Speed updates related to unnecessary api calls
  • Rewrote custom title code so that api call only happens once
  • Removed extra api call to get funeral home locations

6.14.11

  • Fix tree quantity and wording

6.14.8, 6.14.9, 6.14.10

  • Added random number to outside requests to help with some client caching issues.
  • Fixed bug related to number of times “Send Flowers” / “Send Trees” buttons show up on tribute.
  • Fixed style bug with new theme feature
  • Updated quantity of available trees by region

6.14.7

  • Added ability for theme image to be shown on “Recent Obituaries” and “Obituaries Listings” pages.

6.14.4

  • Check if $post for meta overrides in obituaries.php is null

6.14.2, 6.14.3

  • Minor bug fixes for php 8.3

6.14.1

  • Fix for chosen date format in admin showing for Condolences and tributes

6.14.0

  • Tested for PHP 8.3
  • Tested for WordPress 6.4.3
  • replaced “/” with home_url() for obituary links to allow for subfolders
  • replaced strftime() with date_parse() for events date
  • fixed categories not being defined for flower titles
  • defined checkout variables
  • defined count(array)for dates array to display in checkout
  • added facility_id to product pages
  • fix for check cart for trees
  • fix for tree certificate not emailed to the recipient

6.13.x

  • Fixed currency symbols for international trees

6.12.x

  • Added fix for All In One SEO overriding title and facebook og meta tags
  • Added fix for The7 Theme adding additional facebook og meta tags

6.11.x

  • Added international tree planting. Related bug fixes.

6.10.x

  • Updates to tree planting options. Trees added to ‘Best Sellers’. Allow flower substitutions. Various bug fixes.

6.9.x

  • Added best sellers to flower categories

6.8.0

  • Added ability to turn off user submitted photos and condolences for particular obituaries.

6.7.0

  • Bug fix related to search

6.6.x

  • Strip any HTML from Facebook description meta tag, obituary text preview on main obituaries page, separate paragraphs with a space.

6.5.x

  • Front End changes related to Obituary Assistant photo / video processing changes. This is a mandatory update for users to continue using plugin without issue.

6.2.9

  • define OBITUARY_ASSISTANT_VERIFYPEER in fhw-solutions-obituaries.php variable for CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER

6.2.8

  • resolve for not being able to delete condolences
  • resolve for QR code not showing when selecting send flowers or plant trees on the obituaries page
  • resolve for bad gateway message on Submit an Obituary page

6.2.7

  • fixes for php 8 and openssl 3.0 warnings and errors for sign up and account information in admin settings

6.2.6

  • fix for adding Select Your Own Number of Trees to cart

6.2.5

  • important phase two fix for servers using openssl update to 3.0
  • flower and tree options fix
  • admin

6.2

  • important phase one fix for servers using openssl update to 3.0
  • obituary listing, view details, and recent obituaries

6.1.7, 6.1.6, 6.1.5

  • added logic to obituary_assistant_dq_override_post_title function to not populate title when on /obituary-submission to remove can’t trace errors.

6.1.4

  • added version number to api calls

6.1.2, 6.1.3

  • replace the born date with the deceased date for recent obits

6.1.1

  • fix for compression of fhw-solutions-obituaries-main.js, added ‘;’ on line 364

6.1.0

  • Fix for OBITUARY_SUBSCRIPTION shortcode to display Subscribe to Obituaries on any page
  • Change of class for Facebook and Twitter share to avoid conflicts with other popups
  • Change of styling for Recent Obituaries to align rows using CSS flex
  • Remove title if no text for Obituary
  • Creation of sections for Obituary to have proper spacing if sections are not displayed

6.0.0

Moved to Obituary-Assistant branding / obituary-assistant.com links and api endpoints

5.9.34

  • moved image closer to text on obituaries listing
  • moved obituary name and date above theme, if used

5.9.32, 5.9.33

  • pet mode changed related to obituary submission by families functionality

5.9.31

  • added obituary submission by families functionality

5.9.30

  • disallow autocomplete on recipient page, as it was being filled incorrectly

5.9.29

  • fixed encoding bug on orders

5.9.28

  • fix for flower modal on mobile not scrolling down, scrollable added

5.9.27

  • removal of flower modal / popup footer and checkout button
  • removal of scroll with the flower modal / popup footer and checkout button

5.9.26

  • Bug fix related to tree page wording

5.9.25

  • change to Twitter share URL to allow it to show and display card; some URLs were not showing on some sites with the use of $_SERVER[SCRIPT_URI]

5.9.24

  • Fix for social media share conflict with Yoast, display preview image and text
  • Twitter meta-information added to the header to display card, preview image and text

5.9.22, 5.9.23

  • Improved tree product page

5.9.21

  • Display Obituary Archive link on obituaries page if set in the Funeral Home Information in Admin

5.9.20

  • Tested for WordPress 6.0 update
  • Purchases for a loved one are shown as tributes under the condolences and tributes tab
  • Loved ones can choose in checkout to show their message and name under tributes
  • fix not to display the send flowers and plant trees buttons for obituaries where flowers are disabled
  • use the correct placeholder for sharing by email address popup modal
  • fix to allow for quotes in loved ones’ names to appear in the checkout
  • display shortcodes for optional setup, recent obituaries (create with options), obituary subscription, and standalone Flower Storefront
  • update email validation for checkout
  • counter for number of Tributes
  • counter for videos & photos in tab shown in the navigation
  • remove the LM link if the LM button is removed
  • scroll to enter a memory in condolences when the side button is clicked
  • increased width of the search box on the list of obituaries. Search icon shows from mobile.
  • close popup only after checkout is shown
  • show items purchased on thank you page

5.9.17

  • fix client Id, referring Id for Trees in checkout

5.9.16

  • fix to text under Select Your Own Number of Trees

5.9.15

  • improved look and functionality to plant trees, display by country
  • remove bullets from the navigation
  • add rows to obituary pagination to fix wrapping

5.9.12

  • fix console error when not on the obituary detail page, using jQuery listener

5.9.11

  • Fix more button on flower category pages not loading more flowers
  • center more button on flower category pages

5.9.10

  • Accessibility option to change text size
  • Using see more instead of pagination for flowers category pages
  • Navigation moved to a full row above obituary container
  • Wrapping style added to share buttons
  • styling for gallery and services improvement
  • styling for condolences submit button improvement

5.9.6

  • Obituary more and previous fix to show in other languages

5.9.5

  • compatible with wordpress 5.9
  • fix for php 8 error when [obituary-assistant-show-recent-obituaries] has not attributes
  • fix for error thrown when no recent obituaries are loaded

5.9.3

  • ability to show time for events in 24 hour format

5.9.2

  • revise allow for a loving memorial button to appear on obituaries

5.9.1

  • allow for a loving memorial button to appear on obituaries

5.9.0

  • loving memorials integration code for client and obituary

5.8.8

  • resolve error in full obituary view details

5.8.7

  • styling addition for tab content, buttons, rows and select dropdown to avoid template css clashes

5.8.6

  • width added for the first column in condolences
  • plugin style sheets priority set to come after template styles

5.8.5

  • Styling addition to videos tag, allow videos on templates that add a style attribute to show
  • Styling modification to the search box on obituaries list. Increase text size and remove width for the search button
  • Styling Modification to condolences, one column on mobile. Columns will change by container size vs viewport
  • Styling modification to the shopping cart. One column if modal width is under 600px

5.8.0

  • Allow for Sender Display Name to be entered and displayed on Tree Certificate
  • Make checkout one column and change display of Select Delivery Method for mobile
  • Remove focus on error fields

5.7.5

  • Allow obituaries list to be in column for mobile
  • Increase size of image for obituaries list

5.7.1

  • Remove double – select – in state/province dropdown
  • Correct validation for postal code for international orders (outside US or CA)

5.7.0

  • Allows for international orders
  • Allows for additional countries in addition to CA and US in countries in Bill To information
  • Conditional fields based on the country selected for Postal Code and State

5.6.6

  • remove automatic cycling of the gallery for videos and images
  • remove double stream link on Obituary & Services tab

5.6.5

  • Validation and trimming for all checkout inputs after focusing out of field
  • phone validate number for at least 10 digits
  • email validate for @ “.”

5.6.3

  • resolves items not being added to cart with removing script for checking version in console log

5.6.2

  • resolves start time only not showing for services and events

5.6.1

  • improvements to flower menu style on mobile and desktop
  • html tags stripped out for obituary preview on obituaries page
  • show white text on events for date

5.6.0

  • allows for live stream videos to be embedded or shown as links in Obituary & Services and or Photo & Video tabs
  • allows adding live stream link to an event
  • adds white background to input fields
  • tested for php 8

5.5.8

  • adds email verfication for obituaries subscriptions
  • removes texting option for obituaries and individual obituary subscriptions
  • resolves obituaries pagination error when changing pages

5.5.7

  • resolves display conflict with obituary and website template

5.5.6

  • resolves services not showing for individual obituary

5.5.5

  • resolves error when no data for checkout is stored by checking local storage first
  • allow for size change to be seen on shopping cart pop up / modal

5.5.3

  • resolve flowers css styling not showing using the shortcode

5.5.2

  • resolves small text size by using em rather than rem (root font-size)
  • changes to step size for text size increase and decrease size buttons, size does not go smaller then base set size
  • allows text increase and decrease in pop up / modals

5.5.0

  • Compatible with WordPress 5.8
  • Resolves pop up / modal backdrop conflicts
  • Resolves pop up / modal being under other items on the website
  • Allows user to move pop up / modal
  • Update messages for Obituary Assistant on the plugin list

5.4.1

  • Added functionality to additional buttons for obituaries to allow for opening in another window

5.4.0

  • A new light weight jQuery captcha for subscriptions, directions, and sharing
  • Change messages for successful and duplicate subscription to all and individual obituaries
  • Left and right padding added for obituaries detail pages

5.3.8

  • Fix for conflicting modal classes css moved in code

5.3.7

  • fix uploading of photos
  • Allow adding same product multiple times to cart

5.3.6

  • Boostrap JS

5.3.5

  • SVG class
  • Reload style for public display for modal

5.3.1

  • Remove style in every obituaries list and add to page once
  • Reload style for public display for modal

5.3.0

  • Text size option for Individual Obituaries
  • Resolve conflict of modal
  • Fix for Gallery Conflict with Slick
  • Use em dash css for name on Condolences list
  • Remove white background for Condolences list

5.2.5

  • Choose default or custom colors for flower store front
  • Videos and Images listed separate in photo and videos

5.2.1

header change

5.2.0

Flowers navigation Styling improvement

5.1.1

Style change to popup

5.1.0

  • Mobile styling for theme header and navigation improved
  • Template styling used for links and buttons
  • Flower navigation improvement and integration with flower storefront colors

5.0.1

Modifications on Photo Gallery

5.0.0

  • Style and responsiveness improvements using Bootstrap 5.0
  • Full header image visible and sizes to device
  • Responsive sidebar with a new style for buttons
  • More spacing between header, sidebar, and navigation
  • Alignment of condolences, using same size candles or comment icons
  • Larger photo and video gallery with clickable thumbnails that open an individual popup/modal
  • new and consistent alert styles
    Send Flowers Changes
  • Navigation items separated by space
  • My cart displays the number of items in the cart
  • Spacing increase between individual product images and description
  • Individual products viewed in popup/modal, add to cart displays shopping cart in popup/modal
  • New look shopping cart displays the image of the product
  • One-page checkout with new look shopping cart

4.11.2

Removal of second upload button in Photos and Video tab

4.11.1

Important payment key change

4.11.0

Added plant a tree in loving memory option for Funeral & Sympathy