Have you ever purchased a theme from ThemeForest or plugin from Codecanyon? You did? Then you know it can be a pain in the ass to update from Envato your purchased WordPress themes and plugins automatically.
ThemeForest and CodeCanyon are two very popular places to buy premium WordPress themes and plugins. Both marketplaces are part of one big which is called Envato.
Envato (formerly Eden) operates a group of digital marketplaces that sell creative assets for web designers, including themes, graphics, video, audio, photography and 3D models.
It has over 1.5 million active buyers and sellers and over 6 million community members. It is a highest-trafficked marketplace. It also offers highly popular Envato Elements service which contains more than 2,000,000 various digital assets. For more info about it you can check my Envato Elements review.
What is Themeforest? ThemeForest is part of Envato Market. At ThemeForest, you can buy and sell HTML templates as well as themes for popular CMSs like WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal.
The site is home to a bustling community of web designers and developers and is the biggest marketplace of its kind.
What is Codecanyon? CodeCanyon is also part of Envato Market. At CodeCanyon, you can purchase and sell scripts and components for a variety of languages and frameworks, currently including JavaScript, PHP, ASP.NET, and Java. You can also buy and sell plugins for popular CMSs including WordPress.
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How To Automatically Update From Envato?
So you bought theme on Themeforest or WP plugin on Codecanyon. One of the challenges that users like you and me face after purchasing a product from these stores is updating.
I have bought a few plugins and themes. Most products found on these marketplaces don’t have license activation which means no automatic updates from WP dashboard.
Each purchase grants you a license for one site. If you would like to use the plugin or theme on more than one website, then you need to buy as many times as sites you wish to use.
As most WordPress plugins and themes on Envato don’t have license activation, you could purchase once and use it on as many sites as you want. But you are not like that. Aren’t you?
Let’s assume you purchased several plugins. With each update, you need to download updated versions and manually update the plugin on your site.
Keeping your WordPress themes and plugins up to date is just as important as updating your core WordPress installation.
If you’re using a free theme or plugin via WordPress.org or have purchased from another marketplace with a license, then you’re probably familiar with the auto-updates via your dashboard and how it makes life much easier.
Typically, when you see a notice in your admin navbar that you have an update, you can go to Dashboard > Updates and all you have to do is confirm the update.
The guys at Envato, however, have found a quick and easy way to install your purchased items directly from your WordPress dashboard!
With the Envato Market plugin updating all of the premium themes and plugins you’ve purchased from Themeforest and Codecanyon can be just as easy as updating from WordPress repository.
Using Envato Market Plugin
The first step is to download the Envato Market plugin. Plugin is available via Github and is completely free.
This will download the zip file with the plugin in it. No need to unzip it. Now that you have the plugin go ahead and log into your WordPress site that you want to add auto-updates to.
To install the plugin navigate to Plugins > Add New and click on the Upload Plugin button at the top of the page. Next, browse for the envato-market.zip file that you downloaded from Github. Then click the button to install.
Now that the plugin is installed and active you should see a new Envato Market menu item in your WordPress dashboard. Here you have two options:
- Global OAuth Personal Token – OAuth is a protocol that lets external apps request authorization to private details in a user’s Envato Market account without entering their password
- Single Use OAuth Personal Tokens – This is especially useful when an item has been purchased on behalf of a third-party
The next step is to sync the Envato Market plugin with your Envato account to have access to all of your marketplace purchases as well as item updates.
Go to Envato API page. Click sign in and login with your existing Envato details. No need to register a new account. The very first step is to create an Envato API token.
To do this, click on the generate a personal token. Give your token a name. Now you need to tick certain permissions to give plugin access to your Envato account once the token is put in Envato market plugin.
You need to tick Enable View and search Envato sites, Download your purchased items, List purchases you’ve made, Verify purchases you’ve made and agree with Terms and Conditions.
Now click on button Create Token.
Once your token is created, you will see a green success screen. Copy your token code because Envato doesn’t store a copy of the token for you.
Now go back to your WordPress site and paste your Envato API token in Envato Market plugin under Global OAuth Personal Token then click save.
If you see an error: “You do not have sufficient permissions to delete transients” just go back to the previous page and try again. It should work on the second go if you have done all steps correctly.
Once your token is saved and validated your page will refresh to show your Envato Market landing page with added tabs for your items. The added tab(s) display all of your theme and plugin purchases as well as their version numbers and quick links to the theme and author pages.
Now when there is a new update, you will be able to automatically update from Envato your theme or plugins within your WordPress dashboard without the need to manually download after each update and then upload to your site/sites.
How To Automatically Update From Envato Your Client Sites?
If you are a web design freelancer or a design agency that purchases themes and plugins for clients, you can use the Envato Market plugin to keep your client’s sites up to date.
You shouldn’t give your client access to all your purchases. Instead, you should use the Single Use OAuth Personal Tokens section.
You’ll first need to install the Envato Market plugin on your client’s site and then create a token by clicking on the generate a personal token link. Make a copy of token just like you would if you were creating your own token.
You’ll also need to locate the Item ID for your client’s theme and/or plugin(s). To find the ID simply go to the Themeforest or Codecanyon item page and copy the numerical ID at the end of the URL.
Now navigate back to the Envato Market page within your client’s site and instead of pasting your token in the available global field click on the Add Item button under Single Use OAuth Personal Tokens. This will open a popup to enter Envato Token and the item ID.
Once you save the item, you can repeat the process to add all of your other purchases for this particular client. Now the WordPress site you’ve been working on will only show the items (and related updates) that you have added.
Non-developers might also want to consider this plugin if you’ve made many Envato purchases over the years and only want to see updates for the items you’re currently using.
Envato Market Auto-Updates for Themes & Plugins Summary
Now that you have the Envato Market plugin installed and synced to your account you will have all of your purchases and item updates at your fingertips. If an update is available for an item you have purchased, you will see an orange notice.
Additionally, if a theme or plugin update is available, you’ll also be able to see it on the core WordPress updates page by clicking on the refresh symbol in your admin navbar or by clicking on Dashboard > Updates.
From here you can process your update per usual by selecting and updating your item. To update your item via the Envato Market plugin just click on the Update Available link in the orange notice to begin installing the update.
If your item is showing the Updating… message for longer than a few minutes or you get some error, refresh the page and try updating again. When the update is complete, you will see a quick green notice that your item has been updated.
Now you will see available updates right from your dashboard which is much more convenient than Envato’s original email method.
Hopefully, in the coming days, we will see more features added to this plugin such as seeing the changelog or an option to search and buy the plugin directly from the dashboard.
For existing CodeCanyon and ThemeForest users, this plugin makes life easier. If you are currently using these marketplaces, I’m sure you will happily welcome the launch of this useful tool.
But this method can also be used for evil…. Ok not exactly for evil. But if you think about it, you could purchase plugin or theme once and use it on all of your sites and receive updates. Or even on your friend, neighbor or client sites.
You just provide them with your API, and they get everything you had purchased on Themeforest or Codecaynon with updates within WP dashboard.
Or they can provide you with their API. Trading and swapping plugins like cards. You would be breaking the TOS you agreed when you made the purchase but hey it is not as they can catch you. At least for now.
But we already established that you are not like that. You are a good person. Honest. You would never do such a thing! Or would you? Hopefully, this guide was helpful and made updating your Themeforest and Codecanyon purchases much easier.
Now over to you. Let me know what products you are using from these marketplaces in the comments below.
DISCLOSURE: Posts may contain affiliate links. If you buy something through one of those links, I might get a small commission, without any extra cost to you. Read more about it here.