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Release Notes – WP Ultimo 1.5.0 & WooCommerce Integration 1.1.0

Hello, everyone! Version 1.5.0 is here!

It solves a large number of issues being experienced by some users as well as implement long-awaited features from our roadmap. It also implements the necessary changes necessary to allow us to further develop WP Ultimo: Plugin and Theme Manager to include package sales.

Fixes & Improvements Overview

We fixed the issue some users were having with disk space not updating after an upgrade/downgrade. The original Network URLs are now added to the allowed list to prevent CORS issues when loading assets on mapped domains and more and more edge cases are covered in the SSL handling.

Another major fix was making the create_user function in the signup timezone sensitive. That prevents delays on Stripe and PayPal, resolving situations where a charge would take a few hours to process after a user integrated due to timezone differences, effectively locking the user out of his/her own site even after he/she initiated the payment process.

Multiselect fields on our Settings page are now sortable. Templates can now be sorted into the order the admin wants them to be displayed for the user on the front-end.

Manual Gateway

Our Manual Gateway now handles change in plans more consistently and now checks if it needs to send the invoice right after integration, to prevent the same delay issue described above.

The Instructions to Pay field is now a WP Editor field with basic HTML support. A link called “Instructions to Pay” was added to the billing history below the pending payment line that when clicked opens a modal with the contents of the Instructions. Keep in mind that those instructions are also printed at the bottom of invoices – where HTML is not supported – so in that context, HTML tags will be removed.

Domain Mapping and SSL

In order to keep the Network Settings tab cleaner, we moved all the settings related to Domain Mapping and SSL to their own separate settings tab. A handy summary table was also added to that tab, to help admins visualize how the different settings interfere with each other.

Geo-location Restrictions

Starting from version 1.5.0, admins will now be able to restrict sign-ups geographically. You can select the list of Countries you want to allow and only users located in that country will be able to sign-up.

Restricted Content Shortcode

Although we like to make clear that WP Ultimo IS NOT a membership-restrict-content-type plugin, we added a simple shortcode for restricting content. It can be used to display information selectively to subscribers on the main site or to decide whether or not an ad should be displayed to users accessing that site. More information about that shortcode can be found in the dedicated knowledge base post: https://docs.wpultimo.com/knowledge-base/shortcodes/

Password Strength Meter

Now there is a filter available to activate the default password strength meter for the signup flow. More information about how to achieve that can be found in the dedicated knowledge base article: https://docs.wpultimo.com/knowledge-base/adding-a-strength-meter-to-password-fields

WooCommerce Integration – Version 1.1.0

This version of WooCommerce Integration implements upgrade/downgrade and fixes a number of issues, making it more stable overall.

It also addresses the issue of having to have WooCommerce Network Active for it to work. Now, WooCommerce payments are possible even if WooCommerce is activated only in the main site of the network.

Complete Changelog – Version 1.5.0 – 04/11/2017

– Fixed: Manual Gateway handling upgrades and downgrades;
– Fixed: Change plan sometimes not updating the disk space quota of blogs;
– Fixed: Added edge case to domain mapping and the get_scheme function, to allow more flexibility to sub-domains installs using mapped domains;
– Fixed: Manual Gateway now checks if it should send the invoice on integration;
– Fixed: Incompatibility with Sitemap generators (thanks, Aron Prins =D);
– Fixed: Now WP Ultimo adds the original URL to the allowed cross-origin access array, to further prevent CORS issues;
– Fixed: Issue with sign-up redirects not being exact;
– Fixed: Relative time string on the Subscription page now support time spans larger than one year;
– Fixed: When the copy media option is disabled, we now remove the attachment posts related to each media file;
– Fixed: Small issue with creating new sites in some specific database environments;
– Fixed: Setup wizard link on the Mercator error message was broken;
– Fixed: We now check if the Stripe API was already loaded, to prevent fatal errors;
– Fixed: User creation now is timezone-sensitive, preventing delays in invoices and payments;
– Fixed: Spacing of integration buttons fixed;
– Improved: Multi-select fields on the Settings now can be sorted. That allow users to change the order of the allowed templates, for example;
– Improved: New option ‘display_force’ added to password fields. If checked, it adds a strength checker below the password field. More information: https://docs.wpultimo.com/knowledge-base/adding-a-strength-meter-to-password-fields/
– Improved: Form Fields helper function now gives the option to change the default value of the billing frequency field;
– Improved: Applied number_format to statistics widgets;
– Improved: “Instructions to Pay” field on Manual Gateway now supports is now a WP Editor field;
– Improved: Updated the Dutch language files – Thanks, Aron Prins;
– Improved: Moved the Domain Mapping and SSL settings to their own Settings Tab;
– Improved: SSL Settings Summary widget on the Settings page to help visualizing the SSL configuration;
– Added: Geo-location block added;
– Added: Restricted Content shortcode for plans and default content; More information: https://docs.wpultimo.com/knowledge-base/shortcodes/
– Added: New shortcode with the front-end URL of a user’s site for the create account template email (WP Ultimo -> Emails);
– Added: Option to enable/disable SSO with enabled as the default behavior;
– Added: Manual Gateway now displays link to a modal containing Instructions to Pay in the pending payment row in the Billing History widget;
– Added: Table Updater checker added, to make sure custom tables are always in sync with their latest version;

Release Notes – WP Ultimo 1.4.0: A step towards building the Ultimate Subscription-based Network Solution

Hi, everyone!

Version 1.4.0 is here and it represents a major step towards making WP Ultimo the all-in-one solution for building premium networks.

This version is all about the Sign-up Process.

It implements template overrides, a new API for adding steps and fields on the sign-up flow, a complete redesign of how the sign-up flow processes account creation, with two very handy functions, custom signup URL, and much more!

Sign-up Flow

Templates overrides

We realize the importance of making WP Ultimo as customizable as we can. Each and every one of our customers wants to provide a customized experience to their users. That being said, having dozens of premium services with the exact same sign-up page design (the WP Ultimo sign-up page) does little to offer that WOW feeling we all want to give potential clients.

In order to address this “lack of customization” problem, we implemented template overrides in WP Ultimo.

How does that work? It is simple. WP Ultimo now uses WordPress template hierarchy to selectively load view templates for its pages. It will first check your theme’s directory for template files and only if it does not find anything it will load the default templates shipped with it.

Don’t like that way the pricing tables look? Just copy the pricing-table.php from wp-ultimo/views/signup/pricing-table/pricing-table.php to your_active_theme_folder/wp-ultimo/signup/pricing-table, make some changes and voilá: WP Ultimo will load that file instead of the original one.

WP Ultimo supports template overriding for all the templates inside wp-ultimo/views/signup and wp-ultimo/views/emails, so you can have total control over the sign-up process and how your emails look. Overriding of widgets inside the dashboard should be added soon!

Customized Sign-up page URL

You can also change the URL of the sign-up page to anything you want, from now on, replacing the old wp-signup.php.

Hide plan selection step for single-plan sites

Many premium networks offer a single pricing option. For those networks, it does not really make sense to have a plan selection step during checkout. Networks admins now have an option to skip the plan selection step altogether if they only have one plan in the platform.

Steps/Fields API and Customizer Form Builder

In order to provide even more flexibility, we completely redesigned the way WP Ultimo generates and displays its steps during sign-up. The API for custom fields was simplified and we now have two functions to handle sign-up extensibility: wu_add_signup_step() and wu_add_signup_field(). No more hooking into 3 different hooks as it used to be.

As a quick example, adding a new signup step to gather the client’s first and last name is as simple as the code snippet shown below:

Saving and Retrieving Data

All the extra fields added to the sign-up flow get saved as default WordPress user meta data. That means that you don’t have to do anything else in order to save the contents of the extra fields you’ve added to the signup. It just works. This data can then be retrieved using standard WordPress functions like get_user_meta.

We also added a handy shortcode to display that information on the front-end: [wu_user_meta]. It takes a user_id argument (which you can leave blank as it defaults to the current site’s owner id) and meta_name, which describes the name of the meta info you want to retrieve. To get the user’s last name, for example, you would simply add a [wu_user_meta meta_name=”last_name”].

Another advantage of this approach is that WordPress already uses meta data to store major information about the user. If you create fields that match the specific keys used by WordPress, that information will get automatically updated. That means that in order to update the First and Last Name fields on the user profile’s page, you can just create two fields with the ids of first_name and last_name, like in the example above.

Customizer Support

Having a neat way of adding steps and fields with simple functions is helpful, but we would like to take this one step further. WordPress comes equipped with a powerful customization tool – the Customizer – and WP Ultimo should be able to take advantage of it by allowing network admins to add, rename and reorder steps and fields directly on the customizer with live preview support.

Version 1.4.0 starts to implement those functionalities with Step Renaming and Reordering. Everything else is in place and we should be able to release adding new steps and fields directly from the customizer in the next couple of versions, a few days from now. As you can see in the demo below, the Customizer picks up custom steps added via the functions described earlier.

Also, starting on version 1.4.0, all the styling options are mirrored on the customizer, meaning that you can now have instant feedback as you change colors and other elements.

This first version of our Customizer Support can be accessed via the button present on WP Ultimo Settings -> Styling.

Coupon Codes

Part of the coupon code handling was refactored in version 1.4.0. Network admins can now select between 3 different Coupon Code behaviors: disabled, coupon codes via URLs only (?coupon=CODE on the sign-up link) – where no field will be displayed on the sign-up form -, and allow coupon codes both via URL and via the sign-up field.ç

Copying the share link for the coupon code is much easier now and it can be done directly from the list table or on the Coupon edit’s page.

Important: There is a backwards-compatibility break in the coupon handling: URLs containing coupon codes are now yoursite.com/…/?coupon=CODEHERE and not yoursite.com/…/?coupon_code=CODEHERE, as it was in previous versions. If you have links with coupon codes somewhere you should update the URL.

Plain Emails

WP Ultimo now allows you to send emails on a plain email template. This is useful if you plan to use any third-party plugin for email template customization. And just to remember you, these email templates can be swapped using the new template overrides functionality we discussed above.

General Fixes

A number of small fixes were solved in version 1.4.0, including broken URL and paragraphs handlers on the Broadcast Emails. WP Ultimo now only displays broadcasts published after a user on the target group registered, preventing new users from being bombarded by all the previously published Broadcasts.

Under-the-hood improvements

We’ve compartmentalized the process of creating new accounts on WP Ultimo into two different stages: user creation and site creation. That change will allow us to add the option of letting clients create only users (with no associated sites, like WP Multisite normally allows them to) in the future. Logs on the system info page can also be deleted and downloaded now. Despite PHP inability to handle async processes, we managed to use a new technique to allow our screenshot scraper to work without taking your site down up to 80 templates at a time.

What’s next?

The priorities on our list are finishing up the customizer integration with full form-builder capabilities.

We run into some considerably large issues trying to implement single payments to our current gateway structure. That difficulty made it almost impossible to implement Extension Sales and Tax Settings (long waited features).

Our goal with the versions between 1.4.0 and 1.5.0 is to gradually rewrite those parts of the code (to ensure backwards compatibility), taking these new features into account.

That being said, we realize that we are well-beyond the promised date for the release of the Extension Sales feature on the Plugin and Theme Manager Add-on.

Due to that reason, if you bought the add-on solely because of that feature, in the hopes that it would arrive soon, just contact us via email and we will refund you on that add-on purchase even if more than 30 days have passed. 

Complete Changelog – Version 1.4.0 – 08/08/2017

– Added: Option to copy Coupon’s shareable links on the All Plans and Edit Plan pages;
– Added: Templates overrriding for sign-up and emails;
– Added: Helper function to create users with subscriptions: wu_create_user();
– Added: Helper function to create a new WP Ultimo network site: wu_create_site();
– Added: Fields and Steps API to the Sign-up flow;
– Added: Helper function to add new sign-up steps: wu_add_signup_step();
– Added: Helper function to add new sign-up fields: wu_add_signup_field();
– Added: Deleting users and sites now removes the mappings associated with those sites;
– Added: Option on the Email Settings to allow plain emails to be sent;
– Added: Logs are now downloadable and delectable;
– Added: Option to hide the Plan Selection step if there is just one plan available on the platform;
– Added: Three different behaviors added to Coupon Code: disabled entirely, only via URL code or via URL code and Sign-up field;
– Added: New shortcode wu_user_meta to retrieve user meta information on the front-end. Useful for retrieving information collected during sign-up using custom fields;
– Improved: Shortcode wu_plan_link updated to work with the new Sign-up codebase;
– Improved: WP Ultimo now checks for empty user role options to rebuild them if needed;
– Improved: WP Ultimo now only displays broadcasts published after a user on the target group registered. This prevents new users from being bombarded by all the previously published Broadcasts;
– Improved: Better template selection field;
– Improved: Refactorization of the Screenshot Scraper: it now can handle up to ~80 without crashing;
– Fixed: WU_Colors being added more than once;
– Fixed: Coupon validation functions was not checking for post type, only for post titles;
– Fixed: Fixed some broken elements on the Coupon Codes list table;
– Fixed: Links breaking on Broadcasted emails;
– Fixed: Missing variable declarations inside template_list and pricing_table shortcodes;
– Fixed: Broadcast emails now supports multiple lines;

Release Notes – WP Ultimo 1.3.0

Hi, everyone! Version 1.3.0 is finally ready! It brings general improvements all over the UI as well as under-the-hood performance boosts. It implements needed changes to upcoming add-ons (like the Plugin and Theme Manager), a new template list shortcode and full Multi-Network Support!

Changes in the Versioning number use

As you may have noticed, this version is being released under version number 1.3.0. We are doing that to address one major issue that popped up during this development cycle and that was the major factor why it took so long for us to release it. From now on, we will reserve minor version numbers (e.g 1.x.0) for any release containing new features and keep patch version numbers (1.1.x) for – as the name suggests – patches. Only minor releases will get a Release Note post. Patches will be released as bugs are reported and fixed. That will allow us to quickly deploy important patches to all users without stopping the development of new features.

With that in mind, is time to dig in the new features and improvements.

Template List Shortcode

You can now use the shortcode [wu_templates_list] to display the templates on the front-end of your site. It can take the show_filters (with 1 for true or 0 for false).

Multi-Network Support

WP Ultimo now offers full compatibility with Multi-network support, the next level of multi-site abstraction. Each network will have separate tables for subscriptions, transactions, and site relationships despite sharing a single users table. We recommend that you use https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-multi-network/ plugin to enable multi-network on your install.

Rich Text Content Editor on Text Fields

Some WP Ultimo settings that used to be available as simple text area fields now support a full-fledged rich-text editor. Some examples include the email content editor fields, the Pricing Table extra lines editor on the plan pages. Issues some users were having saving the data on those fields were also resolved, so no slashes are being added to the content after saving and links are working.

Add-ons, Multiple Accounts (beta) and extensibility hooks

This version also supports the direct install of free add-ons. We released our Multiple Accounts (beta) add-on, and it can be installed now directly from the add-ons page now with version 1.3.0.  Multiple Accounts bypass the WordPress email address check on certain plugins’ registration forms (we only support WooCommerce in this beta version) to allow users on the network to create a new account on a subsite store or vice-versa (an user that created an account on a WooCommerce subsite store would be able to signup on your Ultimo network without getting an “email already taken error message”). We’ll add more plugins to the supported list as we move on.

Plugin and Theme Manager: Extension Sales

We had (and are still having =/) some technical issues implementing the extension sales functionality for the Plugin and Theme Manager add-on. We are making progress, tough, and plan to release it in the next days (we are implementing the final transactions integration and testing). Keep an eye on the Add-ons Page of WP Ultimo (we’ll probably send an email out as well =D).

Complete Changelog – Version 1.3.0 – 03/07/2017

– Fixed: Small issues with the template selection screen;
– Fixed: Email content editor saving URLs in a weird way, adding slashes;
– Fixed: Site Template description not being saved on the “Edit Template Info” screen;
– Fixed: Variable Dump including sensitive information;
– Fixed: Plan re-ordering not working on different languages;
– Fixed: WP Ultimo icon on multi-network;
– Fixed: Terms of Service field adding extra “\” after quotes;
– Fixed: Error on creating new sites from the admin panel with a plan and template;
– Improved: Uploads Quota can now be set as hidden on the plan pricing tables;
– Improved: Prefixed SweetAlert to avoid conflicts with other plugins;
– Improved: Replaced the content field for email templates with WP Editor;
– Improved: Added an ID to each plan HTML markup on the pricing tables;
– Improved: Added an extra check to the domain mapping (now called System) step on the Setup Wizard, to check if the right version of sunrise.php was loaded;
– Improved: Added an extra check to the System step on the Setup Wizard to make sure the logs directory exists and is writable;
– Improved: The features list field now uses a WP Editor widget, to allow the addition of bold text, italic, and links without editing HTML code, the same applies to the Broadcast message field;
– Improved: Add-ons page now handles installs for free add-ons;
– Improved: Duplicator now copies extra tables as well;
– Improved: Added hooks for adding extra elements to the Advanced Options on the edit plan and coupon pages;
– Added: wu_templates_list Shortcode added to display all the available templates on the front-end;
– Added: Warning message on the System Info tab if the logs directory is not properly configured to be writable;
– Added: Filters to change the labels and tooltip texts on the signup fields;
– Added: Option to enable or disable copying media files from the template sites;
– Added: Support to Multi-Network Environment (beta);
– Added: Readded the SSO script for single sign-on login;
– Added: Widget for Forum Discussions on the Network Admin;

Release Notes – WP Ultimo 1.2.0 – Domain Mapping Fixes, Manual Gateway, Template Filtering and more!

TD;DR Version: We are releasing WP Ultimo 1.2.0. This is a huge release, and it contains a Gateway to handle Manual Payments (beta), PDF invoicing, fixes and added consistency to Domain Mapping handling, the ability to add Subscriptions from the panel, support to Multiple Sites per user, Template Categorization and Filtering on the Signup Flow, Payment Integration as a Signup Step, and more! The full changelog can be found on the bottom of the post.

Hi, everyone. Due to the size and enormous technical challenges we faced with 1.2.0, it took a bit longer than expected to release this version, but here it is. It solves issues some of you were having with Domain Mapping and implements a list of long-requested features. Without further ado, let’s see what 1.2.0 has to offer.

Domain Mapping and SSL (HTTPS)

As we promise in our last release, we focused this last batch of improvements on getting Domain Mapping to consistently work across different configurations and setups. It solves CORS issues users were experiencing among others. That involved woking on our own redirector and adding a few options to our Settings panel. Here’s a complete overview of the options new and old:

Enable Domain Mapping & Enable Custom Domains:

We decoupled the domain mapping from custom domains. Now the admin can enable domain mapping but disable custom domain from their clients if he or she want to map domains manually on the Network Admin Panel.

Force Admin Redirect

This option gives the admin 3 options for handling redirects to the admin panel when a site has a mapped domain active. It can behave normally, allowing the panel to be accessed both via the mapped domain or the network domain; it can be set to force access through the mapped domain (which can cause issues if a custom domain has a misconfigured DNS and should be used with caution), and it can be set to force access through the network domain instead, redirecting calls to mapped-domain.com/wp-admin to your-network/your-clients-site/wp-admin (or the equivalent if you have a subdomain network.

Force HTTPs for the Admin Panel

This option sets the FORCE_ADMIN_SSL constant to true, which is used by WordPress to force access using https. We choose to keep WP Ultimo’s footprint in SSL handling as small as possible, to give network admins the ability to use third-party plugins they already know and love. In our tests, we used Really Simple SSL on the main site, combined with this option enabled and the network behaved as expected, redirecting access to the admin with https, keeping subsites on http.

Allow Page Unmapping & Force HTTPs on Unmapped Pages

This option was also a feature requested by many users. It allows your clients to unmap certain pages, so they can use the original network URL for those pages. This is particularly useful if a subsite has a store or a generic checkout page that requires SSL. If that user unmaps that page, and the option Force HTTPs on Unmapped Pages is also enabled, that page will be redirected to the network domain version (ignoring the mapping), using the SSL certificate for the network (useful on subdirectory installs where the network certificate covers the whole network, or with subdomain installs with wildcard certificates).

PS.: By default, only posts and pages have the unmap meta-box, but that can be changed using the filter wu_post_types_unmap.

Site Options: Force HTTPs

If for some reason you have one particular site on your network that needs to be accessed using https, you can go to that site’s settings page and enable that option under the WP Ultimo Settings, as displayed on the image below.

PS.: We tried our best to test it in a vast majority of environments, including servers running Apache and Nginx. Please contact us if you run into any issue. Make sure your server engine does not have a wildcard 302 redirect to your main domain.

Invoices

WP Ultimo 1.2.0 also allows admins to send PDF invoices with payment receipt emails. The invoice is sent marked as paid when an automatic gateway sends a webhook telling the system a payment was received (like Stripe and PayPal). This feature can be enabled and disabled on the Settings Panel.

Manual Payments Gateway (beta)

Our new version also implements the long waited Manual Payments gateway, building off the invoices system. The flow is fairly simple and requires minimal effort from the admin. Here’s how it works.

This is a beta feature and we would love to hear what you have to say about the flow. Feel free to send suggestions for improvements.

Templates Categories and Filtering

Some networks can have dozens of pre-built templates for their clients do choose. Navigating that ton of options can lead to a bad experience for the user during the signup flow. To address that issue, version 1.2.0 includes Template Categories and Filtering on the signup flow, with a super easy to use UI. Changing a template’s thumbnail is now much more intuitive as well, with all those options compacted in a single form.

Multiple Sites per Client

Our latest version also allows you to give your clients the ability to create new sites under the same account. The new site creation already lets them choose from templates if that option is enabled. You can limit the number of sites on each plan as well.

PS.: This does not support multiple accounts creation, neither does it allow for users registered on subsites (like someone that created an account on a subsite WooCommerce store, for example) to register sites on the network. We are working on a free add-on that addresses that issue, allowing multiple accounts to be created with a single email address. We believe this solution is more elegant since the client won’t even notice that that subsite was part of the network in the first place.

Hiding Plans from the Pricing Tables

Plans can now be hidden from the pricing tables. Useful if you want to create exclusive plans for a small subset of your clients.

Subscriptions: Add and Remove with ease!

Network admins now can add and remove subscriptions from the panel. This is useful for moving pre-existing users to WP Ultimo.

Signup Flow

Now, when no trial is available, the payment screen is added as a Signup step; Network Admins can also select a different role for the users created (the default continues to be administrator).

Next Steps: More Add-ons, Payment Gateways and building a Community

We’ve been centralizing our communications and reports on our roadmap board on Trello, but that’s not optimal. With that in mind, we are building a community forum to be released in the next weeks to allow users to interact, help each other, and report issues more efficiently. We are also aware that our Documentation site is very lacking, so that is getting rebuilt as well.

Complete Changelog – Version 1.2.0 – 12/05/2017

– Fixed: Small typos on the settings page and other places;
– Fixed: Some string were missing i18n on the subscription management screen;
– Improved: Add-ons page now supports filtering as well;
– Improved: Security on issuing refunds;
– Added: Support for zero decimal currencies in Stripe;
– Added: Site Template Categories with filtering on the Signup, and a more consistent UI for editing site templates on the backend;
– Added: Option to hide plans from the pricing tables;
– Added: 100% OFF coupon codes with unlimited cycles don’t ask for payment integration any longer;
– Added: Users can now add new sites from their panels, and admins can limit the number of sites on each plan.
– Added: Sites list added to the Subscription Management (admin) and My Account (user) Pages;
– Added: Custom capability ‘manage_wu_account’ created to control access to the Account page;
– Added: Network Admins can now set a different role for the users created via the signup process (defaults to admin);
– Added: Network Admins can now create subscriptions for users created outside of the signup flow (useful for migrating existing users);
– Added: Network Admins can now remove subscriptions from the Subscriptions list;
– Added: Payment is now a Signup Step when there is no trial;
– Added: Subscription is no longer deleted when a site is;
– Added: Option to send invoices when a payment is received from the gateways;
– Added: Manual Payments Gateway (beta);
– Removed: Old UI on site settings to add thumbnail;