Version 6 is ready and available for you to download or update through the WordPress Admin. This is a major version update which is not backward-compatible with previous filters or extensions. If you have extended the functionality of this plugin, you may want to consider staying on version 2 or you’ll need to update your extensions. If you have not extended the plugin, you may update it without fear of breaking or losing data.
Brand new code base
For many years we had been supporting PHP 5.2 which limited us to what we could do with the plugin code base. About a year ago we officially dropped support for PHP 5.2 to follow WordPress core. Finally, we are now actually using the benefits of PHP 5.6.
The entire code base for both the basic and PRO versions have been rewritten to use namespaces and more modern practices. The code is more:
- Intuitive
- Clean
- Documented
- Extendable
- Ready for future features
This also means none of the old classes exist. Many of the filter and action names have changed. Pretty much any previously existing extension will need to be updated to use the new structure.
We did not take this decision lightly as we understand about 3% of the plugin users will need to rework their customization. The decision was made to open up future enhancements.
Why version 6 instead of 3?
For the first time, the basic version of the plugin now has a minimum required version of PRO for PRO to function. To keep compatibility straightforward in the future, the major versions of the PRO and basic plugins will now match to signify compatibility.
Improved test results
Since the introduction of the ability to test a URL before updating, we have never really been happy with the way the report looked. Something about it just didn’t feel right.
So we made it a bit cleaner and more modern. The same basic functionality remains for now, but we opened up future enhancements.
Intuitive table selection
The experience during selection of section or tables is now more intuitive.
- Unchecking all sections will automatically change the button to “check all.”
- Checking all the boxes will automatically change the button to “uncheck all.”
- Switching from sections to tables will keep the button at the appropriate state.
- Loading the page with partial selection will default to “check all.”
Miscellaneous
- Removed redundant filters.
- Removed redundant methods.
- Added missing PHP docs.
- Made all code 100% WordPress code standards compliant.
- Improved verbiage and labels.
- Updated all translations.
- Added new system for notification of incompatible versions.