19
Jun, 2016

Comment Mail v160618 (Now Available)

Posted by: in: News Official Release

Comment Mail v160618 was released on June 18th, 2016 and includes 8 bug fixes, 6 enhancements, and a restructured codebase. This release also includes an important change that affects Pro users who have customized Advanced Templates.

Pro users with Customized Advanced Templates: If you are a Pro user and you've customized your Advanced Templates, please see the note in the changelog below. If you are a Comment Mail Lite user, this change does not affect you as Advanced Templates are a Pro-only feature. If you are a Pro user and you're using Simple templates, this change also does not affect you.

We've put a lot of work into making this the best Comment Mail release to date. This releases fixes several bugs and greatly improves the stability of Comment Mail Lite and Comment Mail Pro. If you have feedback or feature requests, let us know on GitHub.

We also have a Twitter account and a new Facebook page; come say hello!

Changelog for Comment Mail v160618

  • Restructured Codebase: The codebase has been completely restructured to improve performance, enhance flexibility, and make it easier to build in new features! Props @jaswsinc. See Issue #150.

  • Comment Mail Pro Upgrade Notice: Incompatible Advanced Templates. This version of Comment Mail includes a rewritten and improved codebase. This rewrite, however, came with the unfortunate side effect of breaking backwards compatibility with Advanced Templates that were customized in a previous version of Comment Mail Pro.

    If you are currently using Comment Mail Pro and you've customized your Advanced Templates, all of your customized Advanced Templates will be backed up and the templates will then be reset to their new defaults. You will find the backup of your old customized template appended to the bottom of the new template, separated with a Legacy Template Backup PHP comment. See example screenshots.

    Note: This change has no effect on Simple templates—only Advanced Templates are affected. Advanced Templates are a Pro-only feature, so this notice only applies to Comment Mail Pro. See Issue #238.

  • Bug Fix: Fixed a bug where esc_html() was being used where esc_sql() should've been used. Props @jaswsinc @kristineds. See Issue #268.
  • Bug Fix: Fixed a bug that in some scenarios resulted in a "DB table creation failure" error when activating the plugin. Props @thienhaxanh2405, @PanNovak, @kristineds, and @jaswsinc. See Issue #260.
  • Bug Fix: Fixed a bug where "New reply" notification emails were not being parsed properly by some Hotmail accounts and were showing up as blank. Props @kristineds. See Issue #259.
  • Bug Fix: Fixed a bug that allowed spam comments to create subscriptions in Comment Mail when using Akismet. Props @IvanRF. See Issue #250.
  • Bug Fix (Pro): When Chrome or Firefox Autofill Username/Password was enabled, the Comment Mail Pro Updater fields would incorrectly be autofilled by the browser with invalid credentials. This has been fixed. Props @renzms. Issue #274.
  • Bug Fix: Fixed a bug where the cron job for the Queue Processor could get deleted and never recreated, which would result in notifications getting stuck in the Mail Queue and not being sent out. If you ever installed Comment Mail and then deleted it (without first disabling Data Safeguards), and then installed Comment Mail again, you were probably affected by this issue. This release fixes the issue and makes the cron setup more robust. Props @kristineds, @renzms, @jaswsinc, and @IvanRF for help testing. See Issue #194 and Issue #173.
  • Bug Fix: Fixed a bug where a subscriber who selected Hourly Digest and who had never been notified before could, in some scenarios, have their subscription treated instead as a Weekly Digest. This bug was found and fixed during the codebase restructuring. Props @jaswsinc. See Issue #150 and additional discussion in Issue #173.
  • Bug Fix: Fixed a bug where in some scenarios Mail Queue entries for Digest Notifications that should have been held for sending later were not being held and were also not being sent. They also would not have shown up in the Mail Queue Event Log. This bug was found and fixed during the codebase restructuring. Props @jaswsinc. See Issue #150 and additional discussion in Issue #173.
  • Enhancement: Minor improvements to the Options Page menu links and positioning of the Pro Preview link. Props @renzms. See Issue #227.
  • Enhancement: It's now possible to use the following shortcodes in the Email Footer Tag for Email Footer Templates: [home_url], [blog_name_clip], and [current_host_path]. Props @kristineds and @IvanRF. See Issue #246.
  • Enhancement: Improved the Subscriptions meta box that appears on the Post Edit screen. For each subscription, the meta box now lists the full name and email address, the date the subscription was created, and a view link that allows you to view/edit the subscription. Props @kristineds. See Issue #231.
  • UX Enhancement (Pro): Improved the Dashboard notice that appears when you try to enable the Pro version of Comment Mail when the Lite version is currently enabled. Props @kristineds @jaswsinc. See Issue #230.
  • UX Enhancement: When Subscribing Without Commenting, the Add New Subscription form now pre-populates the Name and Email address fields whenever possible. Props @kristineds. See Issue #204.
  • UI Enhancement: Dashboard notices generated by Comment Mail now use the WordPress-style dismiss button to keep things consistent. Props @kristineds. See Issue #193.

Props to everyone who helped with this release, including @jaswsinc, @kristineds, @renzms, @IvanRF, @thienhaxanh2405, @PanNovak, and our 9 Beta Testers!

Upgrading to the Latest Version

Comment Mail Lite users should receive an update notification from within their WordPress Dashboard (Dashboard → Updates).

Comment Mail Pro users who have configured the Plugin Updater (Dashboard → Comment Mail → Pro Updater) should receive a notification to upgrade on the WordPress Dashboard. If you have not configured the Pro Updater, you can download the latest version of Comment Mail Pro by logging into your Comment-Mail.com account here. You'll find a download link for the latest version on your Account page. There's also a Release Archive if you need to access previous versions of Comment Mail.

Please report bugs and feedback on GitHub. If you are a Comment Mail Pro user and require priority support, please open a support ticket here.