Welcome to the release notes for the Seamless Donations 5.0 beta release. Hopefully, this will be the first and only beta, but only time (and you) will tell.
What’s in this release
This release includes both the core Seamless Donations plugin and all the add-ons. The pre-5.0 add-ons will not work with Seamless Donations 5.0, so all of them have been updated.
I know that version compatibility was an issue with the 4.0.x plugins, and that had a lot to do with the admin UI library I was using. This new release is based on WordPress 5.4, PHP 7.3.2, and MySQL 5.6.34. It’s nice to have a fully modernized stack for a change.
The core plugin will be downloadable by anyone. The add-ons are available to those who already purchased them.
How to download
Downloads are available on the ZATZLabs beta page. On the left will be the core plugin and on the right will be the add-ons.
Serial numbers are required to activate the add-ons. To download the beta, simply use the serial number you were assigned for each add-on when you originally purchased it. You can find your current serial numbers in the “license codes” fields for the add-ons in the Licenses tab of the Seamless Donations plugin.
If you need an extra activation, open a support ticket and provide me the serial number you’re trying to activate. I’ll assign an extra activation.
How to install
First, please, please, PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, make some backups. So far, this has only been tested on my system, so while I’m reasonably confident there won’t be any problems, backups are a good thing.
You should be able to simply replace the Seamless Donations 4.0.x plugin folder and the various plugin folders with the new plugin. No data will change.
Before uploading the new plugin, please deactivate and remove the 4.0.x plugin folders from your plugins folder.
Please note that the old core is version 4.0.x and the old add-ons are version 1.x. The new, beta version of the core is 5.0.0 and the new add-ons are 2.0.0.
Probably the best approach would be to upload the zips to your plugin folder and then unzip them from cPanel. You could also upload the full folder for the new plugin. Either way, you want the 5.0 beta plugin folders to wind up in your WordPress plugins folder.
Then, go into WordPress, go to the Plugins section of the admin interface, and activate the new betas. If all goes well, these will activate properly and you won’t all hate me.
How to test and report bugs
This is a complete rewrite of the entire admin engine, which also includes a new admin user interface library. I’ve carefully removed all elements of the old library, and a big part of the test is finding out whether I’ve missed something that causes something else to blow up.
Like I said, I tested it heavily on my development system, but I’m one guy. I need your help to know that it’s safe to release to everyone.
Please use the ticketing system at this link to report bugs. In my day job, I get hundreds to thousands of emails a day (it’s overwhelming) and the only way I can be sure to keep track of Seamless Donations bug management is with the ticketing system.
I’d appreciate it if you’d prefix the subject for any beta reports with “5.0 – ” so I can easily see that it’s a beta bug and know what code base to be looking at.
If it works, please tell me, too
It will also be quite helpful for me to know if you’ve found the beta to actually work properly. If it does, please again open a ticket and let me know. I’ll release the plugin to the public when the number of “it works” reports are high enough and the number of “it sucks” reports are low enough to feel that it’s safe for people to use in production.
That’s it. Thank you so much for your help.
–David
