Today, I am happy to announce new version of Membership Pro, version 3.0.0. Below are the changes in this version:
1. Raise System Requirement
From version 3.0.0 of Membership Pro, we require PHP 7.2.0 for the extension to work. That allows us to use better dependency libraries in the extension and focus working to make the extension works on PHP 7.2.0+, PHP 8.0.x and PHP 8.1.x. The extension now works well with
PHP 7.2+, PHP 8.0.x, and PHP 8.1.x.
2. Libraries Replacement
- Replace PHPExcel library which is used to handle CSV/Excel import/export with a better, faster library called Spout. With this replacement, we also drop the plugin
Membership Pro - Spout
because it is not needed anymore
- Update TCPDF library (which is used to generate invoice and Member Card) to latest vesrion.
- Convert many Javascript code in the extension from jQuery to vanilla JS to avoid loading jQuery on most of the views, that result in faster page loading and better performance.
- Replace jQuery colorbox (which is used to load terms and conditions, Privacy Policy URL) with a new modal library (not depend on jQuery anymore)
- Replace jquery equalheight plugin with vanilla JS script.
3. New Emails & Messages Management
We improved
Emails & Messages function to hopefully, make it easier to use:
- It loads faster because we do not need multiple editors on the same page anymore.
- It allows you to search for message by message content, message title and message key. So , if you want to change some message, you can search it easily, find the right message and make necessary change.
- It displays supported tags for each message, so you can easily to insert the tag you want to use into the message without having to searching for documentation or ask for support.
If you still want to use old Emails & Messages, we still leave it in
Tools -> Legacy Emails & Messages (especially if you are familiar with it or you have custom email messages added before by some customization)
4. Support Short Plan Duration
For onetime subscription plan, you can now create plan with mini subscription duration:
Hours,
Minutes (Beside Days, Weeks, Months, Years)
5. Support Grouping Plans Option
Now, when you add/edit a category, you will see a new setting called
Grouping Plans. Set it to
Yes will make all plans in the category works as if they are 1 plan only. That mean when someone subscribe for a plan in the category, it will be processed as if it is a renewal of subscriptions of other plans in same category of that user:
- The subscription start date of the subscription will be the latest subscription end date of the latest active subscription
- The system will stop sending reminder to his previous subscriptions of other plans in the category (because these subscriptions were renewed )
6. Batch SMS Feature
If you use SMS feature in Membership Pro, you can now use
Batch SMS feature to send SMS messages to selected subscriptions from Subscriptions Management screen.
7. Easy View Module
We added a new module
Membership Pro View (mod_membershippro_easyview), replace original module to make it easier to setup the module to display any view the extension. The old module requires you to Choose View to display, setup Query String, Itemid... and it is a complicated process. For this new module, you just need to create a hidden menu item, configured necessary parameters in the menu item and then choose the Menu item in the view module, much easier to configure.
8. Code Improvement
- Improve codebase to make it compatible with latest PHP 8.1 release.
- Improve routing code to make URL look nicer in Joomla 4.
- Move plugins layout code to separate layout files to make it easier to override plugins layout if needed
Upgrade from older version of Membership Pro to version 3.0.0
- We tried our best to maintain backward compatible changes for this version. However, since this is a new major releases with many code changes, improvements, library replacements and upgrade..., please make sure you make a backup of your site before upgrading so that in case critical bugs found and could not be fixed shortly, you can revert to earlier version. I tried to test as much as possible, but there might still bugs somewhere which I could not catch yet
Thanks for continue using our products and support our development. I will continue working hard to improve it, make it better from time to time
Regards,
Tuan
