It’s been a while since the last update. Even though we strive to send out continuous updates, the pandemic has had its effect on our update release cycle. This will be an important update because we have implemented a lot of user-requested features and improvements.
In addition to new features, we have made many improvements in the UI/UX and a handful of bug fixes. You can check the changelog at the end of the article. Let’s dive into the top features of this update.
Manage other admins’ event types and bookings
This was one of the top user-requested features. To be honest, in hindsight, we forgot two points. One is WP’s way of editing a page or post by multiple admins, and the other is that a site owner and their associates are from the same team or organisation. So there is always a need for managing others’ event types and bookings. With this version, you can now do this.
If you want a WP admin to view/manage WPCal event types or bookings, you have to add them as a WPCal Admin in WP-Admin > WPCal > Settings > WPCal Admins. The WPCal menu item will be displayed only to WPCal Admins.
Important changes after this update: For old plugin users, after updating to this version, all the admins who have at least one event type will be added as WPCal admins automatically. If needed, please add more admins as mentioned above.
Privately managed event type
If an event type is set as privately managed, then the event type and its bookings can be managed only by its host.
Important changes after this update: For old plugin users, after updating to this version all event types will be set as privately managed event types. This is done to keep the same level of privacy as before the update. If needed, you can turn this off in the event type settings to allow other admins to manage it.
Advanced email and calendar event customization with PHP
We have introduced advanced PHP email customization where you can modify the entire email template. This is one of the premium features. You can completely customize the email, including the header and footer. You can also customize the event name and description for a calendar event (calendar invitation mail will be sent from the calendar app e.g. Google Calendar). This feature was also requested by many customers.
Invitee notification option
As we now have more power to customize the email templates, we have introduced an option to choose between a calendar invitation (mail sent from calendar app) and an email invitation (mail sent from plugin). You can find this setting in the summary view of an event type.
Quick sync events using Google Calendar webhooks (Activated in batches)
Right now, the calendar events syncs every 5 mins, and it also depends on the frequency of WP-Cron triggered, which in turn depends on site visitors or host cron jobs. We are now using Google Calendar webhooks to reduce the delay, which helps to sync the events as soon as any changes are made.
Important: This feature will be activated in batches in the coming week. The website should be live for this feature to work. There is no indication about this feature’s status on the admin end. Everything works in the background. We will update the status in our blog.
Admin end booking list improvements
Finding a specific booking is now easier than ever. In this release, we are introducing filters in the Upcoming and Past tabs and a dedicated ‘Find a Booking’ tab on the ‘Bookings’ page. You can search by the invitee name, their email or booking ID and filter by the host, date of the booked event, booking status (active, cancelled and rescheduled) and event types. We have improved a few other UI/UX aspects and fixed a few bugs reported by users.
So what’s next?
We are working on Stripe and Paypal integrations which are expected to be released in September. More user-requested features will be released in the upcoming updates.
When is the ‘Stronger, together’ plan going to end?
We launched the plugin during the pandemic and with the ‘Stronger, together’ plan, gave unrestricted, free access to all released Premium features to support small and medium-sized businesses sail through these difficult times. Now that things are slowly settling down with the new normal, we are planning to remove the plan in about 2 months. As promised, we will notify you a month before removing it to help you transition smoothly.
Want to know about everything that’s new? Read the changelog ↗.
Please share your thoughts about this update in the comments section below.