GeoDirectory V2 first BETA release

LAST UPDATED 13/06/2018

today we are releasing the BETA version of GeoDirectory V2. See change log at the end of this article.

This GeoDirectory core BETA is a very early release and is not recommended for a production site.

GeoDirectory addons are not supported yet, this is a core BETA only. Add-ons will be supported once core is out of beta.

WARNING: Directory Starter theme breaks the JS as its still using the old non mobile friendly select boxes. We will provide a BETA V2 for Directory Starter too ASAP.

Please do your testing with alternative themes.

Stiofan and the development team started working on it approximately 9 months ago. The first commit dates June 29th 2017.

GeoDirectory V2 is not an updated version of V1. It is a new software.

Only minimal part of the previous code base has been used. Approximately 10% of the old code remained untouched.

Over 90% of the code has been rewritten to improve the old features and to eliminate the technical debt accumulated with years of development.

We have been thoroughly testing V2 for the past 7 days internally and we are ready to pass it on to you for further testing.

One of the new features of GeoDirectory V2 is usage tracking and report it to us. Usage tracking is on by default at this early stage, but it can be disabled from general settings under “advanced settings”.

Bugs are to be expected and reported here: https://wpgeodirectory.com/support/forum/geodirectory-core-plugin-forum/v2-beta/#new-post

The team will fix everything reported asap and will keep refining few points that we already identified. We will release updates daily if possible until we will get to a stable enough version.

Once V2 core is stable we will start releasing add-ons for BETA testing so we can focus on getting core V2 ready as soon as possible.

Following is a list of the major changes you will see in V2 compared to V1:

Back End UI/UX

Compared to the old settings page, we added a dashboard with the fundamental stats needed to better operate a directory.

We removed the orange icons from the WordPress menu and used proper icons.

We also redesigned completely the back end settings pages, to blend more naturally with the WordPress dashboard UI, adding advance settings to each page to reduce the number of options visible to the bare minimum.

V1 Settings Page

V2 New Dashboard

V2 New Settings Page

New Templates System

In the “Pages” settings now you can assign 1 page for each of the templates needed by GeoDirectory:

1. Details page
2. Archive page
3. Archive page item

New Templates System – 100% Gutenberg compatible.

Finally you can add the elements that compose these pages via Shortcodes or via Gutenberg in the pages themselves.

GD Details Template

GD Archive Template

GD Archive Item Template

Improved Import / Export of data including Reviews and Settings

Import Export Reviews

Import Export Settings

Improved Reviews Settings

Improved Reviews Settings

Improved Email Template Settings

Improved Email Template Settings

Place Settings & Add Listing Page Improvements

Adding new listings and register simultaneously is a new option. In V1 registration was mandatory to even see the add listing form.

Add Listing as Guest

The admin can re-order all fields of the add listing page, including title and description.

Reorder Title & Description fields

We optimized the Custom Post Type settings too.

Improved Custom Post Type Settings

As promised, we included an advance Business Hours system

Business Hours

Improved Permalinks

Permalinks were one of the major strength of GeoDirectory V1 and now we made them even better. We moved the Permalinks settings into the regular WordPress Permalinks settings page and you’ll find them to be even more flexible than before.

Improved Permalinks

Front End Improvements

We hired a new UI/UX specialist to help us refresh GD default design. We didn’t want him to do anything too fancy, because being a plugin in our opinion GeoDirectory should remain as vanilla as possible.

Following are few of the screenshots of his work. We haven’t finished applying the new styles yet, so we released this 1st BETA with old styles. Tomorrow we will finish applying them while correcting bugs reported by first BETA testers.

Listings Grid View 5 Columns

Listing Slider

Recent Reviews

We hope that you’ll like what you’ll see and that you’ll help us test it as much as possible!

Team GeoDirectory

Change log of BETA:

v2.0.0.14-beta (13/06/2018)

Map default language setting is not working for OpenStreetMap – FIXED
GDPR compliance – ADDED
Remove send to friend functionality as it against the GDPR policy – CHANGED
CSS responsive changes and fixes – FIXED
Search page with no query returns its own page – FIXED
Categories widget sub cats not displaying correctly – FIXED
Radio custom fields should not show Yes/No if values are 1/0 without a label – CHANGED/FIXED
Select custom field not showing 0 values – FIXED
OSM address encoder fails if site is non SSL – FIXED
Added setting to be able to disable Yoast SEO on GD pages (if active) – ADDED
Yoast details page og and twitter descriptions using template text instead of post text – FIXED
SD Widget added to be able to display the category description text – ADDED
Some problems with title and meta variables not saving or displaying correctly – FIXED
Categories on add listing page have no hierarchical distinction – FIXED
Custom fields now have placeholder setting where applicable – ADDED
Custom fields settings converted to new style to be more WP like – CHANGED
Sorting settings converted to new style to be more WP like – CHANGED
Sorting settings refactored to use sub queries (delete and re-add sort options recommended) – ADDED
OpenStreetMap populates wrong region for UK – FIXED

v2.0.0.13-beta (07/05/2018)

Page templates for building layouts now restricted from frontend viewing – CHANGED
GD page settings now containg link to edit/view pages when set – ADDED
Custom fields icon now has option to select font awesome icon from a list – ADDED
validation_pattern for custom fields can have slashes stripped which can break validation – FIXED
File upload custom field can now accept multiple files – CHANGED
File uploads now stored in GD attachments table – CHANGED
Get Directions link moved from CF to widget/shortcode – CHANGED
Get user location for directions now uses manual set if user locations cant be auto detected – ADDED
Setup wizard does not warn user if they try to continue while dummy data is being installed – FIXED
Logo predefined field added, post_images shortcode/widget now has option to show logo as first image – ADDED
Preview listing link now has icon to show it opens in new window – ADDED
Tabs show even if no content in them – FIXED
Option added in GD Listings widget to show nearest listings – ADDED
Titles and Meta settings page added and implemented – ADDED
Shortcode builder outputs multiselect values as array instead of sting – FIXED
Default placeholder images for listings will now use the image title/caption if set – CHANGED
Details slider initial load height very tall, max-height set – CHANGED
Review output given GD specific basic styles – ADDED
Some CSS changes to simplify and improve the basics – CHANGED

v2.0.0.12-beta (24/04/2018)

Attachment table date_gmt field added – ADDED
Widget show/hide settings improved for better UI – CHANGED
Post meta widget refactored to give the `show` options more flexibility – CHANGED
Tabs Layout section added to be able to drag/drop create the details page tabs – ADDED

v2.0.0.11-beta (13/04/2018)

gd_listings shortcode/widget sort_by can now use custom sort_by options – CHANGED
Some predefined custom fields are single use only and now show a warning if attempting to add again – CHANGED
Search still looks for featured column even if missing – FIXED
Best of widget CSS and template changes – FIXED
GD Dashboard widget refactored to remove login form when logged out – CHANGED
Fieldset shows error when being added – FIXED
Add listing can sometime show default city warning multiple times – FIXED
Email custom field not showing in map bubble if set to do so – FIXED
Multiselect custom field not resizing DB varchar value on options change – FIXED
General style and spelling corrections – FIXED

v2.0.0.10-beta (06/04/2018)

gd_map shortcode should not show “Enable marker cluster?” if plugin not active – FIXED
Business Hours: add a text if place is closed whole day – ADDED
Shortcode builder not working with WooCommerce products – FIXED
lat/lon DB length increased from 20 to 22 chars to account for negative decimals – CHANGED
Map direction unit conflicts when multiple maps are on the page – FIXED
Extensions screen improvements functionality and UI – CHANGED
Super Duper Class chnaged to show shortcode title like widget title if used – CHANGED
Shortcode builder not using 100% height on large displays – FIXED
Category widget output slightly changed for title_tag – CHANGED
Default image not checking for default category image – FIXED

v2.0.0.9-beta (03/04/2018)

Add listing page shows info might be lost even after save – FIXED
Favorites not adding/removing due to var rename – FIXED
Favorites not adding/removing in map info window – FIXED
Some custom fields not allowing sort by option – FIXED
Added warning if changing default city when listings are present – ADDED
Backend edit review rating missing – FIXED

v2.0.0.8-beta (02/04/2018)

Sorting options not working on archive pages – FIXED
Schema markup updated and activated – FIXED

v2.0.0.7-beta (03/31/2018)

Ninja Forms template used wrong format for to field – FIXED

v2.0.0.6-beta (03/31/2018)

If categories are removed via quick edit we try to add default category – ADDED
Quick edit screen breaks layout of columns – FIXED
CPT settings, required toggle now shown as standard – CHANGED
CPT settings, show/hide advanced settings button moved inside settings – CHANGED
CPT settings, opening one setting will now close all others – CHANGED
Email output mailto spam prevention link not working – FIXED
New setup wizard step added to install recommend plugins – ADDED

v2.0.0.5-beta (03/30/2018)

Double five star bars in dashboard activity box – FIXED
Select2 updated to v4.0.5 – CHANGED
Post badge feature implemented – CHANGED
Post images CSS and lightbox added – ADDED
New images not being added to current listings – FIXED
WP dashboard recent GD reviews block – FIXED
Ninja Forms can now be used to create contact fomrs and more (install wizard step remains) – ADDED
KLEO theme deprecated_function problem – FIXED

v2.0.0.4-beta (03/23/2018)

Tooltips on CPT settings can become stuck when adding a new field – FIXED
Search and archive pages, if no listings found, page is blank – FIXED
Added developer settings section, added setting to disable advanced settings toggle – ADDED
OSM add listing page JS error – FIXED
Autozoom not working for single marker on the map – FIXED
Export button on FireFox causes page refresh which means no access to CSV – FIXED
We now add a uncategorized category on install so you can go straight from the install wizard to add a new post – ADDED
Changing CPT name does not change taxonomies names – FIXED

v2.0.0.3-beta(03/22/2018)

Shortcode builder button added to pages/posts – ADDED

v2.0.0.2-beta (03/21/2018)

Business Hours not working on map popup – FIXED
Backend author filed should show all users not only authors – FIXED
Backend add listing has no validation – FIXED
Lat/Lon HTML5 number inputs can show comma instead of decimal depending on browser language – FIXED
submit_ip is varchar(20) which will not support IPv6 address – FIXED
Tab description does not respect non-HTML line breaks – FIXED
Added design setting to be able to change what page template file the details page uses for theme compatibility – ADDED

v2.0.0.1-beta (03/20/2018)
More then one image slider with same id on same page not working – FIXED
Reviews count not showing on listing – FIXED
Category ID settings column too wide – FIXED
GD > Listings widget now used Archive item page template – FIXED
CPT custom fields settings show unused save button – FIXED
Default location setting missing the “Set address on map” button – FIXED