WooCommerce First Data/Authipay Gateway – WooCommerce 3.x compatibility improvement

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First Data/AIB Authipay Gateway for WooCommerce – What’s new

Our First Data/Authipay Gateway has been updated to version 1.4.0.171026. This update brings the following improvements and fixes:

  • Improved support for WooCommerce 3.x. We cleaned up the code, to leverage the new functions and features provided by WooCommerce 3.0 and later. This makes the gateway more compatible with future WooCommerce versions.
    Note: starting with this update, the First Data/Authipay plugin requires WooCommerce 3.0 or newer. Older versions are no longer supported.

How do I get the new version?

New customers

Simply place your order and you will get the latest version.

Existing customers

You should be able to download the updated file using the link you received with your order. If the link doesn’t work, please contact Support to receive the latest version. Thanks.

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RightPress Dynamic Pricing and Discounts now supports our Aelia Currency Switcher

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Dynamic pricing rules and multi-currency, together

The RightPress Team informed us that their powerful Dynamic Pricing and Discounts plugin for WooCommerce now supports our leading multi-currency solution, the Aelia Currency Switcher. This is an excellent improvement for their already great product. It will allow merchants to configure flexible discount rules for their multi-currency shop.

The support for our WooCommerce Currency Switcher is included in Dynamic Pricing and Discounts since version 2.0, available now. You can get this great product from CodeCanyon, at a fantastic price!

We would like to thank the RightPress Team for the great work they did to support our multi-currency solution. Their hard work will help thousands of merchants to have a powerful and flexible shop, to cover the needs of their international customers. Their collaborative spirit sets a great example, that we hope many other developers will follow.

Thanks for reading, and see you soon for more exciting news!

The Aelia Team

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WooCommerce 3.1 is coming – The Aelia plugins are ready

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The WooCommerce team recently released WooCommerce 3.1 Release Candidate 1. As they wrote, this means that they should be ready to release the final 3.1 version very soon. The planned release date for WooCommerce 3.1 is the 28th June 2017.

What you should do before updating WooCommerce

If you are running WooCommerce 3.0.x, then you should be able to upgrade it to version 3.1 quite easily. Version 3.1 is a minor update, which should be fully backward compatible.

If you are still running WooCommerce 2.6, or even if you just like to “play safe” (which never hurts), you can follow the step by step guide we sent some time ago via our newsletter. The guide describes our recommended way of upgrading WooCommerce. You can find the guide below, for your convenience.

The core idea behind this guide is not to update your live site directly, but test the upgrade on a staging copy of the site first. Here are a few simple steps that will help you with the task:

  1. Take a full backup of the live site.
    Tip: if you don’t have a strategy for automated backups, we would strongly recommend to prepare one as soon as possible. Please feel free to contact us if you need more information.
  2. Ensure that the backup is usable and ready to be restored in case of emergency.
  3. Create a copy of your site on a staging/test server. Work only on the test copy.
  4. Update all the plugins, except WooCommerce, to the latest versions.
    Note: some updates might not appear in the WordPress Plugins page. You can always get the latest versions of the Aelia plugins from the My Account section on our site.
  5. Update your theme to the latest version.
  6. Update WooCommerce.
  7. Test the site extensively, to ensure that all the plugins you are running, as well as your theme, are compatible with WooCommerce 3.1.
  8. If you spot any issue, contact the authors of the affected plugin or theme before updating the live site.
  9. Apply any fix provided by plugin authors and repeat the testing from step #7.

When you are comfortable that the test site is working correctly, you can repeat the above steps on the live site.

Compatibility status of the Aelia plugins

Based on the tests we conducted so far, all of our plugins are currently compatible with WooCommerce 3.1.x. We will keep testing them as updates for the new version are released, to ensure maximum compatibility.

Of course, should you encounter any issue, please report it, and we will look into it as soon as possible.

Important
If you don’t receive an update notification in your WordPress Admin Panel about the Aelia plugins, we recommend you to follow our our site, our Twitter account or our Facebook page, as we will announce the new releases there. You will then be able to download them from our site, or from the download link you received with your email.

Need assistance, or have any questions?

Should you need assistance, or have any questions about our plugins and how to update them before installing WooCommerce 3.1, please get in touch. We will get back to you as soon as possible, with the information you need.

Thanks for your time, and have a great weekend!

Sincerely,

Aelia – The Internationalisation Experts

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WooCommerce Product Table and Password Protection plugins now support Currency Switcher and Prices by Country

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Barn2 Media’s WooCommerce plugins now include multi-currency support

The Barn2 Media team just informed us that their WooCommerce extensions now include native support for our popular Currency Switcher and Prices by Country plugins. This means that you can benefit from the internationalisation features provided by our solutions when creating interactive pricing tables, or adding password protected areas to your site.

Would you like to know what this means for your shop? Here we go!

WooCommerce Product Table

List products in table format, in your customers’ currency and local price

WooCommerce Product Table is Barn2 Media’s bestselling plugin. It lists WooCommerce products in a sortable, searchable table view, which can also be filtered.

Product tables are useful for WooCommerce wholesale stores and bulk order forms, as well as large catalogues. They list products in a structured table layout, with more information displayed per page than the standard product pages show. The list includes details such as attributes, variations and custom fields. Customers can also purchase the products directly from the list page, which acts as a one-page order form.

If you’re using WooCommerce Product Table with our Currency Switcher or Prices by Country plugins, then the lists will automatically display the correct price for each customer, in their currency, and visitors can buy them with one click. This creates a seamless experience for your customers, which can greatly increase your conversions.

WooCommerce Password Protected Categories and Private Store

Create hidden areas within WooCommerce

Barn2 Media developed two plugins to protect or hide content within your WooCommerce shop. WooCommerce Password Protected Categories creates hidden areas which work alongside the public parts of your store. WooCommerce Private Store creates a completely hidden store – no one who visits your website will even know that you have an online shop!

As you probably guessed, these plugins are a useful addition to shops that handle wholesale customers, allowing to show some, or all products, only to customers who have specific accounts. Like the Product Tables, these plugins work beautifully with both Currency Switcher and Prices by Country. The correct currency and local price for each customer is displayed automatically on both the public and private areas of your WooCommerce store.

Acknowledgements

We’d like to thank the team at Barn2 Media for listening to the ever-increasing number of merchants who rely on our internationalisation solutions, and for their efforts in adding multi-currency support to their WooCommerce extensions.

Thanks for reading, and see you soon for more exciting news!

 

The Aelia Team

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WooCommerce 3.0 “Bionic Butterfly” has just arrived!

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WooCommerce 3.0, the Bionic Butterfly, is here!

WooCommerce 3.0 is now available for download. This is a great update, which lays the foundation of a more powerful, flexible and scalable e-commerce system, and it will greatly improve the e-commerce experience for millions of merchants and buyers worldwide.

Still, “with great change comes great responsibility”. Yes, the original sentence was slightly different, but it applies nevertheless. The improvements that WooCommerce 3.0 brings can have side effects, therefore we would like to repeat our invitation to being careful with the upgrade.

Below you can find a summary of the information we sent to our newsletter subscribers. We recommend to keep this information handy, as it will make the update process easier and smoother.

What you should do before updating WooCommerce

In the past few weeks, we sent a step by step upgrade guide to our subscribers, describing our recommended way of upgrading WooCommerce. You can find it below, if you missed our email, or if you are not registered to our newsletter.

The most important concept to keep in mind that you should not update your live site immediately. It looks like a tempting shortcut, but we strongly recommend not to do that (you can take our word on this). Instead, you should follow a few simple steps:

  1. Take a full backup of the live site.
    Tip: if you don’t have a strategy for automated backups, we would strongly recommend to prepare one as soon as possible. Please feel free to contact us if you need more information.
  2. Ensure that the backup is usable and ready to be restored in case of emergency.
  3. Create a copy of your site on a staging/test server. Work only on the test copy.
  4. Update all the plugins, except WooCommerce, to the latest versions.
    Note: some updates might not appear in the WordPress Plugins page.You can always get the latest versions of the Aelia plugins from the My Account section on our site.
  5. Update your theme to the latest version.
  6. Update WooCommerce.
  7. Test the site extensively, to make sure that all the plugins you are running, as well as your theme, are compatible with WooCommerce 3.0.
  8. If you spot any issue, contact the authors of the affected plugin or theme before updating the live site.
  9. Apply any fix provided by plugin authors and repeat the testing from step #7.

When you are comfortable that the test site is working correctly, you can repeat the above steps on the live site.

This process may look long and boring, but it’s worth spending some time to double check that the shop will work fine after an update, as that will prevent unexpected crashes and downtimes.

Recommended reading

The WooCommerce Team also wrote a useful article to guide you through the upgrade process: How to prepare your WooCommerce store for any release. We recommend to read it and familiarise yourself with the steps required for a smooth upgrade.

Compatibility status of the Aelia plugins

We updated our plugins to work with WooCommerce 2.7 a couple of months ago, and tested them again with WooCommerce 3.0. Below you can find a list of the plugins that you will have to update before installing WooCommerce 3.0, together with their version number and release date:

Our tests showed that plugins such as Shipping Country, or the Blacklister, should already be compatible with WooCommerce 3.0. We will keep reviewing them as updates for the new version are released, to ensure maximum compatibility.
Of course, should you find any issue, please report it, and we will look into it as soon as possible.

Important
Our licensing system is still undergoing maintenance, and you might not receive an update notification in your WordPress Admin Panel. We would recommend you to follow our our site, our Twitter account or our Facebook page, where you will find the information about new releases there. You will then be able to download them from our site, or from the download link you received with your email.
Once our licensing system will be back up, you should start receiving update notifications from within WordPress.

Need assistance, or have any questions?

Should you need help, or have any questions about our plugins and how to update them before installing WooCommerce 3.0, please get in touch. We will get back to you as soon as possible, with the information you need.

Thanks for your time, and have a great day and an amazing weekend!

Sincerely,

Aelia – The Internationalisation Experts

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WooCommerce 3.0 is coming – We are ready for this new, exciting update!

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The WooCommerce team just released the WooCommerce 3.0 Release Candidate 2. This means that we are very close to the final release of this new version of WooCommerce. The planned release date for WooCommerce 3.0 is the 4th April 2017.

As we wrote in our newsletter, WooCommerce 3.0 will introduce great improvements, but it comes with a caveat: the changes in the new version might affect some of the plugins that you are running on your site. There are plugins that might not work correctly, unless they have already been updated to support this new WooCommerce version.

What you should do before updating WooCommerce

We sent a step by step guide via our newsletter, in the past few weeks, describing our recommended way of upgrading WooCommerce. You can find the guide below, for your convenience.

The key concept is that you should not update your live site immediately when WooCommerce 3.0, becomes available. It’s tempting, but you should not do that (you can take our word on this).
Instead, you should follow a few simple steps:

  1. Take a full backup of the live site.
    Tip: if you don’t have a strategy for automated backups, we would strongly recommend to prepare one as soon as possible. Please feel free to contact us if you need more information.
  2. Ensure that the backup is usable and ready to be restored in case of emergency.
  3. Create a copy of your site on a staging/test server. Work only on the test copy.
  4. Update all the plugins, except WooCommerce, to the latest versions.
    Note: some updates might not appear in the WordPress Plugins page.You can always get the latest versions of the Aelia plugins from the My Account section on our site.
  5. Update your theme to the latest version.
  6. Update WooCommerce.
  7. Test the site extensively, to ensure that all the plugins you are running, as well as your theme, are compatible with WooCommerce 3.0.
  8. If you spot any issue, contact the authors of the affected plugin or theme before updating the live site.
  9. Apply any fix provided by plugin authors and repeat the testing from step #7.

When you are comfortable that the test site is working correctly, you can repeat the above steps on the live site.

This process may look long and boring, but it’s worth spending some time to ensure that the shop will work fine after an update, as that will prevent unexpected crashes and downtimes.

Recommended reading

The WooCommerce Team also wrote a useful article to guide you through the upgrade process: How to prepare your WooCommerce store for any release. We recommend to read it and familiarise yourself with the steps required for a smooth upgrade.

Compatibility status of the Aelia plugins

As we wrote in our last email, at Aelia we started working on the compatibility with WooCommerce 3.0 a couple of months ago. The results have been positive, as several of our plugins are already compatible with the new version of the ecommerce. Others, such as our Currency Switcher, required an update.
Below you can find a list of the plugins that you will have to update before installing WooCommerce 3.0, together with their version number and release date:

Based on our tests, plugins such as Shipping Country, or the Blacklister, should already be compatible with WooCommerce 3.0. We will keep testing them as updates for the new version are released, to ensure maximum compatibility.

Of course, should you encounter any issue, please report it, and we will look into it as soon as possible.

Important
Our licensing system is undergoing maintenance (well, we are rewriting it completely), and you might not receive an update notification in your WordPress Admin Panel. We would recommend you to follow our our site, our Twitter account or our Facebook page, as we will announce the new releases there. You will then be able to download them from our site, or from the download link you received with your email.
Once our licensing system will be back up, you should start receiving update notifications from within WordPress.

Need assistance, or have any questions?

Should you need assistance, or have any questions about our plugins and how to update them before installing WooCommerce 3.0, please get in touch. We will get back to you as soon as possible, with the information you need.

Thanks for your time, and have a fantastic day!

Sincerely,

Aelia – The Internationalisation Experts