Email Users v4.6.2 released

This morning I released version 4.6.2 of Email Users.  This release addresses several translation issues and updates the Bulgarian translation.  More importantly, this release adds an integration with ItThinx Groups!  This new feature is one that has been requested several times and I finally had the time to work on it.

You can download the update from the WordPress plugin repository or find the update on your Dashboard.

WordPress Google Form v0.59-beta-2 now available

This morning I released beta-2 of WordPress Google Form v0.59.  This build introduces one new feature (hidden fields) and fixes one limitation (validation rules).

Much like validation rules and placeholders, an input field can now be defined as hidden.  When a field is defined as hidden, it does not appear to the user when they view the form and the value is set to a fixed value (e.g. a static string) or to something WordPress derives (e.g. the user’s IP address).

GForm_SS_64

The format of the field name is exactly the same as used for validation and placeholders.

Validation has been improved and the limitation of one validation rule per field has been lifted.  You can now define multiple validation rules for a single field.  Simply enter the field name for each separate type of validation.

Google Forms Beta (7963 downloads )

Email Users v4.6.2-beta-2 now available

I am close to releasing Email Users v4.6.2.  This update addresses some issues in the README file and some translation string issues on the Options page.  There is no new functionality or bug fixes since beta-1.

I would like to get as many of the translations as possible updated before releasing 4.6.2.

Email Users Beta (4986 downloads )

Where did all of this wp-SwimTeam stuff come from?

You may have noticed an influx of content (posts, pages, etc.) related to wp-SwimTeam and wonder where it came from.  For the past four years I have been developing, enhancing, supporting, etc. a WordPress plugin called wp-SwimTeam.  This plugin can be used to manage the registration, volunteers, participation, and other aspects of running a youth swim team.  Several groups have used it for Masters Swimming as well but it is targeted at youth swim teams.

I first started wp-SwimTeam to support our local neighborhood team when my wife was the swim team chair.  Over the years it grew in features to the point where it was fairly comprehensive.  My children no longer swim and my involvement in swim team has largely ended but I still maintain my plugin because (a) people use it and (b) I still feel it serves a need and it doesn’t take much of my time to continue supporting it.

I have always had a separate web site for wp-SwimTeam but over time that came to make less and less sense. In fact, I had some people contact me on this site and some on the other site so I had questions and solutions on both sites.  I decided that I would migrate everything here So I exported all of the content and then imported it.  There were a few hiccups, mostly around downloads but I think everything else came over ok.

The old URL redirects to the wp-SwimTeam page on  this site.  From time to time you may see updates for wp-SwimTeam or phpHtmlLib in addition to the normal flow of information on Email Users and WordPress Google Form.

WordPress Google Form v0.59-beta-1 available

I have posted WordPress Google Form v0.59-beta-1 in response to a request to have the ability to preset form values by passing a parameter as part of the WordPress URL.   This is an interesting request so I did some work on it this morning and it turned out it wasn’t to difficult to implement.

Much like custom field validation and presets, this new functionality builds upon the name of the field that you want to preset.  Google has a way to preset values, the field name is passed as a parameter with a value.  This new functionality does much the same but pulls it back to WordPress for processing.

Using my Validation Demo form as an example, here are two URLs:

  1. Standard URL
  2. Standard URL with preset values

As you can see, the second URL will have the first two fields prefilled with the values which were part of the URL.  The following was appended to the URL.  The specific parameter names (e.g. entry.1666054688) had to discovered by examining the source Google Form.

?entry.1666054688=joe@example.com&entry.327623672=www.yahoo.com

GForm_SS_63

Email Users v4.6.0 released

This morning I released version 4.6.0 of Email Users.  This release addresses the problems with addresses appearing in the CC header instead of the BCC header which cropped up in v4.5.4 and v4.5.5.  This version has gone through quite a bit of testing to ensure the problem with addresses was fixed.  In addition to this critical fix, there are also a couple of minor new features now available.  If you were running Email Users v4.6.0-beta-4, this version is nearly identical.  The version is different and the default string for the new footer was trimmed eliminating the version number.

  • Significantly improved debug functionality to chase down mail header issues.
  • Check added to determine if wp_mail() has been overloaded by a theme or plugin.
  • Rewrite of mailusers_send_mail() fucntion to construct headers as arrays instead of as a single string. The string would sometimes not break correctly and recognize the Bcc: field.
  • Implemented new email footer option.
  • Cleaned up presentation of Options page.
  • Implemented new omit display names option.
  • Updated language translation files.

You can find this update in the WordPress plugin repository or on your Dashboard.

WordPress Google Form v0.58 released

This morning I formally release v0.58 of WordPress Google Form.  Thanks to everyone who did testing of the various beta releases.  The v0.58 release includes a number of improvements to deal with special characters either in responses or in questions.

  1. Fixed bug when radio button and checkbox responses contained apostrophe characters.
  2. Fixed bug when text entry box content contained an ampersand which ended up encoded in the Google sheet.
  3. Fixed bug(s) with plugin settings which are controlled with checkboxes not being able to be unchecked.
  4. Added Reset button to return plugin settings to their default state.
  5. Fixed problem handling newlines (carriage returns) in textarea entries.

You can find the update on your WordPress Dashboard or in the WordPress Plugin Repository.  The released version is functionally the same as beta-3, only the version number is different.

WordPress Google Form v0.58-beta-3 now available

This morning I released beta-3 of WordPress Google Form v0.58.  This update addresses one problem, properly handling newline characters in TEXTAREA entry boxes.  This issue was reported on the WordPress Support Forum.

If there are no more reported issues, I will likely release v0.58 in the next day or so.

Google Forms Beta (7963 downloads )

Debugging the Email Users CC issue

For the past few days I have been chasing a reported issue where Email Users is putting recipient addresses into the CC header instead of the BCC header.  This has been a challenge to chase down.  To assist in this I have add a bunch of  new debug and checking to Email Users.

Email  Users will now check and report if wp_mail() has been overloaded by a plugin or theme.  Since wp_mail() is a pluggable function, this is the one area which is really out of the control of Email Users.  Simply knowing if wp_mail() has been overloaded is very helpful.

Additionally, I have finally found a way to initiate a complete email which is aborted just prior to the email actually being sent.  The content of several internal structures is displayed on the Dashboard so the email headers can easily be examined.

This build is in DEBUG mode which means it will never actually send an email unless wp_mail() has been overloaded in which case all bets are off.  Please visit the Settings page first to determine if wp_mail() has been overloaded.  If it has, do not send any email but let me know which plugin or theme has overloaded wp_mail().

Email Users Beta (4986 downloads )

WordPress Google Form v0.58-beta-2 available

I have just released beta-2 of WordPress Google Form v0,58.  This update addresses a couple of significant issues, notably the inability to disable some of the default options.

The problem with the default settings  based on checkboxes is described pretty well in this article by Devin Price.  I was dealing with the essentially the same problem Devin describes although my solution is slightly different, his solution was helpful in fixing this problem.

While fixing this problem I also added a new Reset button which appears on the Advanced tab.  This Reset button will reset the plugin to use the default settings.

This beta release also includes a fix to address the problem when an ampersand appears in a text box on a multi-page form.  This problem was reported on WordPress Support Forum.

Google Forms Beta (7963 downloads )