What’s new?

Version 5.1.1

Release date: January 17, 2021

Version 5.1.1 contains some important changes. To improve maintainability, the Data Publisher library file structure was changed. Your publications should continue to work correctly, but some css settings might need your attention. The response icon specifically might be shown in the original green color, even if your css is designed to show it in another color. Icon padding may also not be sufficient. Please check your publications after the update. Click here to fix the icon color and padding…

Global publication styling was removed from the free version and improved in the premium version. My apologies if you have been using this features as a free user. It is not my intention to swap features from the free to the premium version, but this improvement is necessary to keep the plugin clean and improve maintainability (the plugin size was reduced by >30% since version 4.3). In return I have added some new styles for free and premium users which are available directly from the Data Publisher.

• Premium Data Publisher
  • Premium extention management
    • User friendly Search Builder (now with server side processing support)
    • Export and display buttons
    • Arrange publication elements (drag and drop)
  • Improved global and local styling (jQuery UI, Bootstrap 3, 4 and 5, Bulma, Foundation and Semantic)
• Free Data Publisher
  • Improved publication styling
  • Removed global styling
• Hide Manage link in Data Explorer for specific admin users
• Added pagination to chart table (Please note this is NOT the same as server side processing! Keep your chart and chart table data sets small. Use the Data Publisher for large data sets.)
• Several bug fixes and improvements

Version 5.1.0

Release date: December 14, 2021

• The Visual Query Builder (premium) helps users with no or little SQL knowledge to write SQL queries using a intuitive graphical user interface
• Added support for user location search to geo maps
• Several bug fixes and small improvements

Version 5.0.0

Release date: November 04, 2021

Version 5 is the biggest update so far. It introduces some new features and a new way user interface while maintaining all old features and functionality. There is a short video available to help you getting started. Please watch it to get familiar with the new features and user interface. It will be worth it.

New features (all new features are shown in the tutorial)

• To simplify navigation, WordPress sub menus have been replaced by a dashboard menu
• Links in page headers have been moved to a content specific icon toolbar
• Dashboards and widgets are new features
• Admin users can create (multiple) dashboards and (multiple) widgets
• Widgets can be added (and rearranged) to dashboards
  • Publication widgets
  • Project widgets (premium only – executed as Data Forms)
  • Chart widgets (NEW)
  • Custom code widgets (NEW – requires the Code Manager to be installed)
  • Database info widgets (NEW)
• Non-admin users can be authorized to create their own (multiple) dashboards (premium only)
• Non-admin users can be authorized to use existing widgets and add them to their own dashboards (premium only)
• Widgets can be shared (premium only: feature is only available to admins)
  • allow non-admin users to use widgets on dashboards
  • on a public page with a shortcode
  • on external pages with a longcode

Dashboards and widgets are available for free and premium users. Saving and sharing widgets requires a premium license.

Version 5 is launched in 3 phases

• Version 5.0 contains dashboard and widget support
• Version 5.1 adds a visual component to the Query Builder (first quarter 2022)
• Version 5.2 allows to connect to many different data sources (tentative for summer 2022)

There will be intermediate releases as well

The visual component of the Query Builder, planned to be added in version 5.1, will assist users with limited or no SQL knowledge to build SQL queries. Version 5.2 will be able to connect to many different external data sources via a proxy. The proxy will be managed by Passionate Programmers. This is planned as a premium service. When version 5.2 is launched, premium users will be able to connect to many different data sources without the need to map data sources to a table. Mapping will be done automatically, but this feature will have limitations!

Examples of intended supported data sources: MS Access, SQL Server, Oracle, ProgreSQL, MongoDB, JSON, XML, TXT, CSV and many more. RDBMS connections will be in real time. Data files and services will be cached at configurable intervals.

The ultimate goal for next year: connect to any data source and publish anywhere

Other improvements

• Data Forms menu handling
• Publications can now be tested directly from the publication list table
• Added SQL hints to Query Builder
• Bug fixes