Changelog

Following feedback from many of our partners, we’re releasing a bunch of enhancements and fixes to the newly introduced Multi-store sidebar in our Developer Dashboard this week.

Better Stores and Products list navigation

We are now showing the number of products associated with a store when browsing the STORES list.

This will indicate if a store has no product. We hope this will be useful for identifying ‘accidentally’ created stores that you may no longer want to use and would like to delete.

When creating a new product under a store, the sidebar will now show the Stores header with the Products page being highlighted to better reflect what status you’re in.

The add-ons will now appear with a better UI to indicate which product they are under.

Following feedback, we have started adding a tooltip to show the full name of the product when hovering. This is useful if you have many products with similar names that are ‘trimmed’ to accommodate the space.

Improved search UX

When searching through products (which will only show up if you have more than 7 products), we now hide the Store title so that you can focus on the product names themselves.

Developer Dashboard

• Fixed edge case bug that prevented users from going to the SETTINGS page of an empty store.
• Fixed a related edge case bug where if you left the Developer Dashboard from an empty store and then logged in again, you would land on a broken Store Dashboard page.
• Added configuration to increase upload size for deployments for specific products.
• Fixed an issue where clicking on the Count cell of the deployment page didn’t take it to the correct page.

Freemius API/Backend

• Fixed an issue in store scoped endpoint for handling a license entity belonging to a developer.
• Allowed larger file upload size limit for specific products.

Backend/API

• Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS)-related enhancements, and supporting CORS for the /checkout/geo.json API endpoint.
• We began supporting the licensing unit in the ‘Cart Recovery Email’ system.
• Added Kinsta staging URL support.
• Improved the currency auto-detection in the checkout.
• Fixed the Affiliate Coupons API endpoint issue that was preventing the new Multi-store Developer Dashboard from creating/reading coupons related to affiliates.

Developer Dashboard

• Fixed broken links in the Deployment product page.

Backend/API

• Copy fixes for non-bundled products’ EULA.
• We now allow a minimum value of 2.9 when setting pricing.

Developer Dashboard

• Fixed a bug in the Analytics Filtering UI, where it would show “Multiple Plans” although only one plan was selected.

As another push to bring the Multi-store Developer Dashboard out of beta, we are glad to announce the following big features:

Multi-currency sales analytics

For those of you who are selling with multiple currencies, you’ll be glad to know that we’ve included a new feature in the Sales Analytics page to show all your transactions with a Foreign Exchange rate. Previously you could select only one currency at a time.

After getting some feedback from our partners, we have included a special “FX USD” currency which will take all your transactional data and convert the non-USD currencies with the current day’s exchange rates.

Refreshed Sidebar

This has also been on our to-do list for a long time. Before taking the Multi-store Developer Dashboard out of beta, we wanted to make sure we are giving a simple and intuitive experience when switching between stores and products.

Following several rounds of feedback and many brainstorming sessions within the team, we’ve come up with a sleek tabular interface to list and switch between all your stores and products.

You can click on any of the tab buttons and it will show you the corresponding list. You may click on it again and it will toggle you back to the current view.

Improved date picker in the Analytics pages

To make the date pickers in the analytics page more intuitive, we have made the following changes.

• When you pick a date on the sales and audience analytics pages, the UI – if needed – will automatically change the resolution (from daily, weekly, monthly, etc.) to best accommodate the dates you have selected.
• When you are changing the resolution, the dates you’ve selected may get changed to accommodate the resolution.

In the future, we want any resolution to support any date ranges. Right now. there are some limitations, for example:

• The “Weekly” resolution will only return data from a Sunday to Saturday, no matter what date you’ve selected.
• Similarly, the “Monthly” resolution will only return data from the first of the selected month.
• For this reason, on the main Dashboard page, we have temporarily disabled selecting custom dates.

We are working on a mechanism to fix this ASAP. Please stay tuned.

Showing deleted entities in Sales Analytics filtering

We noticed that the new Sales Analytics filter was neglecting any deleted plans, billing cycles, licenses, etc. For the time being, we are handling this by adding a new filter option called “Deleted Licenses” in all filters (checked by default, if any).

We are working on a robust solution to be able to see and filter through the deleted plans/licenses/billing cycles, etc.

Miscellaneous fixes

• Fixed a regression when plans of a product are not loaded properly when switching between products of different stores.
• Fixed regression when the “Integration Code” pop-up would appear incorrectly when navigating to the plans page.
• Fixed regression when deleting pricing didn’t work.
• Fixed regression when the “Sales Analytics” incorrectly started to show up for non-monetizing products.

• Implemented a mechanism to disable user notification emails for a specific product (upon request by the product owner).
• Fixed “Special Coupons” handling in the new “Setup Checklist” system.
• Added exchange rates in the API endpoint related to the Developer Dashboard to make the FX currency work.
• Fixed an edge case issue that was happening when deleting a user who was already associated with another user with the same email address.
• Fixed an issue in the store creation endpoint to auto-assign default values.
• Various visual improvements to our blog.

License unit concept in User Dashboard and emails

After receiving feedback, we have implemented features to introduce a license unit in our User Dashboard and emails sent by Freemius. We’ve always associated licenses with ‘sites’ or ‘websites’ where they are active. We called it the same, for example: ‘Single-Site License’ or ‘5-Site License’, etc. But some of our partners required more and needed a way to customize it. For example, if one is selling licenses per user, then they may want to call it ‘5-User License’.

Given the usage, we didn’t feel we needed to introduce a system-wide configuration. Instead, we enabled the feature, and only when requested by a partner specifically. So if you need to customize the unit associated with a license, please get in touch with us by clicking the ‘Help’ button from the Developer Dashboard.

Miscellaneous changes

• FIX: Edge case bug fix when activating sites from a WordPress Multi Site Network.
• FIX: Some edge case scenarios with refund mechanisms involving VAT.
• UPDATE: Some LastPass-related compatibility fixes in the User Dashboard.

Following on from our previous release of “UX improvement in the new Product Form“, we’ve been developing a robust onboarding system for our new and existing partners.

The Freemius platform provides many features for our partners. There is a lot to explore: from email white-labeling and special coupons to automated marketing.

Up until now, developers had to figure out things for themselves without structured guidance. With this release, we are proud to announce that such a system is now available in our Beta Developer Dashboard.

Exploring the Setup Checklist

On the bottom left of the product sidebar, please click on the new button Setup Checklist. This will take you to the page with instructions and actionable items for you to finish setting up your product.

If you don’t see this button, it simply means that your product is completely set up according to the recommended steps.

Completing the checklist

Depending on your product, you might see up to three checklist sections.

Get Started Checklist

This is the bare minimum you’ll need to complete to make your product work with Freemius. Once you’ve finished it, the items will be automatically marked as checked.

You can also click on the grey Checkbox icon to temporarily dismiss an item. Once you finish the setup, the item will be marked as done by our system.

Customize Checklist

These are the steps to ‘while-label’ or ‘customize’ Freemius to behave like your existing website. For example, you might have a website domain https://my-awesome-plugin.com and would like Freemius to send emails from [email protected]. This list will show you how to do that.

Generally, these items are not mandatory and Freemius can work without them, but we highly recommend that you follow the walkthrough and finish setting them up.

You can click on the button on the right to dismiss an item.

Grow Checklist

These steps will help you get the most out of Freemius. Things like special coupons and the affiliate program appear here. Just as before, none of these steps are mandatory and you may dismiss any items you don’t want.

Some FAQs related to the Setup page

Do I need to complete all the steps to sell with Freemius?

All items apart from the Get Started list are optional. Please use the Setup Checklist page as a guide to understanding what you can do with Freemius. You are free to choose which items you want and can dismiss the items not relevant to you.

I dismissed an item but now I’d like to use it. Is there a way to access it?

Click on the Green Checkbox button again to reactivate the item. Or, you can simply follow the instruction and take the necessary steps. The item will be marked as done automatically.

I see some items crossed out with a green checkbox and I can’t click it. What’s up?

Those items are marked as ‘done’ by our system because you’ve already followed the required steps. Since there’s no point in toggling its status, it now appears as read-only.

Do I need to register a new product to start using this system?

Absolutely not. If you have a product with Freemius – no matter for how long – you will find the new button when you visit the product page from the Developer Dashboard. If the button is not appearing, it means your product is 100% set up.

Beta Developer Dashboard fixes

• FIX: The /stores/ landing page was creating a broken layout in some instances.
• FIX: Redirect to the first available plugin from the first available store if logging in to the new system for the first time.
• FIX (Internal): Certain store-related pages were not working due to some race conditions.
• FIX: Incorrect store name being shown on the menu when a store is freshly edited (from the settings page).
• FIX: Upgrade button not linking to the proper URL (relevant to products that are not selling with Freemius).
• FIX (Internal): Navigating to top-level pages could sometime mess with the selected store in the sidebar menu.
• FIX: Accessing coupons from store level + adding notes to coupons.

Freemius API-related updates

• FIX: Rare edge case where an opted-in website’s properties were not being updated.
• FIX: Edge case bug fix of the unit price calculation for unlimited-site prices in the invoice.

Miscellaneous updates

• FIX (Affiliate): Make sure we don’t attribute payments/subscriptions if the affiliate program is no longer active.
• FIX (Automation): For sending wrong missing payout notifications on rare edge cases.

WordPress supports a special Requires PHP header in a plugin’s readme.txt file. If this has been implemented but the current web host is not running a compatible PHP version, WordPress blocks plugin updates.

Following feedback from our partners, we have added the same capability to our SDK and deployment strategy. If you include the Requires PHP header in your plugin’s readme.txt file, the SDK will show an appropriate notice on the update page and will block updates when needed.

You will also be able to see the new information under the Developer Dashboard’s Deployment page. We have added a new column: Min PHP Version.

The above feature will only work for new deployments as of today. Also, please note that you’ll need to update the Freemius SDK to v2.5.3 to fully utilize this feature.

We’ve always included a built-in support form in our User Dashboard. From there, a user can contact the developer directly if they have any product issues. The developer will receive an email in their support mailbox when contacted.

We recently received queries from our partners asking if there’s a way to direct users to a custom support page instead. We are pleased to announce that this feature has now been implemented.

Adding a custom Support Form URL

From the Developer Dashboard, navigate to My Store by clicking on your profile icon at the top right.

On the My Store page, you’ll see a new input called Support Form. You can enter a valid URL there.

If you are using the Beta Developer Dashboard, go to the Store Settings page from the left-hand sidebar.

Once there, you’ll see the Support Form input.

How it shows up in the User Dashboard

After you’ve configured the custom Support Form URL, the user will see a Continue button when they open the User Dashboard and go to the Support menu. Clicking the Continue button will take them to the configured URL.

We received a report about agreeing to receive security updates as stipulated by our marketing consent form.

The form asks the user if they would like to receive security updates along with feature updates, educational content, and occasional offers. However, this means that we are not giving users a choice but to consent to receive security updates along with others.

We collect consent on behalf of our partners, but we can’t predict what will be included in the emails they send to their users. Therefore, the reason for including security updates on the form was to cover general permissions for the most common email types

Last week, we removed the word “security” from the checkout’s marketing consent form. Please see the updated copy below.

Did you know that you can easily switch/transfer product ownership with Freemius? To get started, go to Teams in your Developer Dashboard, which is available as a standalone menu in the Beta Developer Dashboard. From there, you can add new team members.

Once a team member is added, you can assign a position for them in the Role column, which includes making them an Owner.

As an enhancement, the Developer Dashboard will also clearly state which period(s) of earning(s) will be paid to the new Owner.

We hope this will avoid any confusion around earnings when switching ownership. The changes are live on both the Developer Dashboard and the Beta Developer Dashboard.

Freemius supports selling in multiple currencies. As a partner, you can go to the PLANS sections of the Developer Dashboard to set up pricing in currencies other than the default USD.

Selling in multiple currencies does require setting up different payouts. However, we won’t ask you to do that unless you have pending balances in other currencies.

To automate the process, we’ll send an email notification to you if you reach a predetermined payout balance in another currency for which you have not yet set up a payout method.

The above image shows the first-time email notification you’ll receive if you have unpaid amounts in another currency…

… and the next image shows follow-up reminder email notifications.

Setting up payouts in multiple currencies

Please follow our official guide on Getting Paid.

When you start configuring your Payout Method(s), you’ll see an option to set different payout methods for all configured currencies.

Freemius has been working on bringing the Beta Developer Dashboard into production for the past few weeks. Apart from various bug fixes, we’ve been focused on building a great UX for when:

• you create a new product.
• a new user visits the Developer Dashboard for the first time.

We are happy to announce that our latest changes to significantly improve the new product form’s UX have landed.

You will see the new product form when:

• creating a product for the very first time.
• adding a product from the sidebar.
• adding a product from a store or a bundle.
• creating a new Add-on for your WordPress plugin or theme.

The product form will ask you a series of questions to create a tailored presentation of all the amazing options Freemius has in “Store” for you 😉 For example:

• It is now possible to create a new store while creating a new WordPress product. You can select from your available stores if you don’t want to create a new one.
• The system will automatically create a free plan for you based on your selection so that you don’t have to do it manually.
• After creating a product, the Developer Dashboard app will take you to another page that lets you determine what you need to do next.

This is the first phase of a series of improvements coming on the Beta Developer Dashboard. Stay tuned for more.

Other improvements and bug fixes

• You can now add a Widget or Template to a Plugin and/or Theme when creating a new product under a bundle. Navigate to <Your Bundle> > Products > ADD PRODUCT > CREATE NEW PRODUCT to check it out.
• The bundled product will be created under the same store as the Bundle itself. However, you may change the newly created Bundled Product’s store on its Settings page.

• When creating an Add-on from a plugin in the past, it was possible that – in some edge cases – the Add-on could be created under a different store, which made it harder to find on the menu. Going forward, a newly created Add-on will belong to the same store as the original Plugin. However, you’ll still have the option to migrate the Add-on only to another store.