4.2.1-beta1

Full Changelog: 4.2.0...4.2.1-beta1

Version 4.2.0

Release post: https://webberzone.com/announcements/contextual-related-posts-v4-2-0/

• Features:

  • [Pro] Multisite tool to copy Contextual Related Posts settings between sites from the Network Settings page.
  • [Pro] WooCommerce integration with ECSI-powered product indexing and related posts output on product pages. WooCommerce-related products output customisation options (thumbnail, sale badge, price, rating, and add to cart) and product filtering options.
  • [Pro] Server Load Threshold setting to skip CRP queries when MySQL is backlogged. Learn more.
  • [Pro] Bot Protection setting to short-circuit CRP for known crawlers and bots, preserving resources and analytics integrity.
  • [Pro] Comprehensive WP-CLI command suite for advanced management, including database operations, cache management, custom table indexing, and content processing. Commands include wp crp db, wp crp cache, wp crp tables indexes, and more, with full multisite support.
  • [Pro] If Pro is active, the plugin renames "Exclude Categories" and "Exclude on Categories" to "Exclude Terms" and "Exclude on Terms" with support for all public custom taxonomies.
  • Media Handler now supports the FIFU WordPress plugin for featured image detection.

• Modifications:

  • [Pro] Added a "Save & Clear Cache" button on the settings page to purge cached results immediately after saving changes.
  • Cache key generation differentiates between the HTML cache and the Posts cache. Cache key generation has been significantly optimized to limit the number of keys.
  • Improved Media Handler to reduce recursion, generate more reliable resized thumbnails, and better detect image alt text and attributes.
  • Settings framework refactored from static to instance methods with Tom Select-powered AJAX taxonomy search for a smoother admin experience.
  • Refreshed built-in related posts styles (grid, masonry, rounded thumbs and thumbs grid) with CSS custom properties for improved responsiveness and easier theming.
  • Migrated post meta storage from single crp_post_meta array to individual _crp_* keys for better performance and compatibility. Includes a backward compatibility layer and an admin migration tool.
  • Updated custom table sync to generate a post excerpt if the post doesn't contain one. It will also include the keyword set in the meta field.
  • CRP_Core_Query class now accepts post_id as the primary parameter, supporting both integer and WP_Post object types. The legacy postid parameter is deprecated and will trigger a warning; it will be removed in a future release.
  • Change CRP_CACHE_TIME to a week, down from a month.
  • Updated bundled Freemius SDK to version 2.13.0.

• Bug fixes:

  • Fixed a missing echo in the Media Handler that could prevent some image markup from being printed in specific cases.
  • Improved translation string handling in the settings UI and adjusted Plugin Check rules to avoid false positives.
  • Fixed display issue with special characters (like ™ and ®) in post titles.
  • CRP_Core_Query was incorrectly called more than once within the same request.

Full Changelog: 4.1.0...4.2.0

4.2.0-RC1

Changelog

• Features:

  • [Pro] Multisite tool to copy Contextual Related Posts settings between sites from the Network Settings page.
  • [Pro] WooCommerce integration with ECSI-powered product indexing and related posts output on product pages. WooCommerce-related products output customisation options (thumbnail, sale badge, price, rating, and add to cart) and product filtering options.
  • [Pro] Server Load Threshold setting to skip CRP queries when MySQL is backlogged. Learn more.
  • [Pro] Bot Protection setting to short-circuit CRP for known crawlers and bots, preserving resources and analytics integrity.
  • [Pro] Comprehensive WP-CLI command suite for advanced management, including database operations, cache management, custom table indexing, and content processing. Commands include wp crp db, wp crp cache, wp crp tables indexes, and more, with full multisite support.
  • [Pro] If Pro is active, the plugin renames "Exclude Categories" and "Exclude on Categories" to "Exclude Terms" and "Exclude on Terms" with support for all public custom taxonomies.
  • Media Handler now supports the FIFU WordPress plugin for featured image detection.

• Modifications:

  • [Pro] Added a "Save & Clear Cache" button on the settings page to purge cached results immediately after saving changes.
  • Cache key generation differentiates between the HTML cache and the Posts cache. Cache key generation has been significantly optimized to limit the number of keys.
  • Improved Media Handler to reduce recursion, generate more reliable resized thumbnails, and better detect image alt text and attributes.
  • Settings framework refactored from static to instance methods with Tom Select-powered AJAX taxonomy search for a smoother admin experience.
  • Migrated post meta storage from single crp_post_meta array to individual _crp_* keys for better performance and compatibility. Includes a backward compatibility layer and an admin migration tool.
  • Updated custom table sync to generate a post excerpt if the post doesn't contain one. It will also include the keyword set in the meta field.
  • CRP_Core_Query class now accepts post_id as the primary parameter, supporting both integer and WP_Post object types. The legacy postid parameter is deprecated and will trigger a warning; it will be removed in a future release.
  • Change CRP_CACHE_TIME to a week, down from a month.
  • Updated bundled Freemius SDK to version 2.13.0.

• Bug fixes:

  • Fixed a missing echo in the Media Handler that could prevent some image markup from being printed in specific cases.
  • Improved translation string handling in the settings UI and adjusted Plugin Check rules to avoid false positives.
  • Fixed display issue with special characters (like ™ and ®) in post titles.
  • CRP_Core_Query was incorrectly called more than once within the same request.

What's Changed

• Fixed Function in class-bulk-edit.php by @DAnn2012 in #220

New Contributors

• @DAnn2012 made their first contribution in #220

Full Changelog: 4.1.0...4.2.0-RC1

Version 4.1.0

Release post: https://webberzone.com/announcements/contextual-related-posts-v4-1-0/

• Features:

  • New Wizard to guide users through the setup process.

• Modifications:

  • Renamed CRP_VERSION, CRP_PLUGIN_FILE, CRP_PLUGIN_DIR and CRP_PLUGIN_URL constants to WZ_CRP_VERSION, WZ_CRP_PLUGIN_FILE, WZ_CRP_PLUGIN_DIR and WZ_CRP_PLUGIN_URL respectively to avoid conflicts with other plugins.
  • New function crp_get_blog_option() to fetch an option from a specific blog in WordPress multisite.
  • Better handling of options if they haven't been set.
  • Fulltext indexes are now named wz_title_content, wz_title, and wz_content to ensure compatibility and optimize database space, especially when using Contextual Related Posts. After updating to this version, please recreate the indexes to benefit from the changes—until then, the plugin will use the previous index names.
  • [Pro] Improved the UI and functionality of the Custom Table indexing process.
  • [Pro] Multisite Settings page for Enhanced Content Search Index (ECSI) has been modified.

• Bug fixes:

  • Fixed ordering issue on pages when "Same taxonomies" is selected.
  • Set the postid if it's different from the queried object in the Core Query class.
  • Fixed conflict with WPML showing the current post incorrectly.
  • Fixed an issue where activating the Pro plugin while the Free plugin was active, or vice versa, would cause a fatal error.

Full Changelog: 4.0.3...4.1.0

Version 4.0.3

Changelog

Bug fixes:
* Shortcode attributes were not properly sanitized.
* Cache keys were not being generated correctly resulting in duplicate cache keys.
* Custom CSS styles were not loaded correctly when using the Related Posts Widget only.

Full Changelog: 4.0.2...4.0.3

4.0.3-beta1

Full Changelog: 4.0.2...4.0.3-beta1

Version 4.0.2

Changelog

• Enhancements:

  • Optimized cache clearing operations by using direct SQL queries. The cache clear button will also return the number of keys deleted. Optimized cache key generation to improve performance and reduce number of cache keys.

• Bug fixes:

  • Fixed an issue where Exclude Posts stopped working.

Full Changelog: 4.0.1...4.0.2

Version 4.0.1

• Modifications:

  • Added new admin notice if any fulltext indexes are missing.

• Bug fixes:

  • The post_content index was not created.

Full Changelog: 4.0.0...4.0.1

Version 4.0.0

Release post: https://webberzone.com/blog/contextual-related-posts-v4-0-0/

• Features:

  • [Pro] New: Efficient Content Storage and Indexing - Custom tables implementation for better performance and query optimization while maintaining the same relevance algorithm
  • [Pro] Added MAX_EXECUTION_TIME hint to MySQL queries. You can now set the maximum execution time for CRP queries in the Settings page.
  • [Pro] New setting to configure cache time for related posts with options ranging from 1 hour to 1 year.
  • [Pro] Added new setting to add tracking parameters to related post URLs. The following UTM parameters will be added:
    • utm_source: contextual-related-posts
    • utm_medium: related-posts
    • utm_campaign: crp-plugin
    • utm_content: {source-post-id}-to-{target-post-id}
  • [Pro] Introduced a feature to designate cornerstone posts, which are key articles or pages on your site. These cornerstone posts will appear at random positions in the related posts list, ensuring they receive more visibility and help guide your audience to the most important content on your site.
  • [Pro] New: Taxonomy weight system for more precise matching

• Enhancements/Modifications:

  • Enabled drag-and-drop functionality for reordering manual posts in the Metabox.
  • Added new parse_wp_query_arguments helper method to parse the comma-separated list of IDs and convert them to arrays for WP_Query compatibility
  • Renamed class CRP() to CRP_Core_Query()

Full Changelog: 3.6.2...4.0.0

4.0.0-RC1

• Features:

  • [Pro] New: Efficient Content Storage and Indexing - Custom tables implementation for better performance and query optimization while maintaining the same relevance algorithm
  • [Pro] Added MAX_EXECUTION_TIME hint to MySQL queries. You can now set the maximum execution time for CRP queries in the Settings page.
  • [Pro] New setting to configure cache time for related posts with options ranging from 1 hour to 1 year.
  • [Pro] Added new setting to add tracking parameters to related post URLs. The following UTM parameters will be added:
    • utm_source: contextual-related-posts
    • utm_medium: related-posts
    • utm_campaign: crp-plugin
    • utm_content: {source-post-id}-to-{target-post-id}
  • [Pro] Introduced a feature to designate cornerstone posts, which are key articles or pages on your site. These cornerstone posts will appear at random positions in the related posts list, ensuring they receive more visibility and help guide your audience to the most important content on your site.
  • [Pro] New: Taxonomy weight system for more precise matching

• Enhancements/Modifications:

  • Enabled drag-and-drop functionality for reordering manual posts in the Metabox.
  • Added new parse_wp_query_arguments helper method to parse the comma-separated list of IDs and convert them to arrays for WP_Query compatibility
  • Renamed class CRP() to CRP_Core_Query()

Full Changelog: 4.0.0-beta2...4.0.0-RC1