What’s New In WPCloud Deploy 3.0.0

Version 3.0.0 might sound like it’s a big release with lots of new features. However, to the disappointed of a few folks, that’s just not the case.

There are two reasons we are shifting the first number to “3”:

1. We did some work on the UI so the “look and feel” is different from the 2.x.x line; and
2. Our prior release was version 2.9.0 so the next logical number seemed to be 3.0.0. Somehow 2.10.0 seemed like an odd version number – we don’t like double-digit middle versioning like that.

Anyway, let’s take a look at what’s really in this release.

Revamped: UI

In August we sponsored a private independent review of the plugin to get feedback on how it could be improved. Most of the results, as expected, were centered around the UI. We intend to take this feedback to heart and with this release have implemented the first phase – tackling the lowest hanging fruit.

Thus, the user interface has been revamped to:

• Introduce more white space
• Use our branding colors
• Make things easier on the eyes
• Offer better feedback during key operations

The key changes are centered around the SERVER DETAIL, SITE DETAIL, SETTINGS and PROVISIONING screens.

The SERVER screen now looks like this:

Some of the changes on this screen includes:

• Use of our brand colors
• Larger tabs
• More white space between tabs, sections and other key areas.
• Larger fonts
• Key information is more prominent
• Layered use of font sizes – larger items at the top, font sizes getting smaller as you move down each section.

The biggest UI changes though are on the SITE/APPLICATION screens:

Here we’ve introduce the use of vertical tabs and a split-screen color scheme for the main functional area.

We’ve also adopted a similar set of vertical tabs on the SETTINGS screen.

DEPLOYING (Provisioning) a new server now has a split screen model as well:

And as you might expect, deploying a new site also adopts this new model:

Minor Changes

• Since we introduced vertical tabs in the APPLICATIONS / SITE detail screen, we added an option to revert to the horizontal tabs. You can find this in the SETTINGS screen under WPCLOUD DEPLOY->SETTINGS->WORDPRESS SETTINGS
• There is now a new option to remove the GENERAL tab from the settings screen. For most admins, after using the information on that tab for a bit it’s no longer needed. So now it can be removed which would make the first tab the CLOUD PROVIDERS tab.
• The drop-downs for the server sizes have been removed from the CLOUD PROVIDERS settings. They just aren’t needed in a WORDPRESS APP.
• The INSTALL WORDPRESS button is no longer an option while the server is being deployed or if the server metas indicate that an operation is on-going.
• The PERMISSION LIST was removed since it’s not something that is usually used by admins. It can be re-enabled with a WP-CONFIG.php entry.
• WordPress 5.5 introduced “handlebars” on metaboxes which needed to be removed from the SETTINGS screen.
• In version 2.9.0 we added in some restrictions on which PHP functions could be used by plugins and themes. We’ve removed some functions from the restricted list in this release.
• In version 2.9.0 we introduced the use of certain session restrictions in the PHP configuration. Unfortunately it conflicted with a couple of well-known plugins. So we’re undoing that – admins can still add in those restrictions if they wish.
• Some terms were not being run through the translation functions so we cleaned those up.

Wrap Up

We’ve going to be moving away from using the term “provisioning”, replacing it with ‘deploy’ and it’s derivatives. After all, ‘deploy’ is in our product name! We started that process in this release and will continue it in future releases.

But, you’re probably wondering when you’ll be able to get your hands on this new version? Don’t sweat – it’s available for download now – just login to your account screen and it’ll be there waiting for you.