Prevent saving empty meta in database

Basically what this does is it prevents any value for a meta field, that is an empty string, or an empty array, from being saved to the database, ultimately meaning your database should only store actual values.  The reason this was not something already done is because of the way the core WP Job Manager plugin works.  It does not check if the value should be saved based on “what” the value is, it just checks if it was submitted with the form and saves it.  For example, if you have a field that is not required, when it is submitted through the form, it is still saved to the database as an empty value (by the core WP Job Manager plugin).  This update adds handling in my plugin that will check every custom or customized field for this.  Please note you must have saved the field using my plugin for this functionality to work on the field.  Even if you don’t want to make any changes to the field, just click on Edit in my plugin, and then save, and it will save the field configuration and the field will now be a “customized” one (even if you didn’t change anything).

This should help alleviate unnecessary database rows and ultimately make your site run faster!  This handling works both in the admin and frontend.  If you want to see it in action, enable the Post Meta Inspector from Debug tab (Field Editor Configuration Page) and try it out in the admin area!

If you want to disable this in the Frontend or Admin area, just add this your child theme’s functions.php file (omit the <?php, there only needs to be one at the top of the functions.php file),  or using the Code Snippets plugin:

https://gist.github.com/tripflex/b2ef3cc6fc1363d0f9cc39af0ee47eac

Include Field Meta in REST API

As there are many mobile apps starting to come out soon (Cariera), some of them will use REST API (or maybe even you do for external services).  A new setting is available under the “Advanced” tab when editing a field, where you can enable this setting.  Please note you will not see this setting for any taxonomy fields as those should already be handled natively depending on how you setup/created custom taxonomies.

Multiple Meta Keys in Auto Populate

You can now use multiple meta key in the auto populate feature!  All you have to do is separate them by a space and the plugin will handle the rest.  As an example, if you wanted to populate a field with a user’s full name, you would just enter first_name last_name in the auto populate field (take note of the space).

Astoundify Companies Plugin

This release adds support for the Astoundify Companies Plugin (yes there’s another one out there), albeit in beta though so please make sure to report any issues you have!  Unfortunately for me with all of the different company plugins out there, and integrations in different themes, it makes it much more difficult to maintain compatibility (or even add it), as they are using different post types, or many other changes/differences that I have to make sure to account for.  This release adds the initial support for the Astoundify version, but there unfortunately is only about 3 or 4 auto output locations available (due to the plugin itself not having hooks in many locations).

If you’re still looking for a Companies plugin I would recommend the free MAS Companies one or the Cariera theme which has it built in, as Astoundify for some reason removed me from their Slack Channel.  Support for this plugin is provided for clients who are already using this plugin, if you are not already, i do not recommend it.

If anything I suggest the Cariera theme as this developer is very active and we stay in constant contact to maintain compatibility.

Other Updates

There’s numerous other updates and fixes included with this release, head on over to the changelog to check them out!

This plugin functions pretty much the same as the Job Alerts addon plugin (from wpjobmanager.com), but specifically for Resumes.  There has been numerous requests from clients for this plugin, I hope you guys enjoy it and can’t wait to see what you’re able to build with it!

You can get a copy of the plugin at the link below:

https://plugins.smyl.es/wp-job-manager-resume-alerts/

https://plugins.smyl.es/wp-job-manager-search-and-filtering

It’s hard to believe, but this plugin has been in development for almost 2 years now, and as some of you probably already know if you’re using my plugins, i’m very detailed and picky about having amazing features, that work correctly. I am very happy to say is probably one of the ones i’m most excited about!

Over the past 7 years of developing and supporting both WP Job Manager (core plugin), and my WP Job Manager addon plugins, i’ve helped over 20,000 users to build out their own site using WP Job Manager and/or my addons, and I used that experience to build out one of my best plugins yet.

If there’s one thing i’ve learned from those users, and those who have provided me with feedback — getting your site setup for the first time, can be a daunting and sometimes challenge task. 

As such, I put extra effort and time into building a plugin that is easy to setup, configure, and change, right after installation.  Frontend editing is the future of websites, and having a drag and drop UI interface for this plugin was a must.  A lot of time was spent working with theme developers and working on compatibility to make sure compatibility was available right out the gate.

I want to thank both the Cariera and WorkScout developers as they worked with me for well over a month to add updates and compatibility changes specifically for the Search and Filtering plugin.

This plugin came completely out of the requests and feedback I received from clients, asking about this handling in the Field Editor plugin, and also requesting custom work for specific customizations.  The reason this was not something built into the Field Editor plugin, was because doing so would not bring justice to the Search and Filtering fields.  Had I tried to implement a feature for this in the field editor plugin, it would have resulted in a sub-par feature set, and essentially very limited capabilities and tons of issues.

Thankfully I did not go that route, as after getting in deep with development I realized how much work would be involved with this (5x what I expected).  The benefit of doing this as well, is all the amazing features i’m able to bring to you guys in this plugin.  My goal with building plugins now is to make it is easy as possible on the end user (you) to build your WP Job Manager site, with limited to no knowledge of WordPress or WP Job Manager.  Everybody starts somewhere, right?

One of the benefits of how I built out this plugin as well, is how I used a modern frontend JavaScript framework for the majority of the heavy lifting.  This allows me to add new field types, and features with very limited development work, that can be easily integrated into the plugin.  While that is great for me, and you (because features get released quicker), that’s not the best part!

The BEST part about this, is that I have set this up so the plugin ONLY loads the javascript files needed for your site, based on your setup/configuration, and the fields that you’re using! Yes, you read that right, this plugin will dynamically load the required javascript files, based on the fields you’re using!  You would assume this would be standard practice, but for WordPress it is not.  The majority of sites that take very long to load or are excessive in size, is because of the amount of unused code that is being loaded on the site, because the developer of that theme/plugin has to write their code to support all features, and all possible use case situations.

For example, if you’re not using the Range Slider field type, that javascript code will not be loaded on your site.  If it is being used, the javascript file will be “lazy” loaded (meaning loaded after the page initially shows) using a method called “chunking”.  While this may not seem like a big deal, when you add up every single field type, and every bit of added functionality, it can decrease the size of the page by over 80%!  This is how i’m able to make it so the initial page load for Search and Filtering, is only 180kb.  That’s smaller than most images!  Had every field type, and functionality been included, it would be almost 1mb in size!

Same with when you’re in editing mode, because a lot of extra functionality is required, that functionality is only loaded for admins when they have permission to edit the sections.  The end result is faster loading times for your site, and happier end users.  This took a while to get working correctly with WordPress, but it was well worth it.

I’m so excited about this release, and can’t wait to see what kind of amazing things you guys come up with!

The initial release of the plugin comes with a ton of field types, including Standard Text Field, Locate Me (Geolocation) Text Field, Checkbox, Single Select Dropdown (Select2 or Element UI), Multi-Select Dropdown (Select2 or Element UI), Radio Buttons, Slider, Range Slider, Checklist, Button, Custom HTML Content, Spacer Grid Field, and WordPress Tag Cloud!

Some other field types in development right now, soon to be released, include:

• Google Map (with placement markers) – Estimated Release Jan 16-31, 2021
  – This can be used to show a map with listing locations (if theme does not already support one)
• Google Places Auto Complete/Suggest – Estimated Release Jan 9-16, 2021
• Hidden Field Type – Estimated Release Jan 9-16, 2021
• Date Picker (Range & Single) – Estimated Release Jan/Feb 2021
• Time Picker (Range & Single) – Estimated Release Jan/Feb 2021
• Star/Rating – Estimated Release Jan/Feb 2021
• Switch – Estimated Release Jan 9-16, 2021

After being heavily tested during the beta period, i’m also happy to say that this new frontend editing UI from Search and Filtering plugin, is also being built into the Field Editor v2 (to be released this year)!

I won’t go into all the details in this blog post, but head on over to the product page and check it out!

https://plugins.smyl.es/wp-job-manager-search-and-filtering

First and foremost, MAKE A BACKUP! After backing up your current copy of the Field Editor plugin, MAKE SURE that you thoroughly test the new version!

Reason being, this version switches from using Chosen.js to Select2, which the conditional logic, dynamic child taxonomies, and multiselect fields all rely on.  This update also changes a bit how fields are passed around in the plugin, as well as how auto output is handled.

There shouldn’t be any issues, but depending on your situation (theme, custom configuration, overrides, etc) there could be issues with the switch to Select2 (more details below).

This update also requires WP Job Manager to be a minimum version of 1.32.0 (released January 2019)

Chosen.JS to Select2

As mentioned above, this version switches from using Chosen.js to Select2 (which is standard for WP Job Manager now), the only reason that Chosen.js has been used up until now was I had to rewrite a lot of the conditional logic and dynamic child taxonomies code that was originally coded for Chosen.js.

With the switch to Select2, this opens up the ability for future features like the ability for users to add custom taxonomies from the submit form (coming soon), as well as mobile support for multiselect items, and ultimately better looking select boxes.

If at any time you want to switch back to using Chosen.js, you can do so via the Field Editor Settings page as shown in the screenshot below.  Enable the setting “Chosen”.  

Disable Select2 and use Chosen.JS

This is only recommended as a last resort if you’re having issues.  If you do have problems, please open a support ticket and let me know.  This update also required updates to these field template files:

• multiselect-field.php
• select-field.php 
• term-multiselect-field.php
• term-select-field.php

Please make sure if you’re using template overrides, that you update yours to support Select2.  Open a support ticket if you need help with this.

reCAPTCHA v2 Invisible

reCAPTCHA v2 Invisible

This release also adds support for “Invisible” reCAPTCHA from Google.  This reCAPTCHA type will automatically handle detecting if Google thinks the user is a bot or not, and will decide whether or not to show the reCAPTCHA challenge, whereas the original supported version was a checkbox that required the user to select it before they could submit a listing.

PLEASE NOTE you MUST configure an invisible API key in the settings if you wish to use this feature.  You can not use the original or any existing reCAPTCHA api keys that you have configured already.  This is very easy to setup, and you can do so from Google’s website.

Invisible reCAPTCHA Configuration

To configure using the invisible reCAPTCHA you can do so by selecting “Invisible” under the Size setting for reCAPTCHA.

You can see an example of this in the screenshot on the left.

Cariera Theme Support

After a lot of requests from clients for support with the Cariera theme and the developer of that theme being very responsive, we have spent a lot of time working together to bring you guys an amazing update with lots of features.

The most important update with the theme support, is the support for the Company Fields which is included natively with the Cariera theme.  The “Companies” included with Cariera is basically the same features that you get from WP Company Manager, which is why the integration and support of WP Company Manager, which was a major undertaking, went hand in hand with the Cariera theme.

Support for Cariera theme also includes formatting and the ability to define custom icons to use when using auto output in the “Job Overview”, “Resume Overview” and “Company Overview” area that you can see in the screenshot on the right.  In the Auto Output configuration this area is the “Meta Start”, “Meta End” and “Meta After” areas (for Job, Companies, and Resumes).

Cariera uses Font Awesome 5 Free icons, you can find them here.  Once you find the icon you want to use, just use the value from class for the <i> element.  For example if the icon would be <i class="fas fa-address-card"></i> then you should enter fas fa-address-card into the classes field in auto output configuration.

WP Company Manager Support

One of the biggest updates from this release (besides Select2) is the support for the WP Company Manager plugin.  You will now see a “Company Fields” menu item under the main Companies menu item, where you can use the Field Editor plugin to configure those fields (conditional logic coming soon).  Pretty much everything below also applies to Cariera theme companies.

You will still see the “Company Fields” sub-menu item under the Job Listings main menu, but those should only be one or two at the most (to configure fields like the “Select Company” on job submit page).  When using WP Company Manager (or Cariera) you should probably never need to edit or add fields here (under Job Listings menu item), as they should all be configured under the main “Companies” menu item for editing fields.

Auto Output

Auto output configuration under these new “Company” fields can be configured to output on both Job Listing pages and Company Listing pages (most commonly on job listings).  You should see all the same auto output locations that you have available under job fields.

Shortcodes

When you want to output a specific “Company” field on a Job Listing, you must make sure that you use the field_group="company_fields" parameter/argument, so the plugin knows that you’re trying to output a field that is actually from the “company” and not from a field called “company_name” saved on a job listing.

[company_field key="company_name" field_group="company_fields"]

PHP

This is exactly the same as above, when using PHP to pull values for “Company Fields” you need to specify field_group in the arguments passed to the function.  For example:

<?php the_custom_field( 'company_specific_field', null, array( 'field_group' => 'company_fields' ) ); ?>

The second argument in that function call is null because we want to let the plugin auto detect the Listing ID to pull that value from.  If you want to pull from a specific listing, pass that value instead of null.

Other Updates

A major fix that came around with the companies handling, was fixing issues with the same meta key being used in different field sections.  This required a bit of work to maintain compatibility (for pulling/displaying values and storing configurations), but is now completely possible.

WordPress 5.5 also introduced removing jQuery Migrate, which some of my older code relied on, this has also been fixed in the latest release.

There are also numerous other tweaks and enhancements made to the plugin while these features above were integrated, which is even more reason to make sure and test your site when upgrading!

You can view the full changelog here

1. You should NOT be testing this on a live production site!  This should ONLY be used on development environments!
2. There is currently no way to “Import” or “Convert” existing listings/companies to be used in the new plugin. I am however working on this feature, and need YOUR feedback to let me know how your existing “Companies” are setup!

Finally, by joining the program you agree to the Beta Terms and Conditions

Specifically — after 90 days the beta version will deactivate itself, so you must keep the plugin updated for it to keep working!

Please also join the chat server at https://chat.smyl.es to discuss issues and problems and provide feedback on the beta plugin!

To join the beta program, sign up here:

https://plugins.smyl.es/wp-company-manager

Overview Video:

1. You should NOT be testing this on a live production site!  This should ONLY be used on development environments!
2. If you are using the Capstone theme (version 1.7.2 or OLDER), there are some required file modifications until the theme developer makes changes to his theme to use the native WP Job Manager get_job_manager_template_part function instead of just get_template_part.Instructions on how you can do this yourself, can be found here:
   https://plugins.smyl.es/docs-kb/capstone-theme-changes-for-search-and-filtering-compatibility/
3. Automatic installation of default search and filtering fields is not included in the beta plugin yet, you MUST download the Default JSON Import Files ZIP and then import the JSON file for your theme (or just the default one if there is no specific one for the theme you’re using).
   Search_and_Filtering_Default_JSON_Files

Finally, by joining the program you agree to the Beta Terms and Conditions

Specifically — after 90 days the beta version will deactivate itself, so you must keep the plugin updated for it to keep working!

Please also join the chat server at https://chat.smyl.es to discuss issues and problems and provide feedback on the Search and Filtering beta!

To join the beta program, sign up here:

https://plugins.smyl.es/wp-job-manager-search-and-filtering

Overview Video:

Importing JSON Files:

Building Default Search/Filters Form:

WP Job Manager 1.32.0+ Support

As many of you should already know, as of WP Job Manager 1.32.0+ the core handling for multiselect fields has changed from using Chosen.JS library, to Select2  library.  The last blog post I created described in extensive detail why this caused such an issue for the Field Editor plugin, and included instructions on how to downgrade to prior version.

With the release of version 1.8.9, you no longer will need to downgrade to an older version of WP Job Manager!

Temporary Chosen.JS Compatibility

While version 1.32.0+ of WP Job Manager does switch to using Select2 natively, it does still include the Chosen.JS library for compatibility with themes/plugins that require it.  For this release of the Field Editor plugin, the easiest way to handle compatibility while I finish up Select2 integration, was to have WP Job Manager multiselect fields to fallback to using Chosen.JS.

This means you will not need to worry about upgrading to the latest version of WP Job Manager, and having issues with conditional logic, dynamic child taxonomies, or multiselect specific field configurations like max selected, and more.

This release also adds and updates support for mobile devices, and all the features included with the Field Editor plugin, as that was one of the main reasons behind the core switch from Chosen.JS to Select2.  See the “Mobile Device Support” section below for more details.

This does not cause any issues with fields like searching for user in admin area that uses Select2.

If you want to read more specifics on the details of how this was done, see this documentation article.

HTML5 Required Validation

WP Job Manager Field Editor HTML5 Required Validation Scroll To

Enabling HTML5 Required validation allows users to be instantly notified about required fields, instead of having to wait for the page to reload showing the error at the top.

Unfortunately due to numerous compatibility issues with browsers and devices, as well as the fields themselves (wp editor, taxonomy dropdown), the required validation only worked in previous versions on a couple of fields.  With this release I have added numerous lines of code and specific handling to support all the included field types with this plugin.

I’ve also added code to automagically scroll the browser window, centering the invalid field to make it easy for the user to know what field needs to be updated.  See the screenshot on the top/left for an example of this new feature.

iPhone Fill Out Field

iPhone Select an Item

This also includes support for mobile devices, which allows the native browser to direct the user to what field is required and needs to be filled out.

As you can see in the screenshots on the right, iPhone natively does this as well.

These examples include standard text fields, as well as all the other fields, including dropdowns, multiselect, and even WP Editor (which is unheard of!)

iPhone will prompt the user to select an item, fill out a field, and makes the user experience much better in regards to required fields!

This also means no page reloads required just to see invalid fields!

WP Job Manager Field Editor HTML5 Required Validation WP Editor

As mentioned above, this release also includes integration with the WP Editor field type for required fields as well.  This did take some time to figure out, and work to integrate (as there’s nothing online I could find about anybody else doing this)

In order to do this, I had to add the wp-editor-field.php template file to the Field Editor plugin, adding customizations to handle this.

I’ve also added a filter to disable HTML5 required on WP Editor fields (while retaining support for other fields), in the instance that you have issues with this specific WP Editor required integration.  Contact me if you need help with this.

WP Job Manager Field Editor HTML5 Required Setting

Enabling or Disabling the HTML5 required feature is very easy to do, just head over to the Field Editor Settings page, and under the Fields tab, you will see the setting (which can also be seen in the screenshot on the right).

Support was also added in this version for the WP Editor, Taxonomy Select, Taxonomy Multiselect, Flatpickr Date & Time, Multiselect, and Select field types.

Please make sure to test your form if you are using HTML5 required as this is a major update for the handling!

If you are using the Dynamic Taxonomy feature, the HTML5 required handling is required on those specific fields and even if this setting is disabled, it will still be used on only the dynamic taxonomy fields (this is required for this feature).

Multiple Auto Output Locations

WP Job Manager Field Editor Multiple Auto Output Locations

This release also adds a new feature requested frequently by clients, which is the ability to select multiple auto output locations for a single meta key/field.

After upgrading, under the Output tab you will now see another field Additional Output where you can select any additional auto output locations you would like the field to be output at.

I am working on an advanced version of this feature, allowing you to specify custom configuration for each auto output, but in the meantime I went ahead and included this in the latest release until I can finish that feature up.

Sortable Image/File Upload Fields

WP Job Manager Field Editor Sortable File/Image Uploads

This feature is actually thanks for a couple of my clients that provided methods they used to handle this, which made it very easy to integrate into the plugin.

Originally this was only slated to be included for Jobify and Listify theme, but it should work any theme as long as it uses the standard WP Job Manager file upload template.

When using this feature, specifically with the Listify theme, it allows your users to re-order the gallery images after uploading them.

It should also work with any other themes that use multiple file uploads and rely on the ordering of those images/files for output.

WP Job Manager Field Editor Sortable File/Image Uploads Setting

To enable this feature head on over to the Field Editor Settings page, and under the Fields tab you will see a new setting.

By default this is disabled, so you will have to enable this if you want to have this feature on your site.

After enabling the feature and saving, any AJAX file upload fields should now be sortable using drag and drop.

Mobile Device Compatibility

WP Job Manager iPhone Native Select Handling

As mentioned above, the major driving reason behind the core WP Job Manager switch to Select2 from Chosen.JS was for mobile device support.  Chosen.JS natively does not support mobile devices, and relies on the device itself to provide things like multi-select and dropdown selection.

As you can see in the screenshot on the left, iPhone already does a good job of this by providing the select handling natively through the device.  Android also does the same/similar thing regarding select and multiselect fields.  I won’t go into all the details, but there also were numerous issues that had to be dealt with regarding these different mobile devices.

As of version 1.8.9, mobile support has been extended to work with the conditional logic, dynamic child taxonomies, and other features in the field editor plugin, until these features can be moved to Select2.

In this latest release, I spent a bit of time testing and fixing issues with mobile devices, for those who which to stick with Chosen.JS (or older versions of WP Job Manager), until the next major release of the Field Editor which will specifically target and support Select2.

Other Changes

Please see the Changelog for full details on this latest update

WP Job Manager Field Editor Dynamic Taxonomy Child Dropdowns Demo

Dynamic Taxonomy Child Dropdowns

Please see the documentation page (which includes tutorial video) for Dynamic Taxonomy Child Dropdowns, here:

Dynamic Taxonomy Child Dropdowns

I appreciate everyone’s patience while I worked on getting this new feature released.  Unfortunately it was not an easy task, and ended up running into all kinds of issues with compatibility, and functionality … and instead of shipping a broken version of the plugin, I spent many sleepless nights testing, updating, and working on this latest release.

Template Updates

Both the term-select-field.php and term-multiselect-field.php templates have been updated in this release, if you’re using your own custom template overrides, please make sure you update them to match the new versions, to support the dynamic child dropdowns.

Previous versions of Field Editor did not include the term-select-field.php so please make sure you check any template overrides.

Other Updates

Included with this update are a few other features (a couple listed below), you can find the full list on the changelog.

Advanced Field Configuration Tab

Exclude Terms

Under the advanced tab you will now also see a text box where you can enter in TERM ID values to omit from showing in the dropdown.  To specify multiple terms, separate them with a comma.

Output CSV

For multiple field types you will also now see an “Output CSV” option.  Enable this to output multiple values as Comma Separated Values (instead of linebreak, or wrapping with value wrapper)

Final Thoughts

I hope you guys are as excited to use these new features, as I am to release them.  This release adds over 2,200 lines of new code base, and has been in the works for numerous months, testing, debugging, and working on compatibility.

I have tested standard functionality in Jobify, Listify, Listable, Listee, WorkScout, and all standard WP Job Manager templates without any issues.  If you do come across a problem, please be sure to open a support ticket and let me know, so I can work on a fix for it.

Preface

While this update contains a ton of new features and bug fixes, I can not stress enough that you should only upgrade when you have time available to test your site, and the emails after upgrading!

A lot of the code base that handled the HTML and plain text formatting had to be refactored (modified), and while doing so I found a handful of minor bugs, and other things along the way that had to be updated.   Things like additional line breaks being added when a shortcode did not have a value (resulting in large spacing between fields), or how shortcode values were pulled directly from meta instead of using a specific callback (when defined).

I have been testing this thoroughly for the past week (as well as a few beta testers), and believe there should not be any issues.  Either way, you should ALWAYS test this yourself, on your own site, after upgrading, to make sure emails are being sent and formatted the way you want/expect.

With that said, let’s go ahead and dig into some of the biggest new features available in this release:

Email Preview

WP Job Manager Emails Generate Preview Email Data

A very highly requested feature that landed in this release, is the ability to generate previews of emails, on the fly, directly from the admin area!  The hardest part about integrating this new feature was the ability to select demo data to use, and then making sure preview works correctly with all the different integrations (Resumes, Applications, Reviews, Claim Listing, Alerts, Private Messages, Screening Questions, etc).

Users who upgrade to version 2.7.0 will notice the button on the top right of the screen that says Preview Email.  When clicking on this you will be prompted with a modal similar to the one on the left, to select example data to use for generating the email preview.  Depending on the hook for the email template, there may be more than one dropdown to select from.

Selecting Demo Data for Preview

You have three options when it comes to selecting demo data to use for the email preview feature.

The first option is to just click the small dropdown icon on the right of the dropdown field, and it will automatically populate the dropdown with 5 random listings for you to choose from.

The second option is to type in a search term in the dropdown box, after the first 3 characters it will automatically start searching all of your available posts  (searching the Post/Listing Title) for your search term.

The third option is to type in id: followed by a post/listing ID, to return a specific post/listing ID (ie id:105)

If you have already searched for a listing and did not find what you want, and want to load random listings, or just need to reset the form, click the Reset button to reset the dropdowns back to their default state.

When you have selected demo data source to use, click on the Preview button to generate the email preview.

Email Previews

WP Job Manager Emails Generate Preview Email

WP Job Manager Emails Generate Preview Email Plaintext

On the preview screen you will see the generated email, based on your selected data source.

If your email is configured as a multipart email (new feature as well, more details below), you will see two tabs, one for the HTML version, and one for the Plain Text version.

If you want to send this generated email to specific email address, you can click on the Send Email button and it will prompt you for an email address to send it to.

Please note that there are some hooks where the data for the email is actually obtained through PHP’s POST from a form, so there is a chance of some data not showing a value in the preview form.

It’s always a good idea to go through your site just like a normal user would, to trigger your emails, to make sure they are formatted and send the way you want/expect.

Multipart Emails

This release also adds a new format type to the email template, called multipart.  Multipart is a format used to send both HTML and Plain Text versions of emails, allowing the user’s email client to select which version to display.  You can enable multipart by selecting it from the format meta box.

Using this format allows the user’s email client to display the email based on their preferences, email client support, etc.  Email clients will only show one version of the email (it will not show HTML and Plain Text), and 95% of the time HTML will be shown, unless the email client does not support it, and then it will show the plain text version.

There is also an option to select the Use custom plain text for multipart which will show a new metabox with a textarea when you check/enable it.  This allows you to specify a custom plaintext version to send with the multipart email (if you want), otherwise a stripped plain text version will be generated from the HTML version.

Shortcodes are supported just like normal in this textarea, and you do not need to use this unless you want a custom plaintext version to be sent.

WordPress and Multipart

The unfortunate thing about Multipart emails is that WordPress does not natively support sending multipart emails.  This is due to a couple things, a lack of people complaining about not having it, and PHPMailer which is the framework used by default in WordPress for sending multipart emails (core trac ticket).   Fortunately enough I was able to find a way to work around this, and force PHPMailer to send emails as multipart when required.

Email Plugins and Multipart

I have not fully tested the multipart handling with different plugins like Mailgun, Sendgrid, etc, but in theory they should work correctly as when I originally designed the multipart email integration, I built the emails generating my own boundaries, which is what is still used when sending an email as multipart … so as long as any plugins you use for sending emails, handle plugging (or filtering) wp_mail correctly, the headers and content should be formatted as required for multipart.  If you have issues with a 3rd party mail plugin (for sending emails, like SendGrid), please open a ticket and let me know.

IF Shortcodes

Included with the 2.7.0 release of this plugin is also a long overdue enhancement to the standard [if] shortcode from earlier releases.  I’ve been working on these features for a while now, and finally worked out the majority of the bugs and issues to be able to include it in this release.

All of the screenshots below are from the Help tab of your site (top right corner) when editing an email template

Attributes/Modifiers

IF shortcode attributes and modifiers

Attributes and modifiers addition to the [if] shortcode now make it possible to combine multiple statements into  one, as well as doing specific comparisons on values with numerous different comparison operators (see below).

You can negate a statement by prepending an exclamation (!) point before the meta key, which basically means “NOT”, using comparisons or any of the other different combinations possible.

You can combine statements together to evaluate that ALL expressions are true, using the AND operator
You can combine statements together to evaluate that ANY expressions are true, using the OR operator

Nested IF Statements

Nested IF Statements

Unfortunately due to the way that WordPress parses shortcodes, it’s not possible to nest a shortcode inside of the same shortcode, and in previous versions you could not create if statements, inside of other if statements.

With this release nested if shortcodes are now available, [if_1][if_2][if_3][if_4][if_5][if_6][if_7][if_8]

So when you need to nest an if statement inside of another one, just increase the number on the shortcode, and you’re good to go!  Please note that your [else] and closing [if] must match the opening [if].  For example, this would be a correct nested [if] shortcode statement:

[if job_location]
    Has a job location!
    [if_2 job_title]
        [job_title]
    [else_2]
        No job title
    [/if_2]
[else]
   No job location, so i'm not showing the title
[/if]

IF Comparison Operators

IF Shortcode Comparison Operators

Comparison operators can be used to customize how the [if] shortcode will determine what to output.  Previous versions did not have this feature, and would only check if there was a value.

Now you can use the new comparison operators to check if a value contains a specific string, if it equals a specific string, starts (or ends) with a string, as well as arithmetic operators such as Less Than, Greater Than, and so on!

These arithmetic operators can also be used on multiple value (and taxonomy) field types to check the number of values in that field (explain more in detail below).

Like all other documentation, you can find examples, and more details in the Help tab while editing an email template.

IF for Taxonomies and Multiple Value fields

IF Shortcode Taxonomies and Multiple Value Field Types

When a field you want to use an [if] shortcode on is a taxonomy or a multiple value field type (multiselect, file, etc), there is an easy way to check for a specific value, or even check all the values.

As mentioned above,  when using an arithmetic operator on these types of fields, it does not check the value itself, but checks the number/amount of values.

When you need to check for a specific value, or check all the values, you can use one of the available comparison operators (such as CONTAINS or EQUALS ), but instead of just entering one value, you can separate each value using a comma , (which is also known as CSV or comma separated values).

Single Post Status Action Hooks

Single Post Status Hooks

A single post status action hook is one that is triggered anytime a listing is added/saved, and matches the single post status hook you selected.  The problem with this is that anytime a listing is saved/updated that hook will be triggered.

This is the reason the majority of hooks available in previous versions, required a specific previous status for the email to be triggered.

Single Post Status Transition Only

In earlier versions there were one or two of these available (mainly publish_POSTTYPE), but with this release you now have access to every single post status, both default and any custom ones you have added.

Along with having these available, there will now also show a warning area describing how single post status hooks work, and a checkbox you can check/enable to set how you want the single post hook to work.

When adding this feature to the plugin, I also rewrote a TON of the codebase for handling post status hooks, and instead of adding an action for each defined hook, we now use the transition post status hook to check the value, and send emails accordingly, which should result in a small speed improvement on your site.

Private Messages Plugin Integration

WP Private Messages Email Customization

This release also includes integration with Astoundify’s Private Messages plugin, adding an entirely separate email section (under the main Private Messages menu) for customizing emails sent when new Private Messages are added.

Initially there is only one hook available for email templates (when a new private message is created), which supports all of the dynamic fields from the plugin, plus a few extra, including attachments, and more.

If there’s a specific shortcode  you would like to see included in the next release of the emails addon (for Private Messages), please open a ticket and let me know and I will look into adding it.

If you have an email template enabled in my plugin, it will automagically prevent the default one from the Private Messages plugin from sending.

WP Job Manager Screening Questions Integration

This release also include integration with the WP Job Manager screening questions addon plugin (free), which you can find on WordPress.org:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/screening-questions-for-wp-job-manager/

The integration with this plugin adds a new shortcode available for use, [screening_questions] in email templates.  Due to the way the values for this plugin are saved (in their own MySQL table), this will output all of the screening questions for a listing.

Final Thoughts

While these new features/updates above are the most requested, there were a lot of other updates and minor bug fixes not mentioned here, which you can find all the details in the full changelog of the plugin.

A lot of these new features have been in the works for a while now, and I hope that you are as excited as I am to now have these available.

Please make sure that you test your site after upgrading to this version, to make sure you do not have any issues, and if you do, please open a support ticket and let me know.

Conditional Logic Animations/Transitions

This release includes an update that adds the ability to configure your conditional logic transitions/animations, using the very popular and widely used, Velocity.JS framework.   This is completely optional, and you can leave this disabled to maintain the origin/existing show/hide handling … but if you would like to customize it, hop on over to the field editor settings page, and enable this new feature and give it a try!

if_custom_field Shortcode

If any of you started using the new conditional shortcode features available in the Field Editor addon, you will be very happy to know that this release adds a new shortcode (3 actually), to alleviate the initial bug when using conditional shortcodes, due to the fact that you can’t nest shortcodes inside each other ( see here for more details ).

Well, i’m happy to say that you now have 3 available shortcodes to use, if_custom_field, if_resume_field, and if_job_field.  All three of these shortcodes do exactly the same thing, but having multiple available, allows you to nest if statements, inside other if statements ( see docs for more details ).

This also introduces a much easier to use syntax for the shortcodes, as you no longer have to make sure that you use the right attribute/argument based on the field type.  Previously, if you wanted to do a check on a single value field (non-taxonomy, non-multivalue), you had to use the if_contains or if_equals argument … and with multiple field types or taxonomies, you had to use has_value or has_value_containing.. well no more of that!

The new syntax will automagically determine the correct method to use, and will do everything for you.  All you have to do now is choose between using equals or contains:

[if_custom_field key="job_category" equals="north"]
North Category!
[/if_custom_field]

Head on over to the conditional shortcodes documentation for more details, including examples and more!

Admin Only fields in Conditional Logic

This release also fixes a bug in the conditional logic configuration area, where you were originally able to select an admin only field, to be used in the logic … which technically would never work correctly, as admin only fields never exist on the frontend .. so when the logic attempts to process and check the value, there’s no way to do that.

One would think, being as it’s an admin only field, for both security and peace of mind ..you would never want that visible or stored on the frontend of your site.  Well you would be surprised, as I got some grief from a few clients saying that the plugin had bugs I wasn’t fixing … which I can understand … somewhat … but I always take security and optimization of my plugins VERY seriously, and there’s no way i’m going to expose admin only fields on the frontend by default.

So with that said, you can no longer select admin only fields to be used for conditional logic checks …. by default, that is.

I still understand there may be a need to expose certain fields for functionality, or logic handling .. and those fields may not be something that needs to be “secured” from the user (it could be a value of yes, or no, etc).

That is why I have added multiple ways to enable admin only fields, to pass values to frontend for all admin only fields, for only certain ones, and more.

Head on over to the Conditional Logic Admin Only Fields documentation for more details, and examples.

Other Misc Fixes and Updates

You can see all of details for bug fixes, and updates, located on the Changelog page for WP Job Manager Field Editor