W4 Post List

Changelog

3.0.2

• Tested up to WordPress 7.0.4.

3.0.1

• Improved: The template tag reference (Post List – Docs – Template tags) now shows the Output column for every tag. All Term and User tags and seven Post tags were missing it, with their details buried as prose in the Parameters column.
• Improved: Tags with multiple parameters (e.g. [user_meta], [user_avatar], [post_image]) now list each parameter separately with its own description and accepted values.
• Tested up to WordPress 7.0.3.

3.0.0

• Fix: AJAX pagination now works on block themes. It was built on jQuery, which block themes – Twenty Twenty-Four, Twenty Twenty-Five and most modern themes – do not load on the front end, so clicking a page number silently did nothing. Pagination is now plain JavaScript with no dependencies.
• Improved: Lists no longer print a script tag inside your page. One small shared script loads in the footer, and only on pages where a list actually uses AJAX pagination.
• Improved: Ctrl-click, Cmd-click and middle-click on a page number now open a new tab, as they should. The old handler hijacked them.
• Improved: If a page request fails, the list clears its loading state and falls back to a normal page load instead of getting stuck.
• Fix: Three admin stylesheets and two admin scripts were being registered on every front-end request. They are admin-only now – the plugin adds nothing to your front end unless a list on the page needs it.
• Dev: register_scripts() is deprecated in favour of register_admin_scripts(); front-end assets are registered by register_frontend_scripts(). The w4pl-ajax-nav handle can be pointed at your own file with wp_deregister_script() + wp_register_script().
• Note: this is a major version number because the front end no longer depends on jQuery. Your saved lists, templates, styles and settings are untouched, and no template changes are needed.

2.11.0

• New: The editor now catches mistakes at save time – non-numeric values in numeric fields are coerced with a clear warning, unknown template tags get a “did you mean” suggestion, and a template missing its loop tag warns before rendering blank.
• New: Switching list type with an incompatible template shows an inline warning with a one-click “Replace with the default template” fix.
• New: The list editor form is protected by a nonce; quick edit, bulk edit and autosave can never touch list options.
• Improved: “Any” post status now excludes the concrete statuses automatically.
• New: A once-only review request appears a week after your first published list. Clicking either button – including “Leave a review” itself – resolves it forever.

2.10.0

• New: Live preview in the list editor – a Preview button renders your current, unsaved settings in an isolated pane, refreshing automatically after option changes. No more publish-and-reload loops while designing a list.
• Improved: Getting Started guide mentions the preview workflow.

2.9.0

• New: “Start from a template” – pick from 8 ready-made layouts (simple list, thumbnail cards, title & date list, year archive, category index, category index with posts, user directory, authors with posts). Picking one copies editable markup and styles into the Template and Style fields and sets the options it needs, like Group by. Developers can add layouts via the w4pl/starter_templates filter.
• New: Applying a starter shows a confirmation and opens the Template section automatically, so you immediately see what you got.
• Improved: Lists using a legacy preset keep working exactly as before; the legacy preset field only appears on those lists.
• Improved: In-plugin docs updated for the new flow; new FAQ “Do I have to write the template myself?”.
• Fix: Guarded the editor form action URL against missing server variables (CLI contexts).
• Dev: Select field values are now attribute-escaped in the form engine.

2.8.0

• New: The Template, CSS and JavaScript fields are now real code editors with syntax highlighting and line numbers; template tags insert at the cursor.
• Improved: Default templates rewritten in the plain tag dialect with a visible per-item wrapper (div.post-item / .term-item / .user-item) and the [nav] pagination tag, so the loop structure is obvious at a glance. Applies to newly created lists; saved lists keep their stored template.
• New: “Display this list” box on the list editor with the copyable shortcode, a copy button and placement pointers.
• New: A wrong or missing list ID, or a rendering error, now shows logged-in editors an inline explanation – visitors see nothing (previously raw error text could leak to visitors).
• New: “No items text” is prefilled with “No items found.” for new lists, so empty results are no longer an invisible blank. Existing lists are unchanged.
• Improved: The editor form refresh is debounced, disables Publish properly, and recovers gracefully from failed requests instead of freezing the screen.
• Fix: Editor layout no longer overflows when adding several Meta/Tax Query rows; height recalculates on window resize.
• Dev: Removed dead JavaScript (broken external autocomplete lineage, IE-era caret handling).

2.7.0

• New: First-run onboarding – fresh installs get a draft “Example: Recent Posts” list, so there is always a working configuration to open and learn from.
• New: A dismissible “Get started” notice after activation walks through the three steps: create a list, publish, place it with the block or shortcode.
• New: Helpful empty state on the Lists screen and a contextual Help tab on the list screens summarizing the workflow.
• Improved: The telemetry opt-in prompt now waits until after your first published list, so guidance comes first.

2.6.0

• New: Automated test suite now gates every release – characterization snapshots freeze the rendered output of all five list types (including grouped lists and pagination) so updates can no longer break existing lists unnoticed.
• New: List options now carry a schema version with a lazy migration path, protecting saved lists during future upgrades.
• New: Opt-in usage counters (lists created/published) added to the existing Appsero telemetry. Nothing is collected without your explicit consent.
• Fix: PHP 8.2+ deprecation notices from the query classes (dynamic properties).
• Fix: Unit-suffixed dimensions in template tags (e.g. [post_thumbnail width=”50px”]) caused a PHP notice and broken output on PHP 7.x – dimensions are now parsed forgivingly (50px, 50 and “50” all work).
• Dev: Docs-drift guard – documentation examples, default templates and presets are verified in CI against the registered template tags.
• Dev: Coding-standards nonce exclusion scoped to legacy files only; new endpoints are always linted for nonce verification.

2.5.9

• New: Added a WordPress Playground blueprint that powers the Live Preview button on the wordpress.org plugin page.

2.5.8

• Fix: Documentation examples used unregistered template tags ([post_link], [group_name], [group_link]) and invalid HTML, so copy-pasting them produced broken output. All examples now use registered tags with valid loop markup.
• New: “Getting Started” documentation tab with a step-by-step walkthrough, now the default tab.
• Fix: The Documentation page is now visible to everyone who can edit lists (previously required the delete_users capability, hiding it from Editors).
• Fix: The “Include users” and “Exclude users” fields were incorrectly described as taking term IDs; corrected, along with a typo cleanup across admin field descriptions.
• Fix: Added missing text domain to the Appsero opt-in notice string.

2.5.7

• Improved: Rewrote the wordpress.org listing for accuracy — removed the reference to the retired TinyMCE button, repositioned the description around grouped lists and user directories, expanded the FAQ from real support questions, updated screenshots and fixed typos.
• Improved: Plugin header description.
• Note: No functional changes in this release.

2.5.6

• New: Post status options now include all registered statuses, including custom ones (e.g. “Expired” from job listing plugins) – https://github.com/w4devInc/w4-post-list/issues/88.
• Tested up to WordPress 7.0.2.

2.5.5

• Tested up to WordPress 6.9.1.

2.5.4

• Fix: Sanitized media image width and height attributes – https://github.com/w4devInc/w4-post-list/issues/64.

2.5.3

• Fix: Fixed version number.

2.5.1

• Fix: Fixed textdomain issue.

See changelog of all versions.