In recent months we have worked really hard on Pronamic Pay 8.0. We did focus on the improvements for the subscription system in our plugin. We have revisited way we started and follow-up payments completely. Resulting in a way better performance for subscriptions and associated follow-up payments.
Table of contents
Performance improvements subscription system
More and more Pronamic Pay users use the subscription system of Pronamic Pay. The number of websites with Pronamic Pay subscriptions and payments is growing. We have some customers who manage tens of thousands of subscriptions with the plugin. These large numbers also have a significant impact on the performance of a WordPress website. In this release, we’ve improved support for large quantities. We have completely overhauled the system for initiating follow-up payments.
Action Scheduler
For initiating follow-up payments, the Pronamic Pay plugin made use of the background process system within WordPress. Also called the WP-Cron, this system gives plugin developers the ability to schedule background tasks at a specific time. This system works well for simple tasks, but with large quantities the system can sometimes falter. Fortunately, we are not the only WordPress developers dealing with this. A number of WordPress developers have therefore developed the https://actionscheduler.org/ library.
A scalable, traceable job queue for background processing large queues of tasks in WordPress. Designed for distribution in WordPress plugins – no server access required.
The Action Schedular library gives us the ability to schedule follow-up payments for thousands of subscriptions in a scalable way. This library also allows us to better track errors when initiating follow-up payments. That is why we have included the Action Scheduler library in Pronamic Pay 8.0.
Payment method icons in WordPress admin dashboard
It’s a small change that will probably be the most noticeable. In the WordPress admin dashboard we now show an icon of the payment method used for payments and subscriptions. This allows you as an administrator to see more quickly which payment method has been used for a payment or subscription.
If you are also looking for payment method icons for your WordPress website, it may be worth taking a look at our icons / logos library on GitHub. Here we keep track of all icons and logos with optimized SVG and PNG files.
Removed support for 3 extensions
In addition to the improvements to the subscription system, we have also removed support for 3 extensions. It concerns the support of the following plugins: Event Espresso 3, s2Member and WP eCommerce. If you use one of these plugins, action is required.
Event Espresso 3
On February 10, 2014, almost 8 years ago, the first version of Event Espresso 4 was announced. It soon became known that Event Espresso 3 would no longer be developed. Now that we are almost 8 years later, we have decided to no longer support the outdated version of Event Espresso 3. The integration has therefore been removed in Pronamic Pay version 8. If you are still using Event Espresso 3, now is the time to switch to Event Espresso 4.
s2Member
Due to the complexity of the s2Member plugin, we have decided to no longer support the s2Member plugin. The s2Member integration has therefore been permanently removed in Pronamic Pay version 8. If you are still using s2Member, now is the time to switch to MemberPress, Restrict Content Pro or Gravity Forms.
WP eCommerce
The developers of the WP eCommerce plugin seem to have given up on the plugin. And that is also understandable with the enormous growth of WooCommerce. The WP eCommerce integration has therefore been permanently removed in Pronamic Pay version 8. If you still use WP eCommerce, now is the time to switch to WooCommerce.
Update to Pronamic Pay 8.0
Pronamic Pay 8.0 is now available for download. Do you use the Pronamic Pay subscription system? Download and install this new version quickly to take advantage of the improvements immediately.